There's lots of gold in the apologies (defenses of the faith) of the early church. Live like exiles, dear friends.

Epistle to Diognetus, 5:1-17 (c. 200 AD)
"For Christians are no different from other people in terms of their country, language, or customs. Nowhere do they inhabit cities of their own, use a strange dialect, or live life out of the ordinary. They have not discovered this teaching of theirs through reflection or through the thought of meddlesome people, nor do they set forth any human doctrine, as some do. They inhabit both Greek and barbarian cities, according to the lot assigned to each. And they show forth the character of their own citizenship in a marvelous and admittedly paradoxical way by following local customs in what they wear and what they eat and in the rest of their lives.

They marry like everyone else and have children, but they do not expose them once they are born. They share their meals but not their sexual partners. They are found in the flesh but do not live according to the flesh. They live on earth but participate in the life of heaven. They are obedient to the laws that have been made, and by their own lives they supersede the laws. They love everyone and are persecuted by all. They are not understood and they are condemned. They are put to death and made alive. They are impoverished and make many rich. They lack all things and abound in everything. They are dishonored and they are exalted in their dishonors.

They live in their respective countries, but only as resident aliens; they participate in all things as citizens, and they endure all things as foreigners. Every foreign territory is a homeland for them, every homeland foreign territory.

They are slandered and they are acquitted. They are reviled and they bless, mistreated and they bestow honor. They do good and are punished as evil; when they are punished they rejoice as those who have been made alive. They are attacked by Jews as foreigners and persecuted by Greeks. And those who hate them cannot explain the cause of their enmity."

#OTD in 1926.

C. S. Lewis and J. R. R. Tolkien first meet in Oxford.

Both men served on the English faculty at Oxford University and were active in the informal Oxford literary group known as the Inklings. The Inklings were literary enthusiasts who praised the value of narrative in fiction and encouraged the writing of fantasy.

C.S. Lewis at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/782

J.R.R. Tolkien at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/42379

#books #literature

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