In American Culture, But Not of It

What would the Letter to Diognetus say today?

This January I’m teaching Bethel’s Christianity and Western Culture course for the second of three consecutive terms. Because of this month’s compressed three-week format,¹ we’re already on the verge of our midterm exam. But before I leave our unit on Early Christianity behind, I thought I’d share with readers a question I asked students.

What would the Letter (or Epistle) to Diognetus say today, if addressed to an American interested in Christianity?

Written sometime in the mid-to-late 2nd century AD, this text gives us a nice model of early Christian apologetics. Not an attempt at an apology as we mean the word in contemporary English, but an effort to make the case for Christianity to a Greek-speaking, Roman-ruled world that was often skeptical or hostile to the faith… or, in this case, curious and confused about it.

We don’t know much about the unnamed author or the named recipient. Whether Diognetus was a historical person or an archetype for a Roman seeker who is “extremely interested in learning about the religion of the Christians,” the letter’s anonymous writer “gladly welcomes this interest of yours” and asks God’s help in answering Diognetus’ “very clear and careful questions.”

Here’s some further context courtesy of

Michael F. Bird

, who goes into more depth about the letter’s theology.

I often have students think about the letter in this way: If Diognetus were convinced to convert to Christianity, what would he have to give up from his pre-Christian life… and what could (even should) he continue to do without interruption?

First, a Christian Diognetus would have to reject the contemptible false gods of the Roman world. Rather than bowing down to items fabricated from perishable stuff — e.g., wood (“already rotted away”), iron (“corroded by rust”), and silver (“which needs a watchman to guard it lest it be stolen”), he would commit to worship and serve the invisible God made visible in Jesus Christ.

As a result, Christian Diognetus — sometimes suspected of being a Roman official or other elite — would risk losing status, power, and even his liberty or life, for unjust causes that produce unlikely effects. Christians, warns the author, “love everyone, and by everyone they are persecuted… When they do good, they are punished as evildoers.” Yet dishonor brings them glory; punishment, joy; and death, life.²

None of which should make Christians abandon the world around them.