Tertullian
In the year 197, a man named Tertullian stood before the magistrates of Carthage and declared that Christians were not born but made. This statement marked a sudden break in his life as he converted to Christianity after years of studying Roman law. He was a scholar with an excellent education who wrote at least three books in Koine Greek before turning to Latin. His native land was Africa, specifically the city of Carthage where orators were famous for their glowing imagery and passionate temper. Some sources describe him as Berber while others suggest Punic origin because the heritage of Carthage had become common to the Berbers. Jerome claimed that Tertullian's father held the position of centurio proconsularis in the Roman army in Africa. Tertullian has been claimed to have been a trained lawyer based on his use of legal analogies in his writings. Yet his legal knowledge does not demonstrably exceed what could be expected from a sufficient Roman education. In his extant writings, he never describes himself as ordained in the church and seems to place himself among the laity.
Thirty-one works are extant together with fragments of more than fifteen lost works including De Paradiso which existed in 814 AD within the Codex Agobardinus. Tertullian was the first Christian author to produce an extensive corpus of Latin Christian literature and became known as the father of Latin Christianity. His writings cover the whole theological field of the time including apologetics against paganism and Judaism, polemics, polity, discipline, and morals. Like other early Christian writers Tertullian used the term paganus to mean civilian as a contrast to the soldiers of Christ. The motif of Miles Christi did not assume the literal meaning of participation in war until Church doctrines justifying Christian participation in battle were developed around the 5th century. In the 2nd-century writings of Tertullian, paganus meant a civilian who was lacking self-discipline. He wrote Apologeticus addressed to the Roman magistrates as a most pungent defense of Christianity and the Christians against the reproaches of the pagans. This work proclaimed the principle of freedom of religion as an inalienable human right and demanded a fair trial for Christians before they are condemned to death. He was the first to disprove charges that Christians sacrificed infants at the celebration of the Lord's Supper and committed incest.
Tertullian is perhaps most famous for being the first writer in Latin known to use the term trinity or trinitas in his treatise against Praxeas. He used the words trinity economy persons and substance maintaining the distinction of the Son from the Father as the unoriginate God. These three are one substance not one person according to his writing in chapter xxv of Adversus Praxeam. The very names Father and Son indicate the distinction of personality yet he says the Son is not other as a result of receiving a portion of the Father's substance. At times speaking of the Father and the Son Tertullian refers to two gods while noting that all things of the Father belong also to the Son including his names such as Almighty God Most High Lord of Hosts or King of Israel. Though Tertullian considered the Father to be God Yahweh he responded to criticism of the Modalist Praxeas that this meant that Tertullian's Christianity was not monotheistic by noting that even though there was one God the Son could also be referred to as God when referred to apart from the Father. The Catholic Encyclopedia comments that for Tertullian There was a time when there was no Son and no sin when God was neither Father nor Judge.
In his middle life about 207 Tertullian was attracted to the New Prophecy of Montanism but today most scholars reject the assertion that Tertullian left the mainstream church or was excommunicated. Jerome said that Tertullian lived to old age and joined the Montanist sect and may have apostasized however modern scholars dispute this. We are left to ask whether Saint Cyprian could have regarded Tertullian as his master if Tertullian had been a notorious schismatic since no ancient writer was more definite on this subject of schism than Saint Cyprian. In the time of Augustine a group of Tertullianists still had a basilica in Carthage which within the same period passed to the orthodox church. It is unclear whether the name was merely another for the North African Montanists or that it means that Tertullian later split with the Montanists and founded his own group. The extent and nature of Tertullian's involvement to Montanism is now disputed by modern scholars because Montanism in North Africa seems to have been a counter-reaction against secularism. The form of Montanism in North Africa seems to have differed from the views of Montanus and thus the North African Montanists believed Catholic bishops to be successors of the apostles.
Tertullian declared a Christian should abstain from the theatre and the amphitheatre where pagan religious rites were applied and the names of pagan divinities invoked. Women should put aside their gold and precious stones as ornaments according to De cultu section v-vi while virgins should conform to the law of St Paul for women and keep themselves strictly veiled. He praised the unmarried state as the highest in De monogamia chapter xvii and Ad uxorem i.3 calling upon Christians not to allow themselves to be excelled in the virtue of celibacy by Vestal Virgins and Egyptian priests. He even labeled second marriage a species of adultery in De exhortatione castitatis ix but this directly contradicted the Epistles of the Apostle Paul. His resolve to never marry again and that no one else should remarry eventually led to his break with Rome because the orthodox church refused to follow him in this resolve. Do you not know that you are Eve? The judgment of God upon this sex lives on in this age therefore necessarily the guilt should live on also according to De Cultum Feminarum section I.I part 2. Tertullian has been criticised as misogynistic on the basis of these contents though revisionist studies later rehabilitated him.
The earliest manuscript handwritten copy of any of Tertullian's works dates to the eighth century but most are of the fifteenth. There are five main collections of Tertullian's works known as the Cluniacense Corbeiense Trecense Agobardinum and Ottobonianus. Some of Tertullian's works are lost including all the manuscripts of the Corbeiense collection which survives only in early printed editions. Tertullian's writings are edited in volumes 1-2 of the Patrologia Latina while modern texts exist in the Corpus Christianorum Latinorum. English translations by Sydney Thelwall and Philip Holmes can be found in volumes III and IV of the Ante-Nicene Fathers which are freely available online. More modern translations of some of the works have been made since the original publication. The popular Passio sanctae Perpetuae et Felicitatis much of it presented as the personal diary of Perpetua was once assumed to have been edited by Tertullian but that view is no longer widely held. The work is usually published separately from Tertullian's own works because its actual author remains uncertain.
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Common questions
When was Tertullian born and where did he live?
Tertullian lived from approximately 155 to 220 AD in the city of Carthage on the African continent. His native land was Africa specifically the city of Carthage where orators were famous for their glowing imagery and passionate temper.
What legal background did Tertullian have before converting to Christianity?
Some sources claim Tertullian was a trained lawyer based on his use of legal analogies in his writings while others suggest his knowledge only exceeded what could be expected from a sufficient Roman education. Jerome claimed that Tertullian's father held the position of centurio proconsularis in the Roman army in Africa.
Why is Tertullian known as the father of Latin Christianity?
Tertullian was the first Christian author to produce an extensive corpus of Latin Christian literature and became known as the father of Latin Christianity. He wrote at least three books in Koine Greek before turning to Latin and covered the whole theological field of the time including apologetics against paganism and Judaism.
How did Tertullian define the term trinity in his treatise against Praxeas?
Tertullian is perhaps most famous for being the first writer in Latin known to use the term trinity or trinitas in his treatise against Praxeas. He used the words trinity economy persons and substance maintaining the distinction of the Son from the Father as the unoriginate God.
What happened to Tertullian during his middle life around 207 AD?
In his middle life about 207 Tertullian was attracted to the New Prophecy of Montanism but today most scholars reject the assertion that Tertullian left the mainstream church or was excommunicated. Jerome said that Tertullian lived to old age and joined the Montanist sect and may have apostasized however modern scholars dispute this.