Journal: Eikon
Volume: EIKON 05:1 (Spring 2023)
Article: A Return To Counter-Cultural Sexuality
Author: Jonathan E. Swan

Eikon 5.1 (Spring 2023) p. 6

A Return To Counter-Cultural Sexuality

Jonathan E. Swan

The sexual ethic of the second-century Roman Empire bears some semblance to today’s sexual revolutionary era. Sexual promiscuity (especially among men), which included not only heterosexual and homosexual acts, but also pederasty, was considered a societal good. With very few limiting principles, Roman culture encouraged this pursuit of (mostly male) sexual pleasure.1

Today, nearly every aspect of our culture is sexualized. Whereas ancient public spaces were filled with sexual images, today we encounter them on television (or streaming), on the internet, and often in public spaces (try going to a shopping mall without seeing them). While Hollywood deserves credit for being the most persuasive purveyor of today’s secular ethic, America’s new sexual religion pervades its educational institutions, public libraries, sports, and the market. And with the exception of consent, little to no limiting principles constrain modern sexual practices.

As Western culture’s sexual ethic regresses into the forms of paganism known in the second century, the church finds itself with an opportunity once again to bear a powerful, counter-cultural witness. Record of the early church’s counter-cultural witness has been preserved in an anonymous letter written by an unknown Christian apologist to an unknown person named Diogentus.2

The letter to Diognetus is one of the earliest works of Christian apologetics. This ancient defense of Christianity contrasts Christian belief and worship with Graeco-Roman polytheism and Judaism. It

Eikon 5.1 (Spring 2023) p. 7

conveys a stirring image of the Christian way of life in the face of hostility and explains the origins of Christianity with the appearance of Christ, inviting its recipient, Diognetus, to believe and experience the joy of life in communion with God.

Similar, Yet Different

In the course of the letter, the Apologist who wrote this historical letter to Diognetus seeks to distinguish Christians from its Pagan and Jewish neighbors. What was it that made them different? To truly understand these differences, the Apologist elegantly explains the ways in which Christians lived similarly to their neighbors. Thus, while it was apparent that Christians held drastically different religious beliefs, the Apologist explains that despite these differences, Christians embodied ordinary life the same as everyone else. Christians thus

neither inhabit cities of their own, nor employ a peculiar form of speech, nor lead a life which is marked out by any singularity. T...