The Unique Quality of Christians

In an early Christian document known as the Epistle to Diognetus (c. A.D. 120-200), the author wrote a response to some propaganda circulating in the Roman Empire. People had spread false rumors about the Christians, saying that they were a dangerous, secret society filled with bizarre behavior. People were saying slanderous things about Christians, such as they practiced cannibalism (because during Communion they ate the “body and the blood of Jesus”). The epistle is believed to have been written by a man named Athenagoras. In one important section the author describes how Christians are…