Apologist (The Fathers of the Church, Volume 73)

Apologist is the English translation of two of Chrysostom's
treatises, written about 378 and 382, aimed at provoking the divinity
of Jesus Christ. In Discourse in Blessed Babylas and Against the Greeks,
Chrysostom responds to specific attacks on Christianity by such
philosophers as Porphyry, using historical narrative and the arguments
of fulfilled prophecies to prove Christ's divinity. Chrysostom relates
the story of St. Babylas, bishop and martyr, who defended the Church
against an evil emperor and whose relics produced sobriety at Daphne and
silenced the oracle of Apollo. Although a product of Christianized
sophistic rhetoric, the discourse on Babylas furnishes interesting new
material on the development of the veneration of relics and church-state
relations in the third and fourth centuries. Schatkin's translation is
based on her critical edition prepared for Sources Chrétiennes. The Demonstration Against the Pagans that Christ Is God
is one of Chrysostom's earlier works and one of his basic contributions
to apologetics. Chrysostom argues for Christ's divinity in the
fulfillment of Old Testament prophecies and in Christ's own
prophecies--particularly those on the phenomenal growth of the
Church--to provide proof of a power that can be only divine. Harkins'
translation is based on the unpublished critical edition of Norman G.
McKendrick.