A defense before the emperor
Justin's First Apology
Justin Martyr does something no Christian had done before him: he addresses the emperor directly.
His First Apology is written to Antoninus Pius, the emperor of Rome, and to his sons. Justin knows perfectly well that the emperor will probably not read it. But the act of writing it — of treating the accusations against Christians as answerable, of insisting that Christians deserve a fair hearing before the most powerful court in the world — is itself a kind of declaration.
We are not what they say we are, Justin writes. We do not eat children. We do not commit incest. We are not atheists — we simply refuse to worship gods who are not gods. We serve the one who made everything, who cannot be contained in a temple or bribed with a sacrifice.
He describes Christian worship in detail: the reading of the memoirs of the apostles, the sermon, the prayers, the bread and wine. He is the first person outside the New Testament to describe the Sunday liturgy in full.
He quotes the Hebrew prophets and shows how Jesus fulfilled them. He argues that the best of Greek philosophy — Plato's Logos, the rational principle behind all things — was pointing toward the same truth the Christians had found in Jesus. Not that Plato was Christian, but that reason itself was moving toward what Christ completed.
And then he makes a direct appeal: stop executing people for their name alone. Try them for crimes. If they have done wrong, punish them. But if the only charge is the name Christian, that is not justice.
The executions continued. But Justin had established that the faith could argue for itself in the public square — and that it was not afraid to try.
“We have been taught that God has no need of the material offerings which men can give, seeing that he himself is the provider of all things. We have been taught, and we are convinced, and we believe that he accepts those only who imitate the excellences which reside in him.”
— Justin Martyr, First Apology, c. 155 AD
“But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts: and always be ready to give an answer to everyone who asks you a reason concerning the hope that is in you, with humility and fear:”
Justin did not retreat from the empire's hostility. He walked into it with an argument.
He did not assume the emperor was beyond reason. He assumed the truth was strong enough to be spoken directly to power — that the gospel did not need protection from scrutiny, only a fair hearing.
The church has sometimes hidden from the world's questions and sometimes run toward them. Justin represents the best of the second tradition — the belief that faith is not fragile, that it can stand in the middle of the hardest questions the world can ask, and hold.
What question about your faith are you most afraid to engage? That is probably the one most worth sitting down with.