Christian

The name "Christian" is the term by which believers in Christ are called. The word carries with it a question — what kind of people are these, and on what grounds do they live? — and the surviving early Christian witness gathered under this name addresses it in two registers: a New Testament epistle that names suffering as a Christian and an early apologetic that opens with the question and answers it at length.

Suffering as a Christian

Where a believer endures persecution under the name itself, the response is unembarrassed: "but if [a man suffers] as a Christian, let him not be ashamed; but let him glorify God in this respect." (1Pe 4:16). The name is occasion for glorifying God, not for shame.

What the Christians are

The early apology opens with the catechetical question: who are these Christians, and what is distinctive about them? "Since I see, most excellent Diognetus, that you are exceedingly eager to learn the godliness of the Christians, and are inquiring concerning them very clearly and diligently: In what God do they trust, and in what way do they worship him, that they all scorn the world and despise death? Why do they neither esteem those gods regarded by the Greeks, nor keep the superstition of the Jews? What tender affection do they bear to one another, and why did this new race or practice enter into life now and not before?" (Gr 1:1).

Their refusal to honor the gods of the Greeks is named as the cause of hatred against them: "For this cause you⁺ hate the Christians, because they do not count these gods." (Gr 2:6). And the freedom they claim is freedom from slavery to those gods — a freedom argued at length and then summarily set aside as established: "In regard then, to the freedom of Christians from being enslaved to such gods, I would have many other things to say; but if, to any, these do not seem sufficient, I count it superfluous to say more." (Gr 2:10).

Their godliness is set apart equally from Greek and Jewish patterns, and is held as a mystery not learned from man: "I think, therefore, that you have sufficiently learned that the Christians rightly abstain from the frivolity and deceit common [to both], and from the meddling and vainglory of the Jews. But do not expect to be able to learn the mystery of their own godliness from man." (Gr 4:6).

Distinguished from the rest of men

The Christians are not a national or linguistic body: "For the Christians are distinguished from the rest of men neither by country, nor by language, nor by customs." (Gr 5:1). They live where they were placed: "For they neither dwell in cities of their own, nor use any unusual dialect, nor lead a conspicuous life." (Gr 5:2). And they display their own citizenship from inside the ordinary life of the cities: "But, dwelling in Greek and barbarian cities, as the lot fell to each, and following the customs of the land, in clothing, diet, and the remaining manner of life, they display the marvelous and admittedly strange character of their own citizenship." (Gr 5:4).

Soul in the body

The clearest figure for what the Christians are in the world is the soul in the body. "But to speak simply: what the soul is in the body, Christians are in the world." (Gr 6:1). Like the soul, they are present everywhere in their setting: "For the soul is sown through all the members of the body; and Christians through the cities of the world." (Gr 6:2). Their visibility and their godliness do not coincide: "The invisible soul is guarded in a visible body; and Christians are known to be in the world, but their godliness remains invisible." (Gr 6:4). They are held in the world and at the same time hold it together: "The soul is locked up in the body, but holds the body together; and Christians are kept in the world, as it were in ward, yet hold the world together." (Gr 6:7). And the figure runs through to suffering: "The soul when ill-treated in meats and drinks is made better; and Christians when punished increase the more day by day." (Gr 6:9).