CONTENTS

FOREWORD, by Dr. Timothy George -- ix

ABBREVIATIONS -- xv

PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION -- xix

PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION -- xxv

1. APOLOGETICS IN THE NEW TESTAMENT -- i

Apologetical Motifs in the Early Tradition -- i

The Earliest Preaching -- pg. 2

Apologetic Development -- pg. 4

The Ascension -- pg. 4

The Passion -- pg. 5

The Origins of Jesus -- pg. 7

The Public Life -- pg. 7

The Miracles of Jesus -- pg. 10

Changing Contexts: Acts, Paul, and Hebrews -- pg. 11

Acts -- pg. 11

Paul -- pg. 14

Hebrews -- pg. 15

The Four Evangelists as Apologists -- pg. 16

Mark -- pg. 16

Matthew -- pg. 18

Luke-Acts -- pg. 19

John -- pg. 21

Conclusion -- pg. 23

2. THE PATRISTIC ERA -- pg. 27

Apologists of the Second Century -- pg. 30

The Alexandrians of the Third Century -- pg. 38

Latin Apologists of the Third Century -- pg. 47

Latin Apologists of the Fourth Century -- pg. 55

Greek Apologists of the Fourth and Fifth Centuries -- pg. 62

Augustine and His Disciples -- pg. 73

Conclusion -- pg. 87

3. THE MIDDLE AGES -- pg. 91

Disputes with Saracens in Muslim Territory: 600—1000 -- pg. 92

Disputes with Saracens and Jews in Western Europe: 600-1100 -- pg. 95

Anselm -- pg. 98

Twelfth Century -- pg. 104

Thirteenth Century: St. Thomas Aquinas -- pg. 111

Missionary Apologists: 1250-1320 -- pg. 122

Scholasticism after St. Thomas Aquinas -- pg. 127

Fifteenth-Century Apologists -- pg. 133

Conclusion -- pg. 142

4. THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY THROUGH THE
EIGHTEENTH CENTURY-- pg. 145

The Protestant Reformers -- pg. 146

The Counter-Reformation and Baroque Scholasticism -- pg. 150

France before 1650 -- pg. 156

France in the Second Half of the Seventeenth Century -- pg. 160

Seventeenth-Century Holland -- pg. 173

England in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries -- pg. 176

Germany in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries -- pg. 190

Catholic Apologetics in France and Italy -- pg. 196

Eighteenth-Century Scholasticism -- pg. 203

Conclusion -- pg. 205

5. THE NINETEENTH CENTURY -- pg. 209

Protestantism: 1800-1850 -- pg. 210

Germany -- pg. 210

Denmark -- pg. 217

Great Britain -- pg. 222

Catholicism: 1800-1850 -- pg. 226

France -- pg. 226

Germany -- pg. 237

Spain and Italy -- pg. 240

English-Speaking Catholics: 1800-1900 -- pg. 244

England -- pg. 244

The United States -- pg. 251

Catholicism in Continental Europe: 1850—1900 -- pg. 254

France and Belgium: Vatican Council I -- pg. 254

Germany -- pg. 260

Protestantism: 1850—1900 -- pg. 261

Germany -- pg. 261

The English-Speaking Countries -- pg. 264

Conclusion -- pg. 267

6. THE TWENTIETH CENTURY (PART ONE) -- pg. 271

Catholic Apologetics -- pg. 271

Blondel and the Modernists -- pg. 271

Credibility and Apologetics: Scholastic Controversies in France -- pg. 279

The Refutation of Rationalism -- pg. 284

The Apologetics of Restoration -- pg. 291

Teilhard de Chardin -- pg. 297

German Apologists -- pg. 302

Protestant Apologetics (1900-1950) -- pg. 305

Dialectical Theology -- pg. 305

Germany -- pg. 313

England -- pg. 316

North America -- pg. 321

Conclusion -- pg. 323

7. THE TWENTIETH CENTURY (PART TWO) -- pg. 325

Catholicism -- pg. 325

Vatican II -- pg. 325

The Debate about Method -- pg. 326

Evidentialist Apologetics -- pg. 329

Dynamism of the Subject -- pg. 331

Luminosity of the Object -- pg. 336

Catholic Apologetics toward the Close of the Century -- pg. 338

Protestantism -- pg. 345

Ambivalence about Apologetics -- pg. 345

Secular Theology -- pg. 345

Historical Criticism and Evidence -- pg. 348

Renewal in Anglo-American Evangelicalism -- pg. 349

The Classical Method -- pg. 353

The Evidential Method -- pg. 353

The “Cumulative Case” Method -- pg. 356

“Presuppositional” Apologetics -- pg. 357

“Reformed” Epistomology -- pg. 358

Growing Protestant-Catholic Convergences -- pg. 359

Christian Faith, Philosophy, and Science -- pg. 363

Conclusion -- pg. 365

BIBLIOGRAPHY -- pg. 369

INDEX -- pg. 387

Making the case for the Christian faith—apologetics—has always been part of the Church’s mission. Yet Christians sometimes have had different approaches to defending the faith, responding to the needs of their respective times and framing their arguments to address the particular issues of their day.
Cardinal Avery Dulles’s A History of Apologetics provides a masterful overview of Christian apologetics, from its beginning in the New Testament through the Middle Ages and on to the present resurgence of apologetics among Catholics and Protestants. Dulles shows how Christian apologists have at times both criticized and drawn from their intellectual surroundings to present the reasonableness of Christian belief.
Written by one of American’s leading theologians, A History of Apologetics also examines apologetics in the 20th and early 21st centuries including its decline among Catholics following Vatican II and its recent revival, as well as the contributions of contemporary Evangelical Protestant apologists. Dulles also considers the growing Catholic-Protestant convergence in apologetics. No student of apologetics and contemporary theology should be without this superb and masterful work.