THE PROCLAMATION of Christ crucified and glorified was foolishness to sensible Gentiles and scandal to many pious Jews of the first century. How could the early Christians communicate the good news to people from various cultures and at the same time defend themselves against numerous charges of immoral and seditious conduct?

In this revised edition of his earlier study, F. F. Bruce asserts that the main lines of this defense (apologia) are laid out in the New Testament.

The spread of the gospel was threatened first by the Jewish community's failure to recognize Jesus as Messiah. Bruce con- tends that Stephen's defense and Paul's argument in Romans 9-11 were designed specifically to confront this difficulty. Chris- tian witness faced several other obstacles, which Bruce dis- cusses in successive chapters: the gospel and paganism idolatry and sophisticated philosophical forms of unbelief; the gospel and the Roman Empire- allegiance to the secular order; and the gospel and forms of heresy legalism, gnosticism, and docetism. In the concluding chapter, Bruce examines the finality of the gospel, the claim that Christianity is qualitatively different from every other religion so that it alone stands in judgment on them.

Thoroughly conversant with the text and the cultural- historical milieu of the New Testament, Professor Bruce has written a study remarkable for its clarity and genuine insight into familiar New Testament passages. As an illuminating over- view of the practice of early Christian apologists, it points to ways in which the defense should be conducted today. Never merely polemical, the ultimate purpose of Christian apologia is to commend Jesus Christ as Saviour to the world.