Theological Term of the Week: Justin Martyr
Thursday, March 4, 2021 at 2:30AM 
Justin Martyr
The “greatest of the 2nd Century [Christian] apologists.”1 In about AD 165, he was executed in Rome for being a Christian.
- From 2000 Years of Christ’s Power by N. H. Needham:
In his writings, Justin tried to show that all the truths which the Greek philosophers, particularly the Platonists, had been striving to understand were now perfectly revealed in Christianity. To demonstrate this, Justin described Christ as the Logos… . Logos was a term which Greek philosophers used to refer to the eternal principle of Reason that gives order and meaning to the universe. Philosophers saw the Logos standing half-way between God and creation; God was too distant and perfect to have any immediate contact with the universe, but He could deal with it indirectly through His Logos. According to Justin, this eternal Logos or Reason was Christ himself before He became flesh as Jesus of Nazareth… . So instead of setting the Christian faith and Greek philosophy against each other, Justin believed that Christianity was the fulfilment of Greek philosophy. The philosophers had only seen parts of the jigsaw: Christianity gave the complete picture.
Learn more:
- Got Questions: Who was Justin Martyr?
- Christian History: Justin Martyr
- Doug Geivett: Justin Martyr: The First Apologist of the Christian Church
- Justin Martyr: Dialogue with Trypho
- Justin Martyr: How We Christians Worship
Related terms:
- Ambrose of Milan
- Apollinarius
- Athanasius
- Augustine of Hippo
- Basil of Caesarea
- Cappadocian fathers
- Columba
- Cyril of Alexandria
- Gregory of Nanzianzus
- Gregory of Nyssa
- Gregory the Great
- Hilary of Poitiers
- Irenaeus of Lyons
- Jerome
- John Chrysostom
- Maximus the Confessor
- Monica
- Nestorius
- Origen
- Patrick
- Pelagius
- Sabellius
- Tertullian
- Venerable Bede, The
1From 2000 Years of Christ’s Power by N. R. Needham.
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