Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun The branch of theology that is concerned with defending or proving the truth of Christian doctrines.
  • noun Formal argumentation in defense of something, such as a position or system.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun That branch of demonstrative or argumentative theology which is concerned with the grounds and defense of Christian belief and hope.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun That branch of theology which defends the Holy Scriptures, and sets forth the evidence of their divine authority.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun The field of study concerned with the systematic defense of a position, or of religious or occult doctrines

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun the branch of theology that is concerned with the defense of Christian doctrines

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Late Latin apologia, from Ancient Greek ἀπολογία (apologia, "a speech in defense"), from ἀπολογοῦμαι (apologoumai, "I speak in one's defense"), from ἀπόλογος (apologos, "an account, story"), from ἀπό (apo, "from, off") (see apo-) + λόγος (logos, "speech").

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