06-15-08-am

Quintus Septimius Florens Tertullianus, was born about 160 A.D. in Carthage, North Africa, the capital of Roman North Africa. He was the first major Christian writer to use Latin. The son of an army officer, he wasfully educated and practiced law, living for a time in Rome.

In his mid-30’s became a Christian and became a leading Christian in Carthage. He was concerned with having a written defense of Christianity. Writing with wit and sarcasm, he wrote especially against Gnosticism and Marcionism.

At the age of 50 he left the Church and joined a heretical sect called Montanists, who emphasized the Holy Spirit over the other two persons of the Trinity. During this time he wrote Against Praxeas, the first explicit look at the doctrine of the Trinity. He died around 220 A.D.

· The Greek and Romans had deities for every aspect of living–for sowing and reaping, for rain and wind, for volcanoes and rivers, for birth and death.

· For the pagan every meal began with a liquid offering and a prayer to the pagan gods.

· Most heathen feasts and social parties were held in the precincts of a temple after sacrifice had been made, and the invitation was usually to dine “at the table” of some god.

· If a Christian refused the invitation to some social occasion, the Christian seemed rude, boorish, and discourteous.

· Other events, such as Gladiatorial ones, were points of conflicts for Christian’s of Tertuliian’s day.

· Don’t work in a place where you might be manufacturing something that might be an idol or might be used in the worship of idols (chapter 5)

· Professions such as teaching, where your wages are accrued at pagan religious festivals, are off limits to Christians. (chapter 10)

· However, it is ok to attend school, because all learning teaches you something about God. (chapter 10)

· Christians should be cautious of the way they dress (chapter 18), what branches of the military they serve in (chapter 19), the language they use (chapter 20), the oaths they take and the blessings they accept (chapter 21), because any of those can, and do, contain aspects of idolatry.

“Amid these reefs and inlets, amid these shallows and straits of idolatry, Faith, her sails filled by the Spirit of God, navigates; safe if cautious, secure if intently watchful. But to such as are washed overboard is a deep whence is no out-swimming; to such as are run aground is inextricable shipwreck; to such as are engulphed is a whirlpool, where there is no breathing—even in idolatry. All waves thereof whatsoever suffocate; every eddy thereof sucks down unto Hades. Let no one say, “Who will so safely foreguard himself? We shall have to go out of the world!”1 Cor 5:10 . As if it were not as well worthwhile to go out, as to stand in the world as an idolater! Nothing can be easier than caution against idolatry, if the fear of it be our leading fear; any “necessity” whatever 76is too trifling compared to such a peril. The reason why the Holy Spirit did, when the apostles at that time were consulting, relax the bond and yoke for us, Acts 15 1–31. was that we might be free to devote ourselves to the shunning of idolatry. This shall be our Law, the more fully to be.” (chapter 24)

How is the culture Tertullian faced similar/dissimilar to the culture we/you face today?

Which way(s) (from Richard Niebuhr’s 5 ways) does Tertullian relate his culture to Christ?