Nonetheless, popular favor for icons guaranteed their continued existence, while no systematic apologia for or against icons, or doctrinal authorization or condemnation of icons yet existed.
This snivelling attempt at apologia is actually a good description of the personality-free, dismal, feeble, putrid, mass of people who are egalitarian because it's a step up for them, socially.
An apologia entails the speaker publicly expressing remorse for wrong-doing; likewise, the function of the non-apology apology is that the speaker admits no wrong-doing.