The New Apologia: A Definition and Its Characteristics

Abstract

The current form of apologia, which those within the milieu of the Department of Fundamental Theology and Philosophy at the Cardinal Stefan Wyszyński University in Warsaw have termed the “new apologia,” is a contemporary and extremely dynamic phenomenon that has been developing in a multifaceted way since the end of the twentieth century to the present time. The new apologia’s dynamic return dates back to 1990s and the particular characteristics of this type of defense include: engagement, timeliness, insight, a constant presence in the sphere of the media, originality of arguments, and intellectual achievements. The new apologia “occurs” on many levels today, but most notably in contentious areas such as man’s identity as it is expressed in subjectivity, historical memory, culture, rationality and bioethics, and, above all, the Christian faith, which has been subjected to various trends that intend to deconstruct it: anthropological reductionism, Christophobia, jihadism, secularization, secularism, and alethophobia.