The Church And The World

So long as chiliastic expectations were the basis of the Christian's hope

and his judgment of the order of this present world, the Christian felt

that he was but a stranger and sojourner in the world, and that his real

home was the kingdom of Christ, soon to be established here on earth. With

such a view the Christian would naturally define his relation to the world

as being in it, yet not of it. As time passed, the opinion became ore

common that the kingdom of Christ was not a future world-order to be set

up on His return, but the Church here on earth. This thought, which is the

key to the City of God by St. Augustine, was not to be found in the

first century and a half of the Church.





Ep. ad Diognetum, 5, 6.





The Epistle to Diognetus is one of the choicest pieces of

ante-Nicene literature. Although it is commonly included among the

Apostolic Fathers, the date is uncertain, it is anonymous, and the

reason for its inclusion is not clear. The weight of opinion is in

favor of an early date. It was preserved in but one manuscript,

which was unfortunately destroyed in 1870. The main themes of the

epistle are the faith and manners of the Christians, and an

attempt to explain the late appearance of Christianity in the

world. The work, therefore, is of the nature of an apology, and

should be compared with The Apology of Aristides. A translation

of the epistle may be found in ANF, I, 23.





Ch. 5. The Christians are distinguished from other men neither by country,

nor language, nor the customs which they observe. For they neither inhabit

cities of their own, nor employ a peculiar form of speech, nor lead a life

which is marked out by any singularity. The course of conduct which they

follow has not been devised by any speculation or deliberation of

inquisitive men; nor do they, like some, proclaim themselves the advocates

of any merely human doctrines. But, inhabiting Greek as well as barbarian

cities, according as the lot of each of them has been determined, and

following the customs of the natives in respect to clothing, food, and the

rest of their ordinary conduct, they display to us their wonderful and

confessedly striking method of life. 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 country

is to them as their native land, and every land of their birth as a land

of strangers. They marry as do all; they beget children; but they do not

commit abortion. 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 they are the citizens of heaven. They obey the prescribed

laws, and at the same time surpass the laws by their lives. They love all

men, and are persecuted by all. They are unknown and condemned; they are

put to death and restored to life. They are poor, yet they make many rich;

they are in lack of all things, and yet abound in all. They are

dishonored, and yet in their very dishonor are glorified. They are

evil-spoken of, and yet are justified. They are reviled and bless; they

are insulted and repay insult with honor; they do good, yet are punished

as evil-doers. When punished they rejoice as if quickened into life; they

are assailed by the Jews as foreigners and are persecuted by the Greeks;

yet those who hate them are unable to assign a reason for their hatred.



Ch. 6. What the soul is in the body, that the Christians are in the world.

The soul is spread through all the members of the body, and Christians

through the cities of the world. The soul dwells in the body, but is not

of the body; so Christians dwell in the world, but they are not of the

world. The invisible soul is guarded in the visible body; so Christians

are known as existing in the world, but their religion remains invisible.

The flesh hates the soul and wages war on it, though it has received no

wrong, because it is forbidden to indulge in pleasures; so the world hates

Christians, though it receives no wrong from them, because they are

opposed to its pleasures. The soul loves the flesh which hates it, and it

loves the members; so Christians love those who hate them. The soul is

enclosed in the body, yet itself holds the body together; so the

Christians are kept in the world as in a prison-house, yet they themselves

hold the world together. The immortal soul dwells in a mortal tabernacle;

so Christians sojourn amid corruptible things, looking for the

incorruptibility in the heavens. The soul when hardly treated in the

matter of meats and drinks is improved; so Christians when punished

increase more and more daily. In so great an office has God appointed

them, which it is not lawful for them to decline.