2012 April May Study Guide


2012 April May Study Guide

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Don Bosco
His Place in history
Edited by John Roche, SDB at the Institute of Salesian Spirituality in Berkeley
Don Bosco Study
Guide
April/May 2012
Apologetics and Catholic faith
As you read this, the Easter Season is
well into its second week and the flurry
of Easter festivities, liturgies, and all
the details marking this wonderful time
of year are subsiding enough to get back
on track with the rest of life. Fr. Joe
Boenzi quoted St. Jeanne Frances de
Chantal in his homily for Saturday
within the Octave of Easter reminding
us that we should all “Think of God
whenever you are doing the things of
God.” This wonderful advice is well
taken after the busy-ness of these days.
Let it be said that it is just that busy-
ness which has delayed this issue of the
Don Bosco Study Guide. That being
said, let’s introduce the work of Fr.
Arthur Lenti whose research is the
content of this issue.
Apologetics is a topic that is receiving
much attention in these days. In the
past ten to fifteen years, a growing
interest in the art of discourse of
Catholic Apologetics has been on the
rise. This has given rise to new faces
on the Catholic scene such as Scott
Hahn, Tim Staples, and Tim Ray. Most
of these men had a background of
zealous evangelical ministry, which
evolved with their conversion to
Catholicism into a studied, intense
defense of a faith they once fought with
great passion. Their honed abilities for
quoting scriptures as Evangelists
transpired into a passionate learning of
Church Doctrine and memorization of
the Catholic Catechism. Today, many
of these apologists are known for this
precision of knowledge and their fierce
application of that knowledge to
promote Catholic faith and defend it
from the attacks of this Post-modern
and secular culture.
Many conservative groups of Catholics
have spontaneously adopted St. John
Bosco as their patron. Many of these
persons have used Don Bosco’s so-
called prophetic dreams as verification
for their particular brand of
Catholicism. While Don Bosco was
certainly an apologist of the highest
order, we learn from Fr. Arthur that
this work was never to be understood
as the leader of a splinter group. It is
(Continued on page 2, column 2)
IN THIS ISSUE
• Page 2: Gentleness, Not Judgment Page 2: A Catholic Encyclopedia Definition
• Page 3: DON BOSCO’S CONCEPT OF THE CHURCH IN HIS ANTI-WALDENSIAN
APOLOGETIC
• Page 4: G.K. Chesterton, Catholic Apologist; Page 5: Tolkien & Lewis as Apologists
• Page 16: Apologetics & the College Student; Page 17: Islam, Christianity, & Tolerance
• Page 22: Using the Study Guide; Page 23: Information regarding 7 volumes on Don Bosco

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New Advent Catholic
Encyclopedia Definition
(More information is available online at
http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/016
18a.htm)
Definition:
A theological science, which has for its purpose the
explanation, and defense of the Christian religion.
Apologetics means, broadly speaking, a form
of apology. The term is derived from the Latin
adjective, apologeticus, which, in turn has its
origin in the Greek adjective, apologetikos, the
substantive being apologia, "apology",
"defense". As an equivalent of the plural form,
the variant, "Apologetic", is now and then
found in recent writings, suggested probably
by the corresponding French and German
words, which are always in the singular. But
the plural form, "Apologetics", is far more
common and will doubtless prevail, being in
harmony with other words similarly formed, as
ethics, statistics, homiletics. In defining
apologetics as a form of apology, we
understand the latter word in its primary
sense, as a verbal defense against a verbal
attack, a disproving of a false accusation, or a
justification of an action or line of conduct
wrongly made the object of censure. Such, for
example, is the Apology of Socrates, such the
Apologia of John Henry Newman. This is the
only sense attaching to the term as used by the
ancient Greeks and Romans, or by the French
and Germans of the present day.
Quite different is the meaning now conveyed
by our English word, "apology", namely, an
(Continued on page 3, column 1)
Gentleness, not judgment,
brings about conversion
good advice, then, to be careful when
anyone decides their special calling is
to apologetics. The purpose of such
work is to defend faith without
seeking to judge or divide. If division
is the result of honest efforts for
defending the truth as handed down in
Catholic Tradition, this should always
be the unwanted result and not the
desired end.
A word of caution: Fear is not an
affective tool of catechesis or
evangelization. Apologetics is not
about the rhetoric of fear and guilt but
about clarifying terms and beliefs for
their fullest appreciation and
accessibility. Perhaps we can take a
page out of the history of St. Francis
de Sales in this regard. We know that
it was his loving and untiring effort to
return faith to the region of the
Chablis near his hometown of Thoren.
His painstaking efforts entailed
personal communication and the
copying of hundreds of hand-written
sermons and lessons. His motivation
was love and the burning desire to
save people from error. Because of
this great gentleness and love, he and
his cousin completely won over the
region. This conversion is what
launched the career of a giant
evangelist of Catholic faith. Because
his heart was more concerned about
sharing the love of God with others,
rather than being right, his efforts
moved many countless hearts and set
into motion a ministry of hearts
speaking to hearts.
I have had my own run-ins with well-
intentioned apologists who seemed
more interested in being right than
they were in the wholeness and
holiness of others. The Salesian
mantra for any effort in catechesis and
evangelization must be “Live Jesus!” If
we can, by our efforts, bring a heart to
the Heart of Christ, how beautiful that
is and how much more appropriate
than winning points in God’s Trivial
Pursuit.
Let us turn now to the heroic work of
Don Bosco in his efforts to combat the
errors and wholesale attack of the
Waldenses in his time and place.

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Don Bosco Study Guide
explanation of an action acknowledged to be
open to blame. The same idea is expressed
almost exclusively by the verb, "apologize",
and generally by the adjective, "apologetic".
For this reason, the adoption of the word,
"Apologetics", in the sense of a scientific
vindication of the Christian religion is not
altogether a happy one. Some scholars prefer
such terms as "Christian Evidences", the
"Defense of the Christian Religion".
"Apologetics" and "Apology" are not
altogether interchangeable terms. The latter is
the generic term, the former the specific. Any
kind of accusation, whether personal, social,
political, or religious, may call forth a
corresponding apology. It is only apologies of
the Christian religion that fall within the scope
of apologetics. Nor is it all such. There is
scarcely a dogma, scarcely a ritual or
disciplinary institution of the Church that has
not been subjected to hostile criticism, and
hence, as occasion required, been vindicated by
proper apologetics. But besides these forms of
apology, there are the answers that have been
called forth by attacks of various kinds upon
the credentials of the Christian religion,
apologies written to vindicate now this, now
that ground of the Christian, Catholic faith,
that has been called in question or held up to
disbelief and ridicule.
Now it is out of such apologies for the
foundations of Christian belief that the science
of apologetics has taken form. Apologetics is
the Christian Apology par excellence, combining
in one well-rounded system the arguments and
considerations of permanent value that have
found expression in the various single
apologies. The latter, being answers to specific
attacks, were necessarily conditioned by the
(Continued on page 4, column 3)
3
Don Bosco’s dream of the Church and the two pillars.
Don Boscos Defense of the
Church in his Anti-
Waldensian apologetic
1. Note on Don
Bosco’s History of
the Church and Its
Apologetic
Storia ecclesiastica ad uso
delle scuole utile per ogni
ceto di persone dedicata
all’onorat.mo signore F. Ervé
de la Croix provinciale dei
Fratelli d[etti] i[gnorantelli]
d[elle] s[cuole] c[ristiane]
compilata dal sacerdote B. G.
(Torino: tipografia Speirani e
Ferrero, 1845), 398 p.
[Further editions 1848, 1870,
1871 (completely revised),
1879, 1888].
[Desramaut, DB en son temps, p.
204ff.]
(1)
Genesis
and
Publication
The idea of writing a history of the
Church may have occurred to Don
Bosco at the Convitto, when he
was engaged in catechizing his
young people on Sundays, and
would naturally turn to the Bible
and Church history [for story and
moral lessons]. For, Don Bosco’s
catechesis was always historical
rather than dogmatic.
For this purpose he began
to look for books in this genre that
were suitable for children. [See
Preface of the Storia ecclesiastica
(1845), p. 7] He found books of
that sort in the field of Bible
history (to which he would
promptly devote himself0, but he
met with disappointment in the
field of Church history. Some
Church histories were too
voluminous. Others left the field
of Church history proper and
digressed endlessly into secular
history. Others expounded without
restraint and with exaggerated
polemical rhetoric only on what
the Church had done. Yet others
translated from a foreign
language… seemed to be ashamed
to speak of the popes and of the
great events that were the glory of
Catholicism.
With the encouragement
of persons in authority (so he
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claimed) he had himself
undertaken to “compile” a précis
of Church history suitable for the
young.
The spare time he enjoyed
as chaplain of a little hospital still
under construction enabled him to
complete the project between 1844
and 1845. The manuscript was
entrusted to the printers the
Christian Brothers in Turin in
1844. That same year Count
Collegno placed the municipal
schools of Turin under the
Christian Brothers’ direction. They
received the royal Exequatur, a
true juridical recognition. Don
Bosco’s dedication of the book to
(Continued on page 5)
“In answer to the historical
query of why it [the Gsopel
Story] was accepted, and is
accepted, I answer for
millions of others in my
reply: because it fits the lock;
because it is like life. It is one
among many stories; only it
happens to be a true story. It
is one among many
philosophies; only it happens
to be the truth.”
him speaks of an existing good
relationship, but perhaps also of
pragmatic aims on Don Bosco’s
part. He sought to insert his book
into the school distribution system.
Three years later (1848) a second
revised edition became necessary.
(2) Sources Contents and
Structure of the History of the
Church.
In question-and answer style, the
History is divided into 6 epochs,
with a preliminary section
(Nozioni Preliminary) or
preamble. The second question of
the Preamble defines the Church.
[The Church] is the
congregation of all those who
G.K. Chesterton,
Catholic Apologist
Many scholars are rediscovering G.K. Chesterton’s fictional sleuth, the Fr. Brown detective
of the Father Brown Mysteries series. These highly popular detective yarns have the power to
pull the reader into the quirky world and mind of Fr. Brown. Yet Fr. Brown is more akin
to another fictional character, Hercule Poirot, another eccentric detective character penned
by Agatha Christie, than he would be compared to the investigating monk in The Name of the
Rose, by Humberto Ecco. The secret of Fr. Brown is his fascination with reason and
intellect in its ability to decipher truth from error, distinguish illusion from reality. While
the reader and other characters are busy unraveling the clues to solve the particular mystery
hanging over a particular story, Fr. Brown seems to be almost oblivious to the same details
and more involved in relational concerns than what appears to be the salient facts. His
genius is the big picture weaving together the facts and the relationships revealing an
obvious solution every time. The reader and the characters often decide that what Fr.
Brown does is mysterious and other-worldly, while, in reality, Fr. Brown knows how to
read and decipher the big picture—in a word, he is an apologist on the first order!
occasions that called them forth. They were
personal, controversial, partial vindications of
the Christian position. In them the refutation
of specific charges was the prominent element.
Apologetics, on the other hand, is the
comprehensive, scientific vindication of the
grounds of Christian, Catholic belief, in which
the calm, impersonal presentation of
underlying principles is of paramount
importance, the refutation of objections being
added by way of corollary. It addresses itself
not to the hostile opponent for the purpose
of refutation, but rather to the inquiring
mind by way of information. Its aim is to
give a scientific presentation of the claims
which Christ's revealed religion has on the
assent of every rational mind; it seeks to
lead the inquirer after truth to recognize,
first, the reasonableness and trustworthiness
of the Christian revelation as realized in the
Catholic Church, and secondly, the
corresponding obligation of accepting it.
While not compelling faith — for the
certitude it offers is not absolute, but moral —
it shows that the credentials of the Christian
religion amply suffice to vindicate the act of
faith as a rational act, and to discredit the
estrangement of the sceptic and unbeliever as
unwarranted and culpable. Its last word is the
answer to the question: Why should I be a
Catholic? Apologetics thus leads up to Catholic
faith, to the acceptance of the Catholic Church
as the
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profess the faith and the
doctrine of Jesus Christ and who
are governed by a supreme
Head who is the Vicar of Christ
on earth. The Church is some
times referred to as Greek or
Latin or Gallican or Indian, but
it is always the same Catholic,
Apostolic and Roman Church
that is meant.1
This definition of the Church as a
congregation bonded by faith in
Christ and his teaching and by
submission to the pope sets
parameters. In Don Bosco’s thinking
the Church has an inner and an outer
aspect, both clearly delineated. He
has no concept of membership in a
spiritual Church embracing
dissidents and people of good will.
The only people who belong to the
Church are Christians who are
governed by the pope. Bishops (or
“legitimate shepherds”) are not in
evidence. The first edition of the
Storia ecclesiastica (1845) features a
few scattered engravings gradually
eliminated in successive editions.
The largest and most important of
these Images is found on the page
facing the frontispiece. It comprises
two fields, The upper field contains
the insignia of the papacy, tiara,
triple cross, etc. The lower field
shows a tableau of figures: Christ
handing the keys of the kingdom to
Peter (Mt 16:19). The Church whose
story is told in this work is the
Church of the popes of Rome, the list
of whom (254 of them in
uninterrupted succession, from St.
Peter to Gregory XVI) is given as an
Appendix.
In compiling the History
Don Bosco kept things simple. He
used only those authors who were
orthodox in the ultramontane sense
of the term and were suitable for
young readers. He took the brief
History of the Church by the Jesuit
Jean-Nicolas Loriquet, as a guide. Its
concise presentation, dialogue
format, organization in large epochs,
and a conservatively Roman and
counter-revolutionary outlook must
have appealed to Don Bosco.2
Loriquet’s work was brief. So Don
Bosco took further material from
another anonymous History of the
Church recently published in Turin.1
The division here was by centuries,
each century being allotted two
chapters: One devoted to a survey of
“the popes,” the second to “other
information on the Church.”
With such models before
him, Don Bosco constructed his
History (1) in six epochs (preceded
by a preliminary general section, (2)
in dialogue form, (3) with emphasis
on the popes.
He tells us, however, that he
has read more widely, but that he has
used only such material as was
suitable for simple Italian-speaking
young people. He has omitted or
merely mentioned what seemed of
purely secular (profani) or social
(civili) value, dry or of scarce
interest. On the other hand, he has
retained and narrated in greater detail
“tender and moving” passages apt
not only to instruct the mind but also
to educate the heart.3
With these criteria to guide
him, as he himself states in the title
page, using Loriquet’s little work as
his principal source and inspiration
and drawing on other works for
additional passages and episodes,
Don Bosco compiled his History
from existing texts. His work
consisted in selecting, stitching
together—and editing for easier
comprehension by the young.
An example of editing from
Loriquet’s text will suffice.
Describing the apostolic community
Loriquet had written: “The throng of
new believers had, as Scripture
phrases it, but one heart and one
soul.” Don Bosco wrote instead: “All
those new faithful were so
completely united that, as Holy
Scripture phrases it, they formed one
heart and one soul.”4
Don Bosco enriched his
History with ”tender and moving
episodes.” The story of the
martyrdom of St. Blaise, culled from
Bérault-Bercastel’s History, is a
good example. To this story Don
Bosco added two miracles performed
by the saint while he was being led to
his death. One of them was the
miracle of the fishbone.
A mother came forward all
in tears and placed her only
child at the saint’s feet. The
child was choking to death
with a fishbone stuck in his
throat. St. Blaise, moved
with compassion at seeing
the child in such a pitiable
condition, offered a brief
prayer, and immediately the
child was cured.5
The other miracle was
altogether extraordinary. Thrown to
drown in the sea, St. Blaise made the
sign of the cross and walked
peacefully on the waves. There he sat
and invited the infidels to come to
him over the water. Some tried and
were drowned. The saint was finally
beheaded (315 A. D.).6
Another episode, also drawn
from Bérault-Bercastel, seems
designed to play on the emotions of
impressionable young people. In
answer to the question, To what
atrocities were some fanatical Jews
driven?, it told of the gruesome
torture of young St. Werner,
martyred by Jews in Trier in 1287
during Holy Week.7
3. The Waldenses in the
History of the Church
In his History of the Church
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(both in 1845 and 1848 editions)
Don Bosco described and
dismissed the Waldenses
somewhat cavalierly:
The Waldenses began
with Peter Waldo, a merchant
of Lyons. Overtaken by fright
at the sudden death of a
companion of his at a
banquet, he encouraged his
other friends to embrace
voluntary poverty, and he
himself began to preach from
Holy Scripture of which he
was totally ignorant.
He condemned the
veneration of sacred images,
auricular
Confession,
Extreme
Unction,
indulgences, the doctrine of
Purgatory. When he received
threats in his own country, he
did not desist. On the
contrary, with a number of
vagabond friends he moved to
Savoy, and thence to the
Valley of Lucerna [Luserna]
near Pinerolo where people
called them Barbets [Little
Uncles]. Their errors were
repeatedly refuted, but they
held on to them with stubborn
pride. They were condemned
at the Eleventh Ecumenical
Council, Lateran III, held
in 1179 under the
presidency of [Pope]
Alexander III, with the
participation of over 300
bishops from all parts of
the Catholic World.
However those restless
spirits continued to foment
discord wherever they
went. They were
condemned again in
various councils, and were
finally severely punished
by the Emperor and by the
kings of France and
Aragon. Subsequently the
Waldenses joined the
Protestants, thus forming
one sect with them.8
It appears therefore that in
Don Bosco’s view the Waldenses
were nothing but a herertical sect,
born out of the stubborn stupidity
of another age. In matters of
religion, Peter Waldo, their
founder, and his early followers
were pretentious ignoramuses that
had been solemnly condemned by
the Church, that is, the archbishop
of Lyons, the pope, and an
(Continued on page 7, columns 1&2)
J.R.R. Tolkien & C.S. Lewis Take on the
Mantle of Christian Apologetics.
Two of the most beloved authors of the twentieth century were deeply influenced by
G.K. Chesterton. Both Oxford scholars of literature and liturgy, C.S. Lewis and his
classmate J.R.R. Tolkien would awaken in
the world a love for the literature of
mythology and epic. Tolkien explored
eternal truths of creation, sin, and salvation
in his writing even before his boyhood
friend, “Jack” Lewis converted to
Christianity. Lewis also explored the
realms of mythology and used it for
Christian Apologetics. Both authors
deplored direct analyses and strict assignment of meanings for their analogies and
metaphors, but both men impacted the world with their Christian teachings and
apologetics. The Eternal Man, by Chesterton, so changed Lewis that he became a
Christian and his work has become the stuff of classic apologetics and theology.
divinely authorized organ for preserving and
rendering efficacious the saving truths revealed
by Christ. This is the great fundamental dogma
on which all other dogmas rest. Hence
apologetics also goes by the name of
"fundamental theology". Apologetics is
generally viewed as one branch of dogmatic
science, the other and chief branch being
dogmatic theology proper. It is well to note,
however, that in point of view and method also
they are quite distinct. Dogmatic theology, like
moral theology, addresses itself primarily to
those who are already Catholic. It presupposes
faith. Apologetics, on the other hand, in theory
at least, simply leads up to faith. The former
begins where the latter ends. Apologetics is
pre-eminently a positive, historical discipline,
whereas dogmatic theology is rather
philosophic and deductive, using as its premises
data of divine and ecclesiastical authority —
the contents of revelation and their
interpretation by the Church. It is only in
exploring and in treating dogmatically the
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ecumenical council. They were
rebels and they were deservedly
punished for being fomenters of
discord in society, Their doctrines
closely resembled those of the
reformers with whom they had
foolishly made common cause.
4. Explicit and Underlying
Theses in the History of the
Church
Essentially the History
had a didactic purpose and was
designed to impart moral and
religious lessons.
The first lesson is
delivered in the very definition of
Church history, the first question
of the preamble. “Church history
is simply the narration of those
events that were either hostile or
favorable to the Church from its
founding to the present day.” The
Church therefore appears
entangled in the fight between the
Two Cities, of God and of Satan.
Each of the six epochs that follow
contains patterns of hostile attacks
by the forces of evil and of
eventual victory by the Church.
Don Bosco, however, does
not fail to touch upon other aspects
of the Church’s life. The
missionary activity of the Church,
the civilizing, cultural contribution
of monasteries and religious
congregations, with particular
mention of their work of charity,
come in for praise. Nor is the
contribution of lay people
overlooked.
A theme recurring
throughout the History is that just
as God is the author of all good so
and the devil is the author of all
the evil that the Church
encounters. Satan is the abettors of
all the heretics and the persecutors.
God, however, is
ultimately “in charge,” and does
not leave them unpunished. Here
Don Bosco seems to take delight in
describing the ignominious deaths of
heretics and persecutors—a doctrine
of retribution that does honor neither
to God nor to the Church. In this
respect in answer to the final
question of the History, “What then
are we to learn from the history of
the Church?” Don Bosco replies:
The history of the Church
teaches us in the first place that
most of those who have rebelled
against the Church have drawn
upon themselves even in this
life the divine chastisements and
came to a woeful and frightful
end. In the second place it
teaches us that only the Catholic
religion is [the true Church] of
Jesus Christ. The others take
their name from their founders.
[…] Therefore they are not in
the Church of Christ, but in the
Synagogue of the Antichrist.
Moreover, the Catholic Church
can trace the succession [of its
popes] from Gregory XVI all
the way back to St. Peter and to
Jesus Christ. All of them by
word and deed have always
defended and professed the
same truths that we have [from
Christ] in the gospel.
Through the ages the Church
has been attacked by sword and
writings, but has always
triumphed. Kingdoms, republics
and empires have collapsed all
about it and been swept away. It
alone has stood firm and
unshaken. […] Guided by the
hand of God, the Church will
endure and continue to flourish
for those who will come after
us.10
2. Don Bosco’s La Chiesa Cattolica
Apostolica Romana, or Avvisi
[Giovanni Bosco] La Chiesa
Cattolica-Apostolica-Romana è la
(Continued on page 8)
elements of natural religion, the sources of its
authoritative data, that dogmatic theology
comes in touch with apologetics.
As has been pointed out, the object of
apologetics is to give a scientific answer to the
question, Why should I be Catholic? Now this
question involves two others, which are also
fundamental. The one is: Why should I be a
Christian rather than an adherent of the Jewish
religion, or the Mohammedan, or the Zoroastrian, or
of some other religious system setting up a rival claim
to be revealed? The other, still more
fundamental, question is: Why should I profess
any religion at all? Thus the science of
apologetics easily falls into three great
divisions:
• First, the study of religion in general
and the grounds of theistic belief;
• second, the study of revealed religion
and the grounds of Christian belief;
• third, the study of the true Church of
Christ and the grounds of Catholic
belief.
In the first of these divisions, the apologist
inquirers into the nature of religion, its
universality, and man's natural capacity to
acquire religious ideas. In connection with this
the modern study of the religious philosophy of
uncultured peoples has to be taken into
consideration, and the various theories
concerning the origin of religion present
themselves for critical discussion. This leads to
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sola vera Chiesa di Gesù Cristo.
Avvisi ai cattolici. I nostri Pastori ci
uniscono al Papa, il Papa ci unisce
con Dio (Torino: Tipografia Speirani
e Ferrero, 1850), 23 p., in OE IV,
121-143.
[Further slightly revised
editions:]
In 1851 a revised and
slightly enlarged edition was
included as an appendix in the
Campanion of Youth, with the title,
Fondamenti dell cattolica religione
(Foundation of the Catholic
Religion). In 1853 the 1851 edition
(practically unchanged) served as the
introductory volume to the series, the
Catholic Readings: [Giovanni
Bosco] Avvisi ai Cattolici. I nostri
Pastori ci uniscono al Papa; il Papa ci
unisce con Dio. (Torino: Tipografia
dir. da P. De-Agostoni, 1853), 25p.,
in OE IV, 165-193.
Don Bosco would later claim
to have produced and circulated
some 200,000 copies in two years
(!?) [MO-En 403].
[Desramaut, Don Bosco en
son temps, 306-310]
The
Waldensian
congregation claimed to be a pure
and evangelical church, detached
from anything Roman. It condemned
many religious ideas and practices
that Don Bosco held dear and
inculcated on his young people.
The liberal revolution of
1848 marked the resurgence of the
Waldenses in the Kingdom of
Sardinia, a sign of which was
Amedeo Bert’s book [see above].
It is in this context that Don
Bosco decided to take on the
Waldenses, and he did so with
criteria dictated by an (arguable)
theology and by a (flawed)
knowledge of the origins and of the
historical evolution of the Church.
These criteria he extended to include
all other “heretics,” with the Jews,
the Moslems, and occasionally also
the unbelievers, thrown in.
Such apologetic endeavor of
Don Bosco resulted in a number of
works, the first two of which were
the Avvisi ai cattolici, (Warnings to
Catholics) first published in 1850,
and the Il Cattolico istruito nella sua
religione (The Catholic Instructed in
His Religion) published in 1853 [see
below].
Whereas in his History of the
Church Don Bosco had summarily
described and dismissed the
Waldenses [cf. above], in Avvisi
(1850) he began to engage them
directly, for they were now free to
carry on religious activity and to
proselytize. He organized his tract in
6 short chapters styled in question-
and answer format, in the manner of
a brief catechism.
Chapter I: “Basic description
of authentic religion.” “By true
religion is meant the worship of God
practiced in the manner willed by
God.” It consists in believing the
truths revealed by God and in
keeping God’s holy law.” God
revealed the true religion to Adam, to
the Patriarchs, and to the Prophets
who proved the truth of the
revelation by miracles and
prophecies, that is, predictions of the
future.11
Chapter II: “There is only
one true religion.” The various
religions, of the “Moslems, the
Protestants (that is Calvinists and
Lutherans), and the Roman Catholic
Church” cannot all be true. “The true
religion is found only in the Roman
Catholic Church, because it alone
preserves God’s revelation. It was
founded by Jesus Christ, true God
and true man. It was spread through
the preaching of the Apostles and
their successors down to our own
day. Finally, it alone possesses the
characters of divinity,” one, holy,
catholic and apostolic.
Don Bosco gives an
explanation of each of these terms
along the traditional lines of the
manuals. In conclusion, after
explaining that “apostolic” means
continuously holding the faith and
the teaching of the Apostles, he
writes:
This characteristic is
truly reassuring for us Catholics,
because our Church alone,
starting with the present
reigning Pius IX, from one pope
to another goes all the way back
to St. Peter, who was appointed
prince of the Apostles and Head
of the Church by Jesus Christ
himself.12
Chapter III: “The Churches
of the heretics lack the characters of
divinity.” The Churches of the
Waldenses, of the Protestants and of
other heretics cannot be the true
Church. (1)“They are not one
because they do not profess one faith
and one doctrrine, and do not have
one and the same Head.” […] Soon
after its founding the Protestamt
Church fund itself divided into more
than 200 sects. (2) “They are not
holy, because they reject all or some
of the sacraments, from which stems
all genuine holiness, and because
they profess doctrines contrary to the
gospel. […] No saint may be found
among heretics, unbelievers and
apostates, nor did anyone of them
ever perform a miracle. On the
contrary, the founders of the
principal sects were guilty of vices
and crimes.” (3) They are not
catholic because they are restricted
geographically and they are of recent
founding. (4) They are not apostolic
because they do not profess the faith
of the apostles, do not go back to the
apostles, and are not united with the
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Peter.
There is no difference
between the doctrine of the Catholic
Church of today and that taught by
Jesus Christ and the Apostles.
This chapter closes with the
question, “Can one be saved outside
the Roman Catholic and Apostolic
Church?” Don Bosco answers: “No.
Outside this Church no one can be
saved. […] One who dies separated
from the Roman, Catholic and
Apostolic Church, the true Church of
Jesus Christ, the sole possessor and
interpreter of the true religion,
inevitably goes to perdition.”13
Chapter IV: “The Church of
Jesus Christ is not found in the
Church of Heretics.” The Jews, the
Moslems, the Waldenses, the
Protestants, namely the Calvinists
and Lutherans, and the like “do not
have Christ’s true religion because
they do not draw it from the Catholic
Church, the sole repository and
interpreter of the teaching of its
divine Master.” The Jews committed
the fatal error of rejecting Jesus
Christ and his gospel. “To be saved
they must accept Jesus as the
Messiah. Receive Baptism, and keep
the Commandments of God and of
the Church.” After a note of personal
blame for Mohammed, Waldo,
Calvin and Luther, Don Bosco
concludes: “These men were not
send by God. They performed no
miracles, nor did they make any
prophecy that was fulfilled. They
spread their errors and superstitions
through violence and debauchery.
[Theirs is} a religion that opens the
floodgates to every vice and
disorders. […] They are in the
synagogue of Antichrist, that is, in a
church opposed to that of Jesus
Christ.”14
Chapter V: A Reply to
Protestants. When Protestants claim
to believe in Christ and his gospel,
and hence to be in the true Church,
one should respond: “It isn’t so,
since you don’t believe all that Jesus
Christ teaches in the gospel. You
reject many other teachings that
Jesus commanded his apostles to
preach. […] You don’t believe in his
Church or in the Roman Pontiff
whom Jesus Christ appointed to
govern his Church. By allowing free
interpretation of the gospel of Jesus
Christ, you open wide the gate to
error. […] Therefore, you are like
branches cut away from the tree, like
members of a body without a head,
like sheep without a shepherd, like
disciples without a teacher. Above all
and most unfortunately you are
separated from the very source of
life, Jesus Christ.”
Don Bosco closes this
chapter by stating that to be saved
Protestants “must abjure their errors,
join the Roman, Catholic, Apostolic
Church from which they were once
separated, and be reunited with the
Vicar of Jesus Christ, the pope.
Anyone who persists in living
separated from him will be eternally
lost.”15
Chapter VI: Protestants
agree that Catholics are in the true
Church. “We Catholics, instead,
following the Church’s infallible
teaching say that Protestants cannot
be saved in their sect, and must
therefore return to the Church of
Jesus Christ.” Therefore the
Protestant religion is false. After
relating the conversion from
Calvinism of Henry IV, king of
France, Don Bosco makes three
points to show the uniqueness of
Catholicism. (1) The Catholic
Church has suffered persecution
through the ages by Jews, by pagans,
by heretics and by bad Catholics, but
it has always triumphed because it
was founded by God. The Catholic
Church never persecuted anybody.
Such incidents as the war against the
Albigenses and the massacre on St.
Bartholomew’s day were neither
ordered nor approved by the Church.
(2) No Catholic on the point of death
ever wished to be converted to some
other religion. On the other hand, the
historical record shows that many
non-Catholics at the point of death
wished to abjure and die in the Holy
Roman Catholic Church. (3)
Likewise no Catholic ever left the
Catholic Church in order to lead a
more virtuous Christian life. Such
apostasies occur as an escape to a
more permissive religion.
Don Bosco closes the
chapter by asking his readers to
thank God for the fact that they are
Catholics, and to pray for
perseverance, and for the conversion
of those that are separated from
God’s Church. His final plea is, “Be
on your guard against Protestants and
bad Catholics.”16
The apologetic of the Avvisi
is seriously flawed. It is based on
ultramontane
ecclesiological
premises, common enough at mid-
nineteenth century (and beyond), but
in themselves invalid. Such were a
simplistic view of Christian origins,
an a-historical view of dogmatic
teaching, apostolic succession
practically restricted to the popes,
total exclusion of non-Catholics from
salvation, lumping together under the
same “condemnation” Waldenses,
Protestants (both Lutherans and
Calvinists), Jews, Moslems, all
heretics
and
unbelievers.
Furthermore the style of this
apologetic cannot be described as
anything but crude.
3. The Catholic Instructed in His
Religion (1853)
In 1851, after reading a book
in defense of the Waldenses written
by their minister in Turin (Amedeo
Bert), Don Bosco began to compile a
larger apologetic tract which was
published serially in the Catholic

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Readings during their first year of
publication (1853)
Amedeo Bert’s apologia of
the Waldenses was entitled, I
Valdesi, ossieno i Cristiani-Cattolici
secondo la Chiesa primitiva abitanti
le così dette Valli di Piemonte. Cenni
storici, per Amedeo Bert, “ministro
del culto valdese e cappellano delle
delegazioni protestanti a Torino”
[The Waldenses, that is the Catholic
Christians [living] in accordance
with the early Church in the so-called
Valleys of Piedmont, by Amedeo
Bert, minister of Waldensian worship
and chaplain to the Protestant
communities in Turin] (Torino:
Gianini e Fiore, 1849), xxxv-498 p.
As the title states, Bert,
besides being pastor of the
Waldensian community, also served
as chaplain of the diplomatic
delegation of Great Britain and
Prussia in Turin,
Don Bosco’s work written to
refute Bert’s claims was entitled, Il
Cattolico istruito nella sua religione.
Trattenimenti di un padre di famiglia
co’ suoi figliuoli secondo i bisogni
del tempo, epilogati dal sac. Bosco
Giovanni [The Catholic instructed in
his/her religion. Conversations of a
father with his children prompted by
the needs of the times, digested by
Fr. John Bosco] (Torino: Tipografia
dir. da P. De-Agostoni, 1853), 111 p.
+ 340 p., in OE IV, 195-305 + 307-
646.
It was a collection of tracts
published in the Catholic Readings
in six installments, all within 1853.
They appears as follows: #1, 111 p.
(March); then (with new, continuous
pagination) #2, p. 1-48 (April 10); #
5, p. 49-100 (May 25); #8, p. 101-
164 (July 10); #9, p. 165-244 (July
25); #12, p. 245-340 (September 10).
(1) I Valdesi by Amedeo
Bert (1849)
[Supposed History
of the Waldenses According to
Bert]
Bert saw the Waldenses, in
their long and troubled history, as
the victims of intolerance and
persecution by popes and rulers,
and as the object of prejudice and
hatred on the part of the people.
Bert claims that the
Walsdensian movement had its
origin in the times of Emperor
Constantine, when the doctrine,
worship and government of
Christ’s Church began to lose their
original purity. At this time a
group of enlightened Christians
resisted this deviation from the
gospel way of life. (Bert does not
go so far as to claim, as others do,
that the Waldenses originated in St.
Paul’ or in St. James’ times.)
Throughout the first
millennium the Waldenses and
other groups living in the alpine
valleys according to the gospel
way of life refused to accept papal
rule. Those evangelical Christians
were neither fools nor liars. Even
before Peter Waldo in the twelfth
century the Waldenses had
preserved the original Christian
doctrine and worship. However the
medieval popes and their
inquisitors accused them of heresy
and sorcery, whereas in its very
simplicity their religion aimed
solely at fostering a good moral
life. In earlier times their schism
from the Roman Church was moral
and cultic rather than dogmatic.
They would have loved to
live in peace in Southern France, in
Bohemia and in Apulia. But the
history of these groups in the
Middle Ages is also the story of
“the permanent derangement of the
papacy.” On the other hand, the
Waldenses of the Piedmontese
valleys suffered persecution at the
hand of both the Emperor and the
local authorities, being regarded as
rebels.
The Protestant reformation
was an event that stirred up
enthusiasm and rejoicing among the
Wandenses. Faced with the
ignorance and corruption of the
clergy, the practice of selling
indulgences and other abuses
tolerated by the Holy See, Luther
went back to the Christianity of the
gospel and reminded us that “the
pope is not infallible.”
Unfortunately
the
Waldenses’ making common cause
with the reformation unleashed
unceasing persecution against them
by
the inhabitants of the
Piedmontese valleys. Hundreds of
people were driven from their
ancestral lands and were forced to
flee for safety to Switzerland or to
Germany.
The French Revolution, up
to 1830, did little to improve the
situation of the Waldenses. Only
with the ascent of King Charles
Albert in 1831 did gradual
improvement come about. (King
Charles Albert had been a pupil of
[Waldensian] Minister Vaucher,
professor in the Protestant academy
of the canton.
Finally under a reformer
pope and at the onset of a new
political and social order in Italy, the
king of Piedmont granted freedom
and civil rights to the Waldenses on
February 27, 1848—over the protests
of some members of the hierarchy. It
was indeed an act grace but also one
of justice, long overdue.
Bert adds that the rulers of
the House of Savoy had persecuted
the Waldenses only when abetted by
the leaders of a false Catholicism.
Now that a new era of

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freedom for the Waldenses has
begun the Roman Catholic Church
has nothing to fear. Their prayer is
that Italy might one day be neither
Waldensian nor Roman Catholic, but
simply Christian.
[Beliefs of the
Waldenses According to Bert]
While telling the supposed
history of the Wldenses, Bert also
explains their religious beliefs. They
professed the pure Christian faith of
the early Church.
Jesus had only preached the
“dogma” [doctrine]; he gave an
example of virtue, sacrifice and love;
by his death “he restore the human
family to its original freedom.”
For the first three centuries
the faithful did not use special places
of worship, did not acknowledge
hierarchical orders, lived in
independent communities bound
only by the “sacred bonds of faith
and charity.” Their bishops and other
ministers did not possess either
riches or temporal power. Christians
gathered in assemblies only to read
and to hear the Holy Scriptures
explained in their own language, and
to sing the praises of the Lord. The
faithful kept as feast days only
Sundays, a few fast days, and the
more “solemn” events of the life of
Jesus.
The Waldenses reverenced
the Bible and believed the truths of
the Apostles’ Creed and the teaching
of the first four Councils. But they
rejected all the innovations that
troubled the Church then, and has
troubled the Church since. They
rejected therefore the primacy of
Peter, the supreme authority of the
pope, the power of bishops as it had
gradually taken form, the priestly
hierarchy, and hence all clerical
power.
The Waldenses celebrated
Baptism and the Eucharist, but did
not accept the five sacraments of
Roman Catholicism as anti-apostolic
and anti-scriptural. The rites,
material symbols, and formulas of
these sacraments were not only
“strange, useless and blameworthy,”
but downright “blasphemous.”
They rejected the doctrine of
Purgatory and praying for the dead.
They regarded the invocation of the
saints as an “idolatrous” practice,
contrary to the doctrine of the unique
mediation of Jesus. They reverenced
the Virgin Mary as holy, humble and
full of grace, but of a grace that
could not be shared.
They likewise rejected the
veneration of the images of the saints
and of their relics. They did not
believe in pilgrimages, in holy water,
in the sacredness of burial grounds,
in the cross, in the blessing of palms,
in sacred vessels, and in adornments
of churches.
(2) Don Bosco’s Anti-
Waldensian Tracts, Il Cattolico
Istrito
With regard to both the
structure and the nature of its
apologetic, the Catholic Instructed
(even more so than its predecessor,
the Warnings) is patterned after the
bristling apologetic of contemporary
treatises, such as those of the learned
Jesuit Giovanni Perrone, highly
regarded by Don Bosco. In his
treatise, De vera religione adversus
incredulos and heterodoxos (On true
religion, a treatise against
unbelievers and heretics), Perrone
develops twelve “traditional
propositions” on the true church,
leading to the conclusion: “Vel nulla
religio, vel sola religio catholica.
Nullum datur medium; vel si medium
datur, est medium incoherentiae”
(Either [one opts for] no religion at
all, or [for] the Catholic religion
alone. There is no middle ground,
except the middle ground of
incoherence). The Catholic
Instructed fully reveals Don Bosco’s
merciless apologetic fervor.
It seems hardly fair to justify
this embarrassing apologetic by
supposing that it was addressed only
to young people and to ignorant
peasants and laborers.17
The first, untitled part of the
Catholic Instructed is a defense of
the true religion, consisting of
conversations I-XIV: God exists;
religion, i.e., honoring God, is a need
of both individuals and of society;
revelation from Adam to Christ is
necessary, because natural religion is
insufficient; the Bible is the vehicle
of revelation and is true in every
respect; the Bible is divine; the
history of salvation is a story of
prophecy and miracle, from Adam to
David; from David to Christ the
Messiah; Christ fulfills all prophecy;
the Gospel, the most perfect of
books, is the story of Christ; He is
true God and true man; He rose from
the dead and ascended to heaven,
“another proof of his divinity”; the
problem of Jewish unbelief.
The second, final and longer
part, entitled, “The Church of Jesus
Christ”, is complex.
Conversations I-XII are
dedicated to proving that the Roman
Catholic Church is the only and true
Church of Jesus Christ—Its
prodigious expansion show it to be
divine; it is a society established for
the preservation of the religion of
Christ; it is founded on Peter; it is
one; it is holy; it is apostolic because
it goes back to the apostles, while
others only go back to Luther,
Calvin, Waldo, etc.; authority in the
Church (hierarchy) was established
by Christ and is expressed in
ecumenical, national, provincial and
diocesan Councils; Christ’s Church
is visible, with a visible head, the

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Pope, the Vicar of Christ.
From here on, the remaining
31 Conversations (some 300 pages)
are entirely polemic and devoted to
debunking other religions, chiefly the
Waldenses and the Protestants.
Conversations XIII-XIX
(there is no XVI) begin by disposing
of Islam, (ridiculing Mohammed, the
Koran and its doctrine) and of Greek
orthodoxy (a schism in bad faith).
The Waldenses then come under
merciless attack in four
conversations, which give an account
of the origin of the sect, deplore the
bad faith of its ministers, and
disqualify them from the true Church
of Christ.
The
remaining
Conversations XX-XLIII (the last
three pamphlets) are an attack on the
Protestants. One pamphlet (9
Conversations) dealt with Luther,
Calvin and Theodore de Bèze, Henry
VIII and Anglicanism, and the
“preachers of the Reformation.”
The next pamphlet (5
Conversations) compared Protestant
with Catholic doctrine. Whereas
Catholic doctrine has never changed
from apostolic times, Protestant
doctrine merely repeats in various
forms the old heresies. The last
pamphlet (10 Conversations) deals
with the inner contradictions of
Protestantism, due especially to the
principle of individual interpretation.
In the last chapter “conversation”
fiction is abandoned, and Don Bosco
personally appeals to Protestant
ministers to join the only ark of
safety, the Church of Peter.
The flaws of such
apologetic, common in Don Bosco’s
times and milieu, were apparent: the
total absence of a critical
interpretation of Biblical and early
Christian texts; ignorance of the
history of the ancient world; the
constant confusion of primary and
secondary cause; the denial of any
value in non-Christian or non-
Catholic religions, etc. The absence
of critical spirit alone invalidated
most apologetic argument. The
refusal to recognize any value
outside the Roman Catholic Church
even called into question the good
faith of the apologist.
13. Fourth Centenary of the
Miracle of the Blessed Sacrament
(June 10, 1853)
Notizie storiche intorno al
miracolo del SS. Sacramento
avvenuto in Torino il 6 giugno 1453,
con un cenno sul quarto centenario
del 1853 (Letture Cattoliche 1:#6).
Torino: P. De Agostini, 1853, 48p.
14. Contemporary Episodes
Presented in Dialogue Form
(August 10 and 25, 1853)
Fatti contemporanei esposti
in forma di dialoghi (Letture
Cattoliche 1: #10 & 11). Torino: P.
De Agostini, 1983, 48 p.
15. Debate between an Attorney
and a Protestant Minister. A Play
(December 25, 1853)
Una disputa tra un avvocato
e un ministro protestante. Dramma
(Letture Cattoliche 1: #19). Torino:
P. De Agostini, 1853, 68 p.
Desramaut, Études
III, 42-47.
By these three “occasional”
pamphlets Don Bosco carried
forward his anti-Protestant crusade,
in the spirit of the Catholic
Instructed.
[13] The story about the
Miracle was that some robbers had
stolen a monstrance containing the
consecrated host at Exilles (Susa),
and had hidden it in a sack that their
donkey was carrying as they made
their way to Turin. On reaching
Turin, at the place where now rises
the church of Corpus Christi, the
donkey stopped and reared, the sack
opened, the monstrance fell to the
ground, while the consecrated host
was elevated and remained
suspended high above the ground
until the bishop arrived. By this
miracle (Don Bosco argued) God
wished to give people a proof of the
real presence, against the Waldenses
who inhabited the alpine valleys and
who denied, as they still do now, the
real presence of Christ in the
Eucharist—etc.
[14] The Contemporary
Episodes were about the son of a
coal vender, who preferred a life of
poverty to a lucrative job in a
“corrupt factory”. Of the seven
dialogues, two were about avoiding
bad books and bad companions; but
five were against the Protestants. E.
g.: In Dialogue 1, Minister B. (Bert?)
is trying to get Giovanni to join his
sect, “a religion the ministers of
which live in households full of
women and children, which has no
leader, no sacraments, and lacks any
divine character”; In Dialogue 5, a
Protestant minister is at the beside of
a dying apostate who begs to be
allowed to die a Catholic. “The
minister orders an attendant to pull
the pillow from under the dying
man’s head. Then leaving him to
choke and gasp, they leave the room
locking all doors. They do not go
back into the room until they are sure
that the man has breathed his last” [p.
33f.].
[15] The Debate, a play in
two acts which deals with a family
situation, is a prolonged argument
against Protestant proselytizing.
They “offer money to induce
Catholics to become Protestants, but
once the apostasy has been
perpetrated, they no longer care.”
They are a “church of drunkards.”

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“Luther himself in speaking of the
Protestants of his day, had this to
say: ‘Most of my followers live like
Epicureans. [...] If one wished to
meet a crowd of liars, usurers,
wastrels, rebels, people in bad faith,
one would only have to visit a town
claiming to be evangelical’” [p. 19f].
Later he refers the reader to an
earlier issue of the Catholic readings
[1: #9] where “it has been amply
demonstrated that Protestantism has
retained nothing of the early Church;
and that Protestants today profess
only errors already condemned in
earlier times” [p. 44].
Don Bosco’s “fanaticism”
was motivated by his overpowering
concern for the salvation of souls, a
thing that is incomprehensible in our
modern pluralist religious context.
Don Bosco firmly believed that
personal salvation was strictly
connected with faith, understood as
adherence to divinely revealed truths,
“without which we would be
eternally lost” [Catholic Instructed I,
p. 23]. These truths are found only in
the true Church (that is, the Roman
Catholic Church). After Christ, it is
impossible to be saved even in the
Jewish religion, which was
nonetheless authentic [cf. Catholic
Instructed I, p. 60]. A fortiori, one
cannot be saved in those religions
which have abandoned the Catholic
truth (the Protestant churches).
Don Bosco felt called to
fight against the “beast” of religious
error unleashed by the liberal laws.
On May 31, 1853, he sent some
numbers of the Catholic Readings to
Cardinal Antonelli and wrote: “Your
Eminence, the beast has come out of
its lair, and there are no hunters with
their weapons ready to shoot it
down.”18
On the other hand, Don
Bosco was personally sensitive to the
plight of individual Protestants [cf.
separate note], and was always ready
to talk. He writes to Canon (later
Bishop) P. De Gaudenzi: “I have
been many times insulted by the
Protestants; but, by the Lord’s will,
Protestants come to me on an almost
daily basis, and in good faith, to ask
for explanations of what they read in
the Catholic Readings.”19
Endnotes
1 Bosco, Storia
ecclesiastica (1845), 14 in OE I,
172.
2 Jean-Nicolas Loriquet,
Histoire ecclésiastique A. M. D.
G. Italian translation by an
Anonymous (Turin: Marietti,
1844), 130 p. A. M. D. G. (Ad
Majorem Dei Gloriam, to God’s
Greater Glory) is part of the Jesuit
device.
The Jesuit Father Loriquet
(1767-1845) was a well known
teacher and writer who published
a number of books for young
readers, including a History of
France for use by the Young
(1814 and 1816,,,), (paralleled by
Don Bosco’s History of Italy
narrated to the Young (1856 and
1859…) Both came under fire
from the liberals in both country
and Jesuitical and reactionary.
[Desramaut, DB en son temps,
553-554]
3 Storia della Chuesa
dalla sua fondazione fino al
pontificato di Gregorio XVI
(Turin: Marietti, 1943), viii+360
p.
4 Bosco, Storia
ecclesiastica (1845), 9-10,
Preface, in OE I, 167-168.
5 Bosco, Storia
ecclesiastica (1845), 34. In OE I,
192; [Loriquet], Storia
ecclesiastica, 13, in Desramaut,
DB en son temps, 219, Note 118.
6 Bosco, Storia
ecclesiastica (1845), 110. In OE I,
268.
7 Ibid.
8 Bosco, Storia
ecclesiastica (1845), 266-256, in
OE I, 413414, from B´rault-
Bercastel, Zugno’s Italian ed.
[Desramaut, DB en son temps,
219, Note 123.
9 Bosco Storia
ecclesiastica (1845), 227-228.
The Waldenses were
excommunicated by the Council
of Verona (1184), which was not
ecumenical.
10 Bosco, Storia
ecclesiastica (1845), 587-588, in
OE I, 545-546.
11 Bosco, Avvisi
(1851/1853), 9-10, in OE IV, 171-
172.
12 Bosco, Avvisi
(1850/1853), 10-14), in OE IV,
172-176.
13 Bosco, Avvisi
(1850/1873), 14-17, in OE IV,
176-179.
14 Bosco, Avvisi
(1851/1853) 17-19, in OE IV,
179-181.
15 Bosco, Avvisi
(1851/1853), 20-21, in OE IV,
182-183.
16 Bosco, Avvisi
(1851/1853), 21-25, in OE IV,
183-187.
17 Stella, DB I (English),
268f., seems to think so.
18 Motto, Ep I, 197.
19 Letter of April 7, 1853
in Motto, Ep I, 194.

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the examination of the grounds of theistic
belief, including the important questions of
• the existence of a divine
Personality, the Creator and
Conserver of the world, exercising
a special providence over man;
• man's freedom of will and his
corresponding religious and moral
responsibility in virtue of his
dependence on God;
• the immortality of the human soul,
and the future life with its
attendant
rewards
and
punishments.
Coupled with these questions is the
refutation of monism, determinism, and
other anti-theistic theories. Religious
philosophy and apologetics here march hand
in hand.
The second division, on revealed religion, is
even more comprehensive. After treating the
notion, possibility, and moral necessity of a
divine revelation, and its discernibility
through various internal and external
criteria, the apologist proceeds to establish
the fact of revelation. Three distinct,
progressive stages of revelation are set forth:
Primitive Revelation, Mosaic Revelation, and
Christian Revelation. The chief sources on
which he has to rely in establishing this triple
fact of revelation are the Sacred Scriptures.
But if he is logical, he must prescind from
their inspiration and treat them provisionally
as human historical documents. Here he must
depend on the critical study of the Old and
New Testaments by impartial scriptural
scholars, and build on the accredited results
of their researches touching the authenticity
and trustworthiness of the sacred books
purporting to be historical. It is only by
anticipation that an argument for the fact of
primitive revelation can be based on the
ground that it is taught in the inspired book
of Genesis, and that it is implied in the
supernatural state of our first parents. In the
absence of anything like contemporary
documents, the apologist has to lay chief
stress on the high antecedent probability of
primitive revelation, and show how a
revelation of limited, but sufficient scope for
primitive man is compatible with a very
crude stage of material and culture, and
hence is not discredited by the sound results
of prehistoric archaeology. Closely
connected with this question is the scientific
study of the origin and antiquity of man, and
the unity of the human species; and, as still
larger subjects bearing on the historic value
of the sacred Book of Origins, the
compatibility with Scripture of the modern
sciences of biology, astronomy, and geology.
In like manner the apologist has to content
himself with showing the fact of Mosaic
revelation to be highly probable. The
difficulty, in the present condition of Old
Testament criticism, of recognizing more
than a small portion of the Pentateuch as
documentary evidence contemporary with
Moses, makes it incumbent on the apologist
to proceed with caution lest, in attempting to
prove too much, he may bring into discredit
what is decidedly tenable apart from
dogmatic considerations. However, there is
sufficient evidence allowed by all but the
most radical critics to establish the fact that
Moses was the providential instrument for
delivering the Hebrew people from Egyptian
bondage, and for teaching them a system of
religious legislation that in lofty monotheism
and ethical worth is far superior to the beliefs
and customs of the surrounding nations, thus
affording a strong presumption in favor of its
claim to be revealed. This presumption gains
strength and clearness in the light of
Messianic prophecy, which shines with ever
increasing volume and brightness through the
history of the Jewish religion till it illumines
the personality of our Divine Lord. In the
study of Mosaic revelation, biblical
archaeology is of no small service to the
apologist.
When the apologist comes to the subject of
Christian revelation, he finds himself on
much firmer ground. Starting with the
generally recognized results of New
Testament criticism, he is enabled to show
that the synoptic Gospels, on the one hand,
and the undisputed Epistles of St. Paul, on
the other, offer two independent, yet
mutually corroborative, masses of evidence
concerning the person and work of Jesus. As
this evidence embodies the unimpeachable
testimony of thoroughly reliable eye-
witnesses and their associates, it presents a
portraiture of Jesus that is truly historical.
After showing from the records that Jesus
taught, now implicitly, now explicitly, that
he was the long expected Messiah, the Son of
God sent by His Heavenly Father to
enlighten and save mankind, and to found the
new kingdom of justice, Apologetics
proceeds to set forth the grounds for
believing in these claims:
• the surpassing beauty of His moral
character, stamping Him as the
unique, perfect man;
• the lofty excellence of His moral
and religious teaching, which has
no parallel elsewhere, and which
answers the highest aspirations of
the human soul;

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• His miracles wrought during His
public mission;
• the transcendent miracle of His
resurrection, which He foretold
as well;
• the wonderful regeneration of
society through His undying
personal influence.
Then, by way of supplementary proof, the
apologist institutes an impartial comparison
of Christianity with the various rival
religious systems of the world —
Brahminism, Buddhism, Zoroastrianism,
Confucianism, Taoism, Mohammedanism —
and shows how in the person of its founder, in
its moral and religious ideal and influence, the
Christian religion is immeasurably superior to
all others, and alone has a claim to our assent as
the absolute, divinely-revealed religion. Here,
too, in the survey of Buddhism, the specious
objection, not uncommon today, that Buddhist
ideas and legends have contributed to the
formation of the Gospels, calls for a summary
refutation.
Beyond the fact of Christian revelation the
Protestant apologist does not proceed. But the
Catholic rightly insists that the scope of
apologetics should not end here. Both the New
Testament records and those of the sub-
Apostolic age bear witness that Christianity
was meant to be something more than a
religious philosophy of life, more than a mere
system of individual belief and practice, and
that it cannot be separated historically from a
concrete form of social organization. Hence
Catholic apologetics adds, as a necessary sequel
to the established fact of Christian revelation,
the demonstration of the true Church of Christ
and its identity with the Roman Catholic
Church. From the records of the Apostles and
their immediate successors is set forth the
institution of the Church as a true,
unequal society, endowed with the
supreme authority of its Founder, and
commissioned in His name to teach and
sanctify mankind; possessing the essential
features of visibility, indefectibility, and
infallibility; characterized by the
distinctive marks of unity, holiness,
catholicity, and apostolicity. These notes
of the true Church of Christ are then
applied as criteria to the various rival
Christian denominations of the present
day, with the result that they are found
fully exemplified in the Roman Catholic
Church alone. With the supplementary
exposition of the primacy and infallibility
of the Pope, and of the rule of faith, the
work of apologetics is brought to its
fitting close. It is true that some apologists
see fit to treat also of inspiration and the
analysis of the act of faith. But, strictly
speaking, these are not apologetic
subjects. While they may logically be
included in the prolegomena of dogmatic
theology, they rather belong, the one to
the province of Scripture-study, the other
to the tract of moral theology dealing with
the theological virtues.
15
Apologetic
Literature
The history of apologetic literature
involves the survey of the varied attacks
that have been made against the grounds of
Christian, Catholic belief. It may be
marked off into four great divisions.
• The first division is the period from
the beginning of Christianity to the
downfall of the Roman Empire (A.D.
476). It is chiefly characterized by the
twofold struggle of Christianity with
Judaism and with paganism.
• The second division is coextensive
with the Middle Ages, from A.D.
476 to the Reformation. In this
period we find Christianity in conflict
with the Mohammedan religion and
philosophy.
• The third division takes in the period
from the beginning of the
Reformation to the rise of rationalism
in England in the middle of the
seventeenth century. It is the period
of struggle between Catholicism and
Protestantism.
• The fourth division embraces the
period of rationalism, from the
middle of the seventeenth century
down to the present day. Here we
find Christianity in conflict with
Deism, Pantheism, Materialism,
Agnosticism, and Naturalism.

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First period
Apologies in answer to the
opposition of Judaism
It lay in the nature of things that
Christianity should meet with strong
Jewish opposition. In dispensing with
circumcision and other works of the law,
Christianity had incurred the imputation
of running counter to God's immutable
will. Again, Christ's humble and obscure
life, ending in the ignominious death on
the cross, was the very opposite of what
the Jews expected of their Messiah. Their
judgment seemed to be confirmed by the
fact that Christianity attracted but an
insignificant portion of the Jewish people,
and spread with greatest vigor among the
despised Gentiles. To justify the claims of
Christianity before the Jews, the early
apologists had to give an answer to these
difficulties. Of these apologies the most
important is the "Dialogue with Trypho
the Jew" composed by Justin Martyr about
155-160. He vindicates the new religion
against the objections of the learned Jew,
arguing with great cogency that it is the
perfection of the Old Law, and showing
by an imposing array of Old Testament
passages that the Hebrew prophets point
to Jesus as the Messiah and the incarnate
Son of God. He insists also that it is in
Christianity that the destiny of the Hebrew
religion to become the religion of the
world is to find its realization, and hence it
is the followers of Christ, and not the
unbelieving Jews, that are the true
children of Israel. By his elaborate
argument from Messianic prophecy, Justin
won the grateful recognition of later
apologists. Similar apologies were
composed by Tertullian, "Against the
Jews" (Adversus Jud os, about 200), and
by St. Cyprian, "Three Books of Evidences
against the Jews" (about 250).
Apologies in answer to
pagan opposition
Of far more serious moment to the early
Apologetics & the College Student
Today, many young adults enter the university world ill equipped to defend their own
faith. This is just one of the concerns of the US Bishops and their appraisal of where
catechetical education has brought a few generations of the faithful in the last few years. If
there is anything to be gained at all by generational studies, it is important to dissect this
phenomena of un-informed faith in so many college students today. It is not for lack of
interest that we come upon this scene. We are discovering whole groups of young adults
devoid of sufficient training and interest in anything spiritual. Too often, the theologies
operating in the young adult of today is more penned by Hollywood than by current
theologies or philosophies. This is not a pronounced judgment on the young adult, but
upon the generations, institutions, church communities, and social communities which have
raised them into adult-hood. As faith articulation wanes in one sector, other reactionary
groups are rising from within the same communities of young adults. Some are expressing
their spiritual hunger with a quest to serve the world and the poor. Others are hankering
for a theology and a liturgical world with definite answers and rituals proclaiming assurance
and identity. All groups are showing signs of interest in apologetics. This hopeful sign
needs direction and mediation. As youth ministers, we need to engage the young adult,
help them with their questions, and equip them for a world beyond Hollywood.
Christian Church was the bitter opposition it
met from paganism. The polytheistic religion
of the Roman Empire, venerated for its
antiquity, was intertwined with every fiber of
the body politic. Its providential influence was
a matter of firm belief. It was associated with
the highest culture, and had the sanction of the
greatest poets and sages of Greece and Rome.
Its splendid temples and stately ritual gave it a
grace and dignity that captivated the popular
imagination. On the other hand, Christian
monotheism was an innovation. It made no
imposing display of liturgy. Its disciples were,
for the most part, persons of humble birth and
station. Its sacred literature had little attraction
for the fastidious reader accustomed to the
elegant diction of the classic authors. And so
the popular mind viewed it with misgivings, or
despised it as an ignorant superstition. But
opposition did not end here. The
uncompromising attitude of the new religion
towards pagan rites was decried as the greatest
impiety. The Christians were branded as
atheists, and as they held aloof from the public
functions also, which were invariably
associated with these false rites, they were
accused of being enemies of the State. The
Christian custom of worshipping in secret
assembly seemed to add force to this charge,
for secret societies were forbidden by Roman
law. Nor were calumnies wanting. The
popular imagination easily distorted the
vaguely known Agape and Eucharistic Sacrifice
into abominable rites marked by feasting on
infant flesh and by indiscriminate lust. The
outcome was that the people and authorities
took alarm at the rapidly spreading Church and
sought to repress it by force. To vindicate the
Christian cause against these attacks of
paganism, many apologies were written.
Some, notably the "Apology" of Justin Martyr
(150), the "Plea for the Christians", by
Athenagoras (177), and the "Apologetic" of
Tertullian (197), were addressed to emperors
for the express purpose of securing for the
Christians immunity from persecution. Others
were composed to convince the pagans of the
folly of polytheism and of the saving truth of
Christianity. Such were: Tatian, "Discourse to
the Greeks" (160), Theophilus, "Three Books

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to Autolychus" (180), the "Epistle to
Diognetus" (about 190), the "Octavius" of
Minucius Felix (192), Origen, "True
Discourse against Celsus" (248),
Lactantius, Institutes (312), and St.
Augustine, "City of God" (414-426). In
these apologies the argument from Old
Testament prophecy has a more
prominent place than that from miracles.
But the one on which most stress is laid is
that of the transcendent excellence of
Christianity. Though not clearly marked
out, a twofold line of thought runs
through this argument: Christianity is
light, whereas paganism is darkness;
Christianity is power, whereas paganism is
weakness. Enlarging on these ideas, the
apologists contrast the logical coherence of
the religious tenets of Christianity, and its
lofty ethical teaching, with the follies and
inconsistencies of polytheism, the low
ethical principles of its philosophers, and
the indecencies of its mythology and of
some of its rites. They likewise show that
the Christian religion alone has the power
to transform man from a slave of sin into a
spiritual freeman. They compare what
they once were as pagans with what they
now are as Christians. They draw a telling
contrast between the loose morality of
pagan society and the exemplary lives of
Christians, whose devotion to their
religious principles is stronger than death
itself.
Second period.
Christianity in conflict with
Mohammedan religion and
philosophy
The one dangerous rival with which
Christianity had to contend in the Middle
Ages was the Mohammedan religion. Within
a century of its birth, it had torn from
Christendom some of its fairest lands, and
extended like a huge crescent from Spain over
Northern Africa, Egypt, Palestine, Arabia,
Persia, and Syria, to the eastern part of Asia
Minor. The danger, which this fanatic religion
offered to Christian faith, in countries where
the two religions came in contact, was not to
be treated lightly. And so we find a series of
apologies written to uphold the truth of
Christianity in the face of Moslem errors.
Perhaps the earliest was the "Discussion
between a Saracen and a Christian" composed
by St. John Damascene (about 750). In this
apology he vindicates the dogma of the
Incarnation against the rigid and fatalistic
conception of God taught by Mohammed. He
also demonstrates the superiority of the
religion of Christ, pointing out the grave
Islam, Christianity, and Tolerance
Perhaps one of the biggest challenges for the present moment in history is finding ways to
dialogue between faiths and peoples of very different traditions. Recently, an Islamic
Scholar from Harvard University called upon the Islamic world to disconnect itself from the
violence associated with radical fundamentalist groups claiming to murder and foment
violence in the name of their God. It was interesting to witness the bravery of a scholar
from the Islamic tradition who ventured out to build bridges between cultures and faiths. A
series of interviews are offered from many different points of view on this effort to find
common ground. For many very fascinating and balanced podcasts on a variety of current
issues of faith, go to http://www.airsla.org/speakfaith.asp#table.
defects in Mohammed's life and teaching, and
showing the Koran to be in its best parts but a
feeble imitation of the Sacred Scriptures. Peter
the Venerable composed other apologies of a
similar kind in the twelfth, and by Raymond of
Martini in the thirteenth century. Hardly less
dangerous to the Christian faith was the
rationalistic philosophy of Islamism. The
Arabian conquerors had learned from the
Syrians the arts and sciences of the Greek
world. They became especially proficient in
medicine, mathematics, and philosophy, for
the study of which they erected in every part of
their domain schools and libraries. In the
twelfth century Moorish Spain had nineteen
colleges, and their renown attracted hundreds
of Christian scholars from every part of
Europe. Herein lay a grave menace to Christian
orthodoxy, for the philosophy of Aristotle as
taught in these schools had become thoroughly
tinctured with Arabian pantheism and
rationalism. The peculiar tenet of the
celebrated Moorish philosopher Averroes was
much in vogue, namely: that philosophy and
religion are two independent spheres of
thought, so that what is true in the one may be
false in the other. Again, it was commonly
taught that faith is for the masses that cannot
think for themselves, but philosophy is a higher
form of knowledge, which noble minds should
seek to acquire. Among the fundamental
dogmas denied by the Arabian philosophers
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To vindicate Christianity against
Mohammedan rationalism, St. Thomas
composed (1261-64) his philosophical
"Summa contra Gentiles", in four books. In
this great apology the respective claims of
reason and faith are carefully distinguished
and harmonized, and a systematic
demonstration of the grounds of faith is built
up with arguments of reason and authority
such as appealed directly to the minds of that
day. In treating of God, providence, creation
and the future life, St. Thomas refutes the
chief errors of the Arabian, Jewish, and
Greek philosophers, and shows that the
genuine teaching of Aristotle confirms the
great truths of religion. Three apologies
composed in much the same spirit, but
belonging to a later age, may be mentioned
here. The one is the fine work of Louis
Vivés, "De Veritate Fidei Christianæ Libri V"
(about 1530). After treating the principles of
natural theology, the Incarnation, and
Redemption, he gives two dialogues, one
between a Christian and a Jew, the other
between a Christian and a Mohammaden, in
which he shows the superiority of the
Christian religion. Similar to this is the
apology of the celebrated Dutch theologian
Grotius, "De Veritate Religionis Christianæ"
(1627). It is in six books. An able treatise on
natural theology is followed by a
demonstration of the truth of Christianity
based on the life and miracles of Jesus, the
holiness of His teaching, and the wonderful
propagation of His religion. In proving the
authenticity and trustworthiness of the
Sacred Scriptures, Grotius appeals largely to
internal evidence. The latter part of the work
is devoted to a refutation of paganism,
Judaism, and Mohammedanism. An apology
on somewhat similar lines is that of the
Huguenot, Philip de Mornay, "De la vérité
de la religion chrétienne" (1579). It is the
first apology of note that was written in a
modern tongue.
Third period.
Catholicism in
conflict with
Protestantism
The outbreak of Protestantism in the
beginning of the sixteenth century, and its
rejection of many of the fundamental features
of Catholicism, called forth a mass of
controversial apologetic literature. It was
not, of course, the first time that the
principles of Catholic belief had been
questioned with reference to Christian
orthodoxy. In the early ages of the Church
heretical sects, assuming the right to profess
allegiance and fidelity to the spirit of Christ,
had given occasion to St. Irenæus "On
Heresies", Tertullian "On Prescription
against Heretics," St. Vincent of Lérins, in
his "Commonitory", to insist on unity with
the Catholic Church, and, for the purpose of
confuting the heretical errors of private
interpretation, to appeal to an authoritative
rule of faith. In like manner, the rise of
heretical sects in the three centuries
preceding the Reformation led to an
accentuation of the fundamental principles of
Catholicism, notably in Moneta's "Summa
contra Catharos et Waldenses" (about 1225),
and Torquemada's "Summa de Ecclesiâ"
(1450). So to a far greater extent, in the
outpouring from many sources of Protestant
ideas, it became the duty of the hour to
defend the true nature of the Church of
Christ, to vindicate its authority, its divinely
authorized hierarchy under the primacy of
the Pope, its visibility, unity, perpetuity, and
infallibility, along with other doctrines and
practices branded as superstitious.
In the first heat of this gigantic controversy
the writings on both sides were sharply
polemic, abounding in personal
recriminations. But towards the close of the
century there developed a tendency to treat
the controverted questions more in the
manner of a calm, systematic apology. Two
works belonging to this time are especially
noteworthy. One is the "Disputations de
controversiis Christianæ Fidei" (1581-92),
by Robert Bellarmin, a monumental work of
vast erudition, rich in apologetic material.
The other is the "Principiorum Fidei
Doctrinalium Demonstratio" (1579), by
Robert Stapleton, whom Döllinger
pronounced to be the prince of
controversialists. Though not so erudite, it is
more profound than the work of Bellarmin.
Another excellent work of this period is that
of Martin Becan, "De Ecclesiâ Christi"
(1633).
Fourth period.
Christianity in
conflict with
Rationalism
From the middle of the
seventeenth to the
nineteenth century
Rationalism — the setting up of the human
reason as the source and measure of all

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knowable truth — is, of course, not confined
to any one period of human history. It has
existed from the earliest days of philosophy.
But in Christian society it did not become a
notable factor till the middle of the
seventeenth century, when it asserted itself
chiefly in the form of Deism. It was
associated, and even to a large extent
identified with the rapidly growing
movement towards greater intellectual
freedom which, stimulated by fruitful
scientific inquiry, found itself seriously
hampered by the narrow views of inspiration
and of historic Bible-interpretation which
then prevailed. The Bible had been set up as
an infallible source of knowledge not only in
matters of religion, but of history,
chronology, and physical science. The result
was a reaction against the very essentials of
Christianity. Deism became the intellectual
fashion of the day, leading in many cases to
downright atheism. Starting with the
principle that no religious doctrine is of value
that cannot be proved by experience or by
philosophical reflection, the Deists admitted
the existence of a God external to the world,
but denied every form of divine intervention,
and accordingly rejected revelation,
inspiration, miracles, and prophecy.
Together with unbelievers of a still more
pronounced type, they assailed the historic
value of the Bible, decrying its miraculous
narratives as fraud and superstition. The
movement started in England, and in the
eighteenth century spread to France and
Germany. Its baneful influence was deep and
far-reaching, for it found zealous exponents
in some of the leading philosophers and men
of letters — Hobbes, Locke, Hume,
Voltaire, Rousseau, d'Alembert, Diderot,
Lessing, Herder, and others. But able
apologists were not lacking to champion the
Christian cause. England produced several
that won lasting honor for their scholarly
defense of fundamental Christian truths —
Lardner, author of the "Credibility of the
Gospel History", in twelve volumes (1741-
55); Butler, likewise famous for his "Analogy
of Religion Natural and Revealed to the
Constitution of Nature" (1736); Campbell,
who in his "Dissertation on Miracles" (1766)
gave a masterly answer to Hume's arguments
against miracles; and Paley, whose
"Evidences of Christianity" (1794) and
"Natural Theology" (1802) are among the
classics of English theological literature. On
the continent, the work of defense was
carried on by such men as Bishop Huet, who
published his "Démonstration Evangélique"
in 1679; Leibnitz, whose "Théodicée"
(1684), with its valuable introduction on the
conformity of faith with reason, had a great
influence for good; the Benedictine Abbot
Gerbert, who gave a comprehensive
Christian apology in his "Demonstratio Veræ
Religionis Ver que Ecclesiæ Contra Quasvis
Falsas" (1760); and the Abbé Bergier, whose
"Traité historique et dogmatique de la vraie
religion", in twelve volumes (1780), showed
ability and erudition.
The nineteenth century
In the last century the conflict of Christianity
with rationalism was in part lightened and in
part complicated by the marvelous
development of scientific and historic
inquiry. Lost languages, like the Egyptian and
the Babylonian, were recovered, and thereby
rich and valuable records of the past — many
of them unearthed by laborious and costly
excavation — were made to tell their story.
Much of this bore on the relations of the
ancient Hebrew people with the surrounding
nations and, while in some instances creating
new difficulties, for the most part helped to
corroborate the truth of the Bible history.
Out of these researches have grown a
number of valuable and interesting apologetic
studies on Old Testament history: Schrader,
"Cuneiform Inscriptions and the Old
Testament" (London, 1872); Hengstenberg's
"Egypt and the Books of Moses" (London,
1845); Harper, "The Bible and Modern
Discoveries" (London, 1891); McCurdy,
"History, Prophecy, and the Monuments"
(London-New York, 1894-1900); Pinches,
"The Old Testament in the Light of the
Historic Records of Assyria and Babylonia"
(London-New York, 1902); Abbé Gainet,
"La bible sans la bible, ou l'histoire de
l'ancien testament par les seuls témoignages
profanes" (Bar-le-Duc, 1871); Vigouroux,
"La bible et les découvertes modernes"
(Paris, 1889). On the other hand, Biblical
chronology, as then understood, and the
literal historic interpretation of the Book of
Genesis were thrown into confusion by the
advancing sciences — astronomy, with its
grand nebular hypothesis; biology, with its
even more fruitful theory of evolution;
geology, and prehistoric archaeology.
Rationalists eagerly laid hold of these
scientific data, and sought to turn them to the
discredit of the Bible and likewise of the
Christian religion. But able apologies were
forthcoming to essay a conciliation of science
and religion. Among them were: Dr.
(afterwards Cardinal) Wiseman, "Twelve
Lectures on the Connection between Science

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and Revealed Religion" (London, 1847),
which, though antiquated in parts, is still
valuable reading; Reusch, "Nature and the
Bible" (London, 1876). Others more
modern and up to date are: Duilhé de Saint-
Projet, "Apologie scientifique de la foi
chrétienne" (Paris, 1885); Abbé Guibert, "In
the beginning" (New York, 1904), one of the
best Catholic treatises on the subject; and
more recent still, A. de Lapparent, "Science
et apologétique" (Paris, 1905). A more
delicate form of scientific inquiry for
Christian belief was the application of the
principles of historic criticism to the books of
Holy Scripture. Not a few Christian scholars
looked with grave misgivings on the progress
made in this legitimate department of human
research, the results of which called for a
reconstruction of many traditional views of
Scripture. Rationalists found here a
congenital field of study, which seemed to
promise the undermining of Scripture-
authority. Hence it was but natural that the
encroachments of Biblical criticism on
conservative theology should be disputed
inch by inch. On the whole, the outcome of
the long and spirited contest has been to the
advantage of Christianity. It is true that the
Pentateuch, so long attributed to Moses, is
now held by the vast majority of non-
Catholic, and by an increasing number of
Catholic, scholars to be a compilation of four
independent sources put together in final
shape soon after the Captivity. But the
antiquity of much of the contents of these
sources has been firmly established, as well as
the strong presumption that the kernel of the
Pentateuchal legislation is of Mosaic
institution. This has been shown by
Kirkpatrick in his "Divine Library of the Old
Testament" (London-New York, 1901), by
Driver in his "Introduction to the Literature
of the Old Testament" (New York, 1897),
and by Abbé Lagrange, in his "Méthode
historique de l'Ancien Testament" (Paris,
1903; tr. London, 1905). In the New
Testament the results of Biblical criticism are
still more assuring. The attempt of the
Tübingen school to throw the Gospels far
into the second century, and to see in most
of the Epistles of St. Paul the work of a much
later hand, has been absolutely discredited.
The synoptic Gospels are now generally
recognized, even by advanced critics, to
belong to the years 65-85, resting on still
earlier written and oral sources, and the
Gospel of St. John is brought with certainty
down to at least A.D. 110, that is, within a
very few years of the death of St. John. The
three Epistles of St. John are recognized as
genuine, the pastoral letters being now the
chief object of dispute. Closely connected
with the theory of the Tübingen School, was
the attempt of the rationalist Strauss to
explain away the miraculous element in the
Gospels as the mythical fancies of an age
much later than that of Jesus. Strauss's views,
embodied in his "Life of Jesus" (1835), were
ably refuted, together with the false
assertions and inductions of the Tübingen
School by such Catholic scholars as Kuhn,
Hug, Sepp, Döllinger, and by the Protestant
critics, Ewald, Meyer, Wieseler, Tholuck,
Luthardt, and others. The outcome of
Strauss's "Life of Jesus," and of Renan's vain
attempt to improve on it by giving it a
legendary form (Vie de Jésus, 1863), has
been a number of scholarly biographies of
our blessed Lord: by Fouard, "Christ the Son
of God" (New York, 1891); Didon, "Jesus
Christ" (New York, 1891); Edersheim, "Life
and Times of Jesus the Messiah" (New York,
1896), and others.
Another field of study which grew up chiefly
in the last century, and has had an influence
in shaping the science of apologetics, is the
study of religions. The study of the great
religious systems of the pagan world, and
their comparison with Christianity, furnished
material for a number of specious arguments
against the independent and supernatural
origin of the Christian religion. So, too, the
study of the origin of religion in the light of
the religious philosophy of uncultured
peoples has been exploited against Christian
(theistic belief) on the unwarranted ground
that Christianity is but a refinement, through
a long process of evolution, of a crude
primitive religion originating in ghost-
worship. Among those who have
distinguished themselves in this branch of
apologetics are Döllinger, whose
"Heidenthum und Judenthum" (1857), tr.
"Gentile and Jew in the Court of the
Temple" (London, 1865-67), is a mine of
information on the comparative merits of
revealed religion and the paganism of the
Roman world; Abbé de Broglie, author of
the suggestive volume, "Problèmes et
conclusions de l'histoire des religions" (Paris,
1886); Hardwick, Christ and other Masters"
(London, 1875). Another factor in the
growth of apologetics during the last century
was the rise of numerous systems of
philosophy that, in the teaching of such men
as Kant, Fichte, Hegel, Schelling, Comte,
and Spencer, were openly or covertly in
opposition to Christian belief. To counteract
these systems, Pope Leo XIII revived

3 Pages 21-30

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3.1 Page 21

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Don Bosco Study Guide
21
throughout the Catholic world the teaching
of Thomistic philosophy. The many works
written to vindicate Christian Theism against
Pantheism, Materialism, Positivism, and
Evolutionary Monism have been of great
service to apologetics. Not all these
philosophic apologies, indeed, are scholastic.
They represent several modern schools of
thought. France has furnished a number of
able apologetic thinkers who lay chief stress
on the subjective element in man, who point
to the needs and aspirations of the soul, and
to the corresponding fitness of Christianity,
and of Christianity alone, to satisfy them.
This line of thought has been worked out in
various ways by the lately deceased Ollé-
Laprune, author of "La certitude morale"
(Paris, 1880), and "Le prix de la vie" (Paris,
1892); by Fonsegrive, "Le catholicisme et la
vie de l'esprit" (Paris, 1899); and, in
"L'action" (Paris, 1893), by Blondel, the
founder of the so-called "Immanence School"
the principles of which are embodied in the
spiritual writings of Father Tyrrell, "Lex
Orandi" (London, 1903), "Lex Credendi"
(London, 1906). The continued opposition
between Catholicism and Protestantism in
the last century resulted in the production of
a number of noteworthy apologetic writings:
Möhler, "Symbolism", published in Germany
in 1832, which has gone through many
editions in English; Balmes, "Protestantism
and Catholicity Compared in their Effects on
the Civilization of Europe", a Spanish work
published in English in 1840 (Baltimore); the
works of the three illustrious English
cardinals, Wiseman, Newman, and Manning,
most of whose writings have a bearing on
apologetics.
It is out of all these varied and extensive
studies that apologetics has taken form. The
vastness of the field makes it extremely
difficult for any one writer to do it full
justice. In fact a complete, comprehensive
apology of uniform excellence still remains
to be written.
Sources
In addition to the works already mentioned,
the more general treatises on apologetics are
as
follows:
CATHOLIC WORKS. SCHANZ, A
Christian Apology (New York, 1891) 3 vols.
An improved edition of the original,
Apologie des Christentums, was published in
Freiburg (1895) and an augmented edition
was in preparation in 1906. PICARD,
Christianity or Agnosticism?, tr. from the
French by MACLEOD (London, 1899);
DEVIVIER, Christian Apologetics, edited
and augmented by SASIA (San Jos, 1903) 2
vols.; ed. in one vol. by the Most Rev. S. G.
Messmer, D.D. (New York, 1903);
FRAYSSINOUS, A Defense of Christianity,
tr. from the French by JONES (London,
1836); HETTINGER, Natural Religion (New
York, 1890); Revealed Religion (New York,
1895), both being adaptations by H. S.
BOWDEN of HETTINGER'S German
Apologie des Christentums (Freiburg, 1895-
98) 5 vols.; HETTINGER, Fundamental-
Theologie (Freiburg, 1888); GUTBERLET,
Lehrbuch der Apologetik (M nster, 1895) 3
vols.; SCHELL, Apologie des Christentums
(Paderborn, 1902-5) 2 vols.; WEISS,
Apologie des Christentums vom Standpunkte
der Sitte und Kultur (Freiburg, 1888-9), 5
vols., French tr. Apologie du christianisme
au point de vue des m urs et de la civilisation
(Paris, 1894); BOUGAUD, Le christianisme
et les temps pr sents (Paris, 1891) 5 vols.;
LABEYRIE, La science de la foi (La Chapelle-
Montligeon, 1903); EGGER, Encheiridion
Theologi Dogmatic Generalis (Brixen,
1893); OTTIGER, Theologia Fundamentalis
(Freiburg, 1897); TANQUERY, Synopsis
Theologi Fundamentalis (New York, 1896).
Periodicals valuable for apologetic study are:
The American Catholic Quarterly; American
Ecclesiastical Review; New York Review;
Catholic World; Dublin Review; Irish
Ecclesiastical Record; Irish Theological
Quarterly; Month; Tablet; Revue Apologe
tique (Brussels); Revue pratique
apologetique (Paris); Revue des questions
scientifiques; Mus on; La science catholique;
Annales de philosophie chrétienne; Etudes
religieuses; Revue Thomiste, Revue du clerg
francais; Revue d'histoire et de litterature
religieuse; Revue biblique; Theologische
Quartalschrift (Tübingen); Stimmen aus
Maria-Laach.
PROTESTANT WORKS. BRUCE,
Apologetics (New York, 1892); FISHER,
The Grounds of Theistic and Christian Belief
(New York, 1902); FAIRBAIRN, The
Philosophy of the Christian Religion (New
York, 1902); MAIR, Studies in theChristian
Evidences (Edinburgh, 1894); LUTHARDT,
The Fundamental Truths of Christianity
(Edinburgh, 1882); SCHULTZ, Outlines of
Christian Apologetics (New York, 1905);
ROW, Christian Evidences Viewed in
Relation to Modern Thought (London,
1888); IDEM, A Manual of Christian
Evidences (New York, 1896);
ILLINGWORTH, Reason and Revelation
(New York, 1903). Many excellent
apologetic treatises are to be found in the
long series of Bampton Lectures, also in the
Gifford, Hulsean, Baird, and Croal Lectures.
About this page
APA citation. Aiken, C.F. (1907).
Apologetics. In The Catholic Encyclopedia.
New York: Robert Appleton Company.
Retrieved April 14, 2012 from New Advent:
http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/01618
a.htm
MLA citation. Aiken, Charles Francis.
"Apologetics." The Catholic Encyclopedia.
Vol. 1. New York: Robert Appleton
Company, 1907. 14 Apr. 2012
<http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/0161
8a.htm>.
Transcription. This article was transcribed
for New Advent by Douglas J. Potter.
Dedicated to the Sacred Heart of Jesus
Christ.
Ecclesiastical approbation. Nihil Obstat.
March 1, 1907. Remy Lafort, S.T.D.,
Censor. Imprimatur. +John Cardinal Farley,
Archbishop of New York.

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Don Study Guide
22
Suggestions for Use of this Guide...
At a Community Meeting:
• Discuss some of the ideas and beliefs which
are prevalent among young people today
that are not really adhering to Catholic
faith or good Christian moral thinking.
• Discuss ways to engage young people in the
discussion of such erring ideologies and
concepts without putting them on the
defensive.
• Plan a round-robin debate/discussion with
some young people.
The Cooperators are often on the front-lines with
parents struggling to raise their own children
according to sound Catholic teaching and moral
values. Perhaps you could organize some moments
of formation for Christian parents.
• Skills for Media Literacy are important
tools for any parent to assist them in
training their children in the proper and
appropriate use of media in its many forms.
• Challenge the parents to live more by
example than merely by word. Refer to
the work of Christian Smith and his studies
of young people and faith today.
Many young people today, especially in the
critical years of college education, are interested
in philosophical, religious, and moral debate.
They hunger to know what is true and what is
false.
• Conduct a planned event for
reasonable discussion and debate
around a particular issue. For
instance, “Pre-Marital Sexual Relations
and Successful Relationships” might
generate great discussion. Make the
event an appealing social event with
food and fun, but provide intelligent
discussion and expert mentors for the
gathering.
As the school year draws to a close in the next
few months, there are various gatherings for
staff, faculties, and ministry teams available for
further training in Salesian Spirituality and
Pedagogy. In June there is the Salesian Education
Seminar (SES). At the end of June the Center for
Ministry Development will host the training for
Certification in Youth Ministry at Don Bosco Hall
in Berkeley and this will be continued the last
weekend in July. In July, the Salesian Leadership
Institute for Ministry will begin a two year path of
formation in Salesian history, spirituality, and
pedagogy. Encourage one another to participate
in an of these opportunities for ongoing
formation and spiritual enrichment. Contact
Don Bosco Hall for more details.

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12
Don Bosco Study Guide
Fr. Arthur Lenti, Unstoppable at 89 Years
APRIL /MAY 2012
This issue features a whole chapter of Fr. Arthur Lenti’s research into the writings and
activities of Don Bosco as a Catholic Apologist for 19th Century Italy. Fr. Arthur analyzes the
ecclesiology and church history coming from the pen of Don Bosco especially in response to
the movement begun in Lyon but Peter Waldo. He readily admits that Don Bosco’s approach
was a somewhat vitriolic at first, even to the point of condemning persons and ideas attached
to the Waldenses which were not really in error. However, as Don Bosco’s tone softened, his
defense of the truth and the teachings of the Catholic Church remained his focus. Like St.
Francis de Sales before him, Don Bosco would persuade many away from error with the use of
history and reason. For Don Bosco, these writings in the Catholic Readings were precisely
preventive helping to steer the contemporary Catholics from confusing and misleading ideas.
Besides the 7 volume historical, critical work on Don Bosco as Founder and Builder, Fr.
Arthur is busy at work on many projects, especially the English translation of the new
Introduction to the Memoirs of the Oratory, Don Bosco’s volume, written by Fr. Aldo Giraudo,
SDB, Salesian Scholar at the Salesian Pontifical University in Rome.
The 7 volume study of Don
Bosco by Fr. Arthur Lenti is
now published in Spanish and
English. However, the only
way at present to obtain the
Spanish editions is by direct
ordering and shipping from
Spain. Here is the information:
Editorial CCS
http://www.editorialccs.com/
Don Bosco Volumes in English Available from Rome, India, or
New Jersey. International Shipping Raises the US Prices
Current price in Euros. In US Dollars: $35.31
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