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Christain baptism depicted in an early fresco.
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hat the soul is in the body, that are Christians in the world. --Author
unknown. Epistle to Diognetus (about AD 130)
It's one of the gems of early Christian writings and we have no idea
who wrote it. The addressee, Diognetus, was carefully investigating Christianity.
The letter shows how the church had to explain itself as a new movement
to a suspicious and often hostile pagan world. The Church, although an
insignificantly small percentage of the population, saw itself as a soul-like
instrument of God to bring healing and hope to the world. The writer is
audacious to describe believers as a "third race" (after pagans and Jews)
or a "new race."
The epistle goes on to give an invaluable description of the early believers
in the second century: They dwell in their own countries but simply as
sojourners. As citizens, they share in all things with others, and yet
endure all things as if foreigners. Every foreign land is to them as their
native country, and every land of their birth as a land of strangers.
They marry, as do others; they beget children; but they do not destroy
their offspring. They have a common table but not a common bed. They are
in the flesh, but they do not live after the flesh. They pass their days
on earth, but are citizens of heaven. They obey the prescribed laws, and
at the same time surpass the laws in their lives. They love all, and are
persecuted by all... They are poor, yet they make many rich; they are
completely destitute, and yet they enjoy complete abundance. . . They
are reviled, and yet they bless...When they do good they are punished
as evildoers; undergoing punishment, they rejoice because they are brought
to life.
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