[Disclaimer: this review was written some time after my completion of the book. Please judge accordingly.]

This book contains two apologies for Christianity from the mid-second century, written by Justin Martyr. The impetus for this lay not just in their persecution, but in the slanders against them: that they defied the authority of the divine emperors, practiced cannibalism, and held shocking and bizarre beliefs. We have records of such accusations in Pliny the Younger’s letters and Tacitus’ Histories, so this is neither mired in a persecution complex nor a misrepresentation of the opposition’s views; as a result, it’s difficult to imagine even the greatest critics of Christianity taking issue with the objections of apologists like Origen and Tertullian, in whose tradition Justin Martyr follows.

Of particular interest to me was Justin’s defence that the Christians’ worship of God is really no different than what the Romans believed about Jupiter, a very surprising comment and yet one mirrored by Paul in the Acts, who makes the same defence to some Greeks about God and Zeus. Most Christians would presumably raise their eyebrows at such a comparison today. I think it’s revealing of the difference in thought between the earliest Christians and those living today and how much more fluid Christian perspectives were at the time, as well as the development of Christianity in the shadow of paganism, where nowadays it is the reverse.

Compared to a lot of later oratory and philosophy, Justin is refreshingly straightforward and very accessible to the modern reader, even without much contextual understanding. Although the actual prose is not outstanding, his argumentation is objectively sound and his oratory persuasive and not overly partisan to the other side (it has certainly aged better than some of Tacitus’ vitriol). He transmits less arrogance than Cicero and Apuleius, perhaps because he’s aware of coming from a position of relative powerlessness compared to the authorities he addresses. It’s quite amazing to contrast that with the immense power the church holds today, alongside the powerful and enduring influence of the church fathers.