Epistle To Diognetus

An anonymous work, sometimes attributed to Quadratus or Pantaenus. Though written in the late second century, it is never mentioned in antiquity or in the Middle Ages; it was preserved with the works of Justin Martyr in a single manuscript which was burned at Strasbourg in 1870 in the Franco-Prussian War. The epistle invites a certain Diognetus to consider the superiority of Christianity to paganism and Judaism. It seeks to answer three questions: What is the nature of Christian worship and how does it differ from other forms of worship? What is the nature of Christian charity? Why has Christianity appeared so late in human history? While the style is good, the argumentation and apologetic are not very profound. The last two chapters (11 and 12) almost certainly come from a later hand-perhaps that of Hippolytus.