   |
|
Handout #26 |
|
Tertullian describes the Christian community for the benefit of the magistrates |
| Tertullian of Carthage (c.155-222 A.D.) used
his talents as an advocate in the service of Christians whose courage had
converted him. His work, the most important in Latin Christian literature
after that of Augustine, is primarily polemic. To defend Christianity he
presses its virtues home and goes over to the attack.
We are but of yesterday and we have filled every place among you - cities, islands, fortresses, towns, marketplaces, even the camps, tribes, companies palace, senate, forum - we have left nothing to you but the temples of your gods. I shall go on to demonstrate the peculiarities of the Christian society so that, having refuted the evil accusations against it, I may point out its positive good. We are a body knit together by the sense of one belief united in discipline, bound together by a common hope. We form an alliance and a congregation to assail God with our prayer, like a battalion drawn up for combat. This violence God delights in. We pray, too, for the emperors, for their ministers and all in authority, for the welfare of the world, for the prevalence of peace, for the delay of the final consummation ... But it is mainly the deeds of a love so noble that lead many to put a brand of infamy on us. 'See how they love one another', they say, for they themselves are animated by mutual hatred. And they are angry with us too, because we call one another brother; for no other reason, as I think, than because among themselves names of affinity are assumed only in a mere pretense of affection. But we are your brothers as well, by the law of our common mother nature, though you are hardly human, because you are such bad brothers. But with how much more reason does one call and treat as brothers those who recognize a same God as Father, who have drunk in one spirit of holiness, who from the same womb of a common ignorance have made their painful way into the same light of truth. We live with you, eat the same food, wear the same clothing, have the same way of life as you; we are subject to the same needs of existence. We are not Indian Brahmins or fakirs living in woods and exiling themselves from ordinary life... We live in the same world as you: we go to your forum, your market, your baths, your shops, your workshops, your inns, your fairs and the other places of trade. We sail with you, we serve as soldiers with you, and till the ground and engage in trade...Tertullian, Apology, chs. 37,39,42,written about 200. |
