The Secret Plan of God and the Imitation of God: Neglected Dimensions of Christian Differentiation in Ad Diognetum

• Autores: William Horst
• Localización: Journal of early Christian studies: Journal of the North American Patristic Society, ISSN 1067-6341, Nº. 2, 2019, págs. 161-183
• Idioma: inglés
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• Resumen

  • Ad Diognetum has been used in several recent studies as an example of the construction of Christians as an ethno-racial group in early Christian literature, and these studies typically focus on the peculiar citizenship described in Diogn. 5–6. This essay contends that the differentiation of Christians as a people in Ad Diognetum involves not only their peculiar citizenship, but also their participation in God's secret plan of salvation (Diogn. 7–9), and their imitation of God (Diogn. 10). These three elements of Christian particularity are not independent of one another, but are rather closely interrelated: Christians are peculiar because they live in accordance with the unexpected, all-at-once revelation of God's mercy and love in the coming of God's Son for the salvation of human beings; their peculiar yet exemplary behavior throughout the world constitutes their imitation of the mercy and love of God, the revelation of which they have been entrusted to steward. It follows that the construction of Christians as a peculiar ethno-racial group is a key theme throughout Ad Diognetum, and is more theocentric than has typically been recognized.