Apologeticae sive Theologiae Fundamentalis, Tomus I: Demonstratio Christiana

From what has been said thus far it is clear that apologetics is of great importance objectively for the true religion. Hence it is also concluded that apologetics is of remarkable value subjectively for those who either seek or cultivate the true faith and religion.

a) For infidels seeking religion, it paves the way to faith. Indeed, no one can believe unless he has first certainly known the fact of revelation. Innocent XI condemned the thesis: "The supernatural assent of faith, which is useful for salvation, is compatible with a merely probable knowledge of the revelation, and even with the fear by which one fears that God has not spoken."¹

Reasonably, therefore, no one can embrace the faith unless he is persuaded that the Christian-Catholic revelation is given by God.

On the contrary, no one who is persuaded of this foundation of the true religion can reasonably repel the faith. For if it stands by irrefutable arguments that God is the author of the revelation, it also stands that this revelation is reasonably credible. Accordingly, in proving the fact of revelation the apologist leads the infidel by the hand as far as the very gates of faith.

Nevertheless, he cannot compel the unwilling to enter, nor can he bring the willing into the temple of faith. He cannot compel the unwilling to believe. For reason alone is compelled to assent by the evidence of the thing. The fact of revelation, however, is proved in apologetics as certain indeed, but not evident. He cannot endow the willing with faith. For apologetics alone sets forth rational motives, supported by which the intellect forms the natural judgment of the credibility of the faith. Faith itself, however, is the assent given to revelation from a supernatural motive, that is, on account of the authority of God revealing. Hence, to produce the act of faith, grace must concur with human reason.

Human reasoning about credibility is a condition sine qua non of faith;² divine aid, however, is the cause that causes faith.³

The infidel, therefore, should indeed devote himself to study, but let him pray much more earnestly that he may obtain the gift of faith from God.⁴

b) The faithful also profit much from apologetic study. Indeed, the apologetic arguments do not directly and intrinsically increase the power and firmness of faith. For its supernatural certainty infinitely exceeds every certainty acquired by mere reason. Indirectly, however, and extrinsically, faith is greatly aided by the apologetic motives of credibility. These motives remove the obstacles to faith heaped up by adversaries; they build bulwarks around the citadel of faith; they show the excellence, sublimity, and beauty of faith, and thereby fill the minds of the faithful with reverence, love, gratitude, and alacrity for performing those things that belong to faith.

The faithful need this apologetic aid the more, the more they advance in profane sciences. Indeed, the unlearned and those who are ignorant of the subtleties of unbelieving science do not require a learned foundation of faith. By the testimony of parents and by common religious discipline they are fully convinced of the credibility of the faith. But the higher scientific erudition, the deeper also the motives of credibility reason requires, and the more frequent the communion with learned infidels, the more that saying of St. Peter urges: "Let us be always ready to give satisfaction (πρὸς ἀπολογίαν) to every one that asketh us a reason of that hope which is in us."⁵

Above all, however, of all men the theologian ought to be perfect in apologetics. This is evident both from the nature of theology and from the circumstances of our time.

For theology is the science of divine things drawn from revelation. Revelation is the principle and source of all theological truth. But since only apologetics proves the scientific certainty of revelation, theology without apologetics lacks a source, lacks a principle, lacks a foundation, lacks the character of a true science.

The circumstances of our time still further increase the necessity of the study of fundamental theology. Nearly all the enemies of the true religion today do not so much attack the individual dogmas of the faith as rather the very foundation of the faith. Modern men no longer call into doubt the individual truths which Christ preached and which the Church of Christ proposes; rather, they deny the very authority and infallibility of the Church, they deny the very divine legation and nature of Christ, they deny the very fact of revelation, not to say natural religion itself. Accordingly, we likewise must be wholly engaged in so establishing and defending these foundations of our faith on every side.