Tertullian (c. AD 160 - 225) was one of the first theologians of the Western Church & ranks among the most prominent of the early Latin fathers. His wide-ranging literary output offers a valuable insight into the Christian Church at a crucial stage in its development.

WE are accustomed, for the purpose of shortening argument, to lay down the rule against heretics of the lateness of their date. For in as far as by our rule, priority is given to the truth, which also foretold that there would be heresies, in so far must all later opinions be prejudged as heresies, being such as were, by the more ancient rule of truth, predicted as (one day) to happen. Now, the doctrine of Hermogenes has this taint of novelty. He is, in short, a man living in the world at the present time; by his very nature a heretic, and turbulent withal, who mistakes loquacity for eloquence, and supposes impudence to be firmness, and judges it to be the duty of a good conscience to speak ill of individuals. Moreover, he despises God’s law in his painting, maintaining repeated marriages, alleges the law of God in defence of lust, and yet despises it in respect of his art. He falsities by a twofold process—with his cautery and his pen. He is a thorough adulterer, both doctrinally and carnally, since he is rank indeed with the contagion of your marriage-hacks, and has also failed in cleaving to the rule of faith as much as the apostle’s own Hermogenes. However, never mind the man, when it is his doctrine which I question. He does not appear to acknowledge any other Christ as Lord, though he holds Him in a different way; but by this difference in his faith he really makes Him another being,—nay, he takes from Him everything which is God, since he will not have it that He made all things of nothing. For, turning away from Christians to the philosophers, from the Church to the Academy and the Porch, he learned there from the Stoics how to place Matter (on the same level) with the Lord, just as if it too had existed ever both unborn and unmade, having no beginning at all nor end, out of which, according to him, the Lord afterwards created all things.

Who was Tertullian, and what can we know about him? This work explores his social identities, focusing on his North African milieu. Theories from the discipline of social/cultural anthropology, including kinship, class and ethnicity, are accommodated and applied to selections of Tertullian’s writings. In light of postcolonial concerns, this study utilizes the categories of Roman colonizers, indigenous Africans and new elites. The third category, new elites, is actually intended to destabilize the other two, denying any “essential” Roman or African identity. Thereafter, samples from Tertullian’s writings serve to illustrate comparisons of his own identities and the identities of his rhetorical opponents. The overall study finds Tertullian’s identities to be manifold, complex and discursive. Additionally, his writings are understood to reflect antagonism toward Romans, including Christian Romans (which is significant for his so-called Montanism), and Romanized Africans. While Tertullian accommodates much from Graeco-Roman literature, laws and customs, he nevertheless retains a strongly stated non-Roman-ness and an African-ity, which is highlighted in the present monograph.

Was Tertullian of Cathage a schismatic? How did he view the church and its bishops? How did he understand the exercise of authority within the church? In this study David Rankin sets the writings of Tertullian in the context of the early third century church and the developments it was undergoing in relation to both its structures and its self-understanding. He then discusses Tertullian's own theology of the church, his imagery and his perception of church office and ministry. Tertullian maintained throughout his career a high view of the church, and this in part constituted the motivation for his vitriolic attacks on the church's hierarchy after he had joined the New Prophecy movement. His contribution to the development of the church has often been misunderstood, and this thorough exploration provides a timely reassessment of its nature and importance.

“Wealth without work Pleasure without conscience Science without humanity Knowledge without character Politics without principle Commerce without morality Worship without sacrifice. https://vidjambov.blogspot.com/2023/01/book-inventory-vladimir-djambov-talmach.html Apologetic Activity The time of Tertullian's ministry was a time of the most difficult trials for the Church. Christians were persecuted, they were hated, humiliated, beaten, tortured, tortured, killed. And Tertullian, sparing no energy, fearing neither scammers, nor judges, nor tormentors and executioners, spoke out in defense of Christianity so resolutely that it remains to be astonished how, in his entire life, he never ended up in prison and torture. And this despite the fact that he did not hide from persecution, but, as if challenging them, turned to the offenders in the most harsh, rough, and sometimes offensive words. Thus, he called the persecutors of the Church fierce ignoramuses, defilers of holy things; ridiculed pagan cults and mysteries, stigmatized idols and idols; threatened with the Judgment of God's Truth, the cup of God's wrath. At the same time, his apologetic works were filled with clear theological and logical argumentation. In times of persecution, it often happened that Christians were not killed immediately after being exposed as belonging to the Church, but were subjected to terrible beatings and torture, wanting to force them to publicly renounce Christ, to offer sacrifices to pagan gods, and to be defiled with sacrificial blood. Categorically objecting to such violence, Tertullian explained to the executioners that if the pagan gods existed in reality, then they would be pleased not with feigned, but with voluntary sacrifices, unless, of course, their gods were litigious. In addition, as a means of protection, he often used provisions from the field of law (this was reflected in his good legal preparedness). Calling on common sense, Tertullian noticed that criminals are tortured not so that they refuse to be involved in atrocities, but in order to give truthful confessions, rather than confess to their crimes. Christians, on the contrary, are tortured with the aim that they refuse to call themselves Christians: that is, they refuse to recognize themselves as criminals and guilty of breaking the law. He saw this as absurd. Tertullian countered the accusations of Christians of violating moral norms, hatred of power, including the emperor, with arguments that refuted the arguments of the accusing party, explained and showed that not Christians, but pagans themselves lead a vicious life, incite hatred in society; Christians are in love and prayer. In addition to defending Christianity from pagans, Tertullian also defended it from attacks by Jewish fanatics. ... Creative Legacy Tertullian left behind a large number of writings. Some of them, such as: Apologetics, To the Gentiles, To the Scapula, Against the Jews, etc., have an apologetic orientation. Others - Against Marcion in five books, Against Hermogenes, Against Praxeas, On Baptism, On the Testimony of the Soul, On the Prescription [Against] Heretics, Against Valentinians - dogmatic-polemical. Belonging to the third group of his works, moral and ascetic, are: On Repentance, On Prayer, On Chastity, On Patience, Epistle to the Wife, Epistle to the Martyrs, On the Attire of Women, etc. ... All doctrine which agrees with the apostolic churches, those nurseries and original depositories of faith, must be regarded as truth, and as undoubtedly constituting what the churches received from the Apostles, what the Apostles received from Christ, and what Christ received from God. – Prescription against Heretics 21 Table of Contents Apologetic. 3 Scorpiac, or the Antidote for Scorpion Remorse * 69 About Baptism... 99 On Prescription [Against] Heretics. 117 About the Testimony of the Soul 153 About the Soul 163 De Anima [Latin] 332 About Spectacles. 391 About Prayer. 421 About Repentance. 441 About Patience. 461 About Chastity. 481 About the Warrior's Crown. 499 Epistle to the Martyrs. 527 Biography. 535