Showing results by author "Tertullian" in All Categories

As for what pertains to antiquity, what more ancient formal type can be brought forward, than the very original fount of the human race? One female did God fashion for the male, culling one rib of his, and (of course) one out of a plurality. But, moreover, in the introductory speech which preceded the work itself, he said, “It is not good for the man that he be alone; let us make a help-meet for him.” For he would have said “helpers” if he had destined him to have more wives.

Modesty, the flower of manners, the honor of our bodies, the grace of the sexes, the integrity of the blood, the guarantee of our race, the basis of sanctity, the pre-indication of every good disposition; rare though it is, and not easily perfected, and scarce ever retained in perpetuity, will yet up to a certain point linger in the world, if nature shall have laid the preliminary groundwork of it, discipline persuaded to it, censorial rigor curbed its excesses.

Ad Nationes (To the Nations) shows that the Roman actions taken against the early Christians are violations of justice. This is followed by a listing of Roman slanders against the Christians. Tertullian points out the hypocrisy, since Romans hardly conduct themselves in anything resembling moral behavior. The second book condemns and criticizes Roman religion and their deities, in particular.

Tertullian on prayer. Tertullian gives us the essentials on prayer. Starting with the Lord’s Prayer, he breaks down each section, giving us expounded meaning into each phrase. He then goes on to discuss where and when we should pray, how we should pray, and what the importance of prayer is in our faith life.

Female habit carries with it a twofold idea - dress and ornament. By “dress” we mean what they call “womanly gracing”; by “ornament”, what it is suitable should be called “womanly disgracing”. The former is accounted (to consist) in gold, and silver, and gems, and garments; the latter in care of the hair, and of the skin, and of those parts of the body which attract the eye.

Keep for God his own property untainted. he will crown it if he chooses. Nay, then, he does even choose. He calls us to it. To him who conquers, he says, “I will give a crown of life.” Be you, too, faithful unto death, and fight you, too, the good fight, whose crown the apostle feels so justly confident has been laid up for him. 

It happened very recently, a dispute was held between a Christian and a Jewish proselyte. Alternately, with contentious cable, they each spun out the day until evening. By the opposing din, moreover, of some partisans of the individuals, truth began to be overcast by a sort of cloud. 

The principal crime of the human race, the highest guilt charged upon the world, the whole procuring cause of judgment, is idolatry. Do you inquire whom he has slain? If it contributes ought to the aggravation of the indictment, no stranger nor personal enemy, but his own self. By what snares? Those of his error. By what weapon? The offense done to God. By how many blows? As many as are his idolatries.

The Shows or De Spectaculis, also known as On the Spectacles, is a treatise by Tertullian. Written somewhere between AD 197-202, the work comments on issues and consequences related to the attendance of circus, theatre, or amphitheater ("the pleasures of public shows"). Tertullian’s views of these public performances in the theatre are that they are immoral and lead to corruption. 

Whatever noxious vapors, accordingly, exhaled from philosophy, obscure the clear and wholesome atmosphere of truth, it will be for Christians to clear away, both by shattering to pieces the arguments which are drawn from the principles of things - I mean those of the philosophers - and by opposing to them the maxims of heavenly wisdom - that is, such as are revealed by the Lord; in order that both the pitfalls wherewith philosophy captivates the heathen may be removed, and the means employed by heresy to shake the faith of Christians may be repressed. 

As persecutions in increasing number threaten us, so the more are we called on to give earnest thought to the question of how faith ought to receive them, and the duty of carefully considering it concerns you no less, who no doubt, by not accepting the Comforter, the guide to all truth, have, as was natural, opposed us hitherto in regard to other questions also.

This is a letter to Scapula, Proconsul of Africa, who had begun persecuting Christians, during AD 212 (an eclipse visible in Utica is referred to). Tertullian exhorts the Proconsul to remember the fate that befell other persecutors of the Church, not as a threat, but because Christians love those who persecute them, and do not wish to see the judgment of God be unleashed on even the most devout haters of the faith. 

Praxeas was a Monarchian from Asia Minor. He believed in the unity of the Godhead and vehemently disagreed with any attempt at division of the personalities or personages of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit in the Christian Church....

The character of the times in which we live is such as to call forth from us even this admonition, that we ought not to be astonished at the heresies (which abound) neither ought their existence to surprise us, for it was foretold that they should come to pass; nor the fact that they subvert the faith of some, for their final cause is, by affording a trial to faith, to give it also the opportunity of being “approved”. - Tertullian 

This among Christians is a season of persecution. When, therefore, faith is greatly agitated, and the Church burning, as represented by the bush, then the Gnostics break out, then the Valentinians creep forth, then all the opponents of martyrdom bubble up, being themselves also hot to strike, penetrate, kill.

Tertullian, in To His Wife, discusses Christian marriage between a man and woman. The need for the institution to procreate and to find comfort. And in support of the apostle Paul that it is better to marry than to burn. He looks at the spiritual significance of marriage and what our eternal relationship is to our spouse. Tertullian provides various recommendations regarding marriage.

And this species of the divine patience indeed being, as it were, at a distance, may perhaps be esteemed as among “things too high for us”; but what is that which, in a certain way, has been grasped by hand among men openly on the Earth? God suffers himself to be conceived in a mother’s womb, and awaits the time for birth; and, when born, bears the delay of growing up; and, when grown up, is not eager to be recognized, but is furthermore contumelious to himself, and is baptized by his own servant; and repels with words alone the assaults of the tempter.

Speaking of the Greek priests of Korfou, the erudite bishop of Lincoln, lately deceased, has remarked, “There is something very picturesque in the appearance of these persons, with their black caps resembling the modius seen on the heads of the ancient statues of Serapis and Osiris, their long beards and pale complexions, and their black flowing cloak, - a relic, no doubt, of the old ecclesiastical garment of which Tertullian wrote.” 

And so he gathered together a people for himself, and fostered them with many liberal distributions of his bounty, and, after so often finding them most ungrateful, ever exhorted them to repentance and sent out the voices of the universal company of the prophets to prophesy. By and by, promising freely the grace which in the last times he was intending to pour as a flood of light on the universal world through his Spirit, he bade the baptism of repentance lead the way.

Happy is our sacrament of water, in that, by washing away the sins of our early blindness, we are set free and admitted into eternal life! A treatise on this matter will not be superfluous; instructing not only such as are just becoming formed (in the faith), but them who, content with having simply believed, without full examination of the grounds of the traditions, carry (in mind), through ignorance, an untried though probable faith.