Ante-Nicene Fathers (Volume 2) - VI - 'Writings of Athenagoras' commenced

Required reading
Ante-Nicene Fathers (Volume 2) (Available from Amazon or free here) - Commence the 'Writings of Athenagoras' by reading 'A plea for the Christians'.

My summary
Today we begin the writings of Athenagoras by reading 'A plea for the Christians'.

This work is much like previous apologetic writings we've read so far from the Fathers: it defends Christianity and attacks Greek theology.

Thus Athenagoras speaks about:
(i) the injustice shown towards Christians because the charges of atheism and immorality are false;
(ii) the validity of Christian beliefs in relation to the Greek poets, Greek philosophers and the Christian Bible (for example, the validity of the doctrine of God's oneness);
(iii) the immorality of Greek gods.

What grabbed me
Abortion received a mention today when Athenagoras was speaking about Christianity's opposition to murder: 'For when they know that we cannot endure even to see a man put to death, though justly; who of them can accuse us of murder or cannibalism? Who does not reckon among the things of greatest interest the contests of gladiators and wild beasts, especially those which are given by you? But we, deeming that to see a man put to death is much the same as killing him, have abjured such spectacles. How, then, when we do not even look on, lest we should contract guilt and pollution, can we put people to death? And when we say that those women who use drugs to bring on abortion commit murder, and will have to give an account to God for the abortion, on what principle should we commit murder? For it does not belong to the same person to regard the very fœtus in the womb as a created being, and therefore an object of God’s care, and when it has passed into life, to kill it; and not to expose an infant, because those who expose them are chargeable with child-murder, and on the other hand, when it has been reared to destroy it. But we are in all things always alike and the same, submitting ourselves to reason, and not ruling over it. '

Christian opposition to abortion has a long history.

Next week's reading
Conclude the 'Writings of Athenagoras' by reading 'The treatise of Athenagoras'.

Now it's your turn
Please post your own notes and thoughts in the comments section below.