Tertullian (redirected from De pallio)

Tertullian (Quintus Septimus Florens Tertullianus) (tûrtŭl`yən), c.160–c.230, Roman theologian and Christian apologist, b. Carthage. He was the son of a centurion and was well educated, especially in law. Converted to Christianity c.197, he became the most formidable defender of the faith in his day. His Latin is vigorous and effective and reflects his juridical training. Sentences of his that have become proverbial are "The blood of martyrs is the seed of the church," and "It is certain because it is impossible" (often quoted incorrectly as "I believe it because it is impossible"). Some of Tertullian's opinions differed from the main stream of Christian thought, particularly his more rigorous view of sin and its forgiveness. After long defending the Montanists (see Montanism), he left the church (213) to join them; he later established his own sect, known as Tertullianists. Tertullian's most important writings are Apologeticus, Ad Nationes, and De Praescriptione.

Bibliography

See studies by T. D. Barnes (1971) and R. D. Sider (1971).

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Tertullian

(born c. 155/160, Carthage—died after 220, Carthage) Early Christian theologian and moralist. Educated in Carthage, he became impressed by the courage, morality, and uncompromising monotheism of Christian martyrs, and he converted to Christianity. He became a leading member of the African church and one of the early Apologists. He devoted himself to writing for 20 years, producing works on such topics as defense of the faith, prayer and devotion, and morality, as well as the first Christian book on baptism, De baptismo. Later, dismayed by the laxity he witnessed among even his orthodox contemporaries, he joined the prophetic movement known as Montanism, then left it to form his own sect, which survived in Africa until the 5th century.

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Tertullian

Latin name Quintus Septimius Florens Tertullianus. ?160--?220 ad, Carthaginian Christian theologian, who wrote in Latin rather than Greek and originated much of Christian terminology

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Tertullian 

(Quintus Septimus Florens Tertullianus). Born circa 160 in Carthage; died there after 220. Christian theologian and writer.

Tertullian was educated in the law and rhetoric and practiced in Rome as an advocate. Having embraced Christianity, he returned to Carthage circa 195. He subsequently grew sympathetic to Montanism after coming into conflict with the church. Late in life, he apparently founded his own sect, which was known as the Tertullianists.

In his thinking, Tertullian was drawn to the paradox. While his contemporaries in Christian thought tried to combine biblical teaching and Greek philosophy in a single system, Tertullian underscored in every way the gap between faith and reason. Querying “What does the church have to do with the Academy?”, he states: “The Son of God has been crucified; we are not ashamed, for we ought to be ashamed. And the Son of God died. This is absolutely certain, for it is not compatible with anything. And after the burial he rose again; this is indubitable, for it is impossible.” In his polemics against abstract, theoretical reason, Tertullian emphasized the natural rights of practical understanding, revealing much in common with the Cynics and, in particular, the Roman Stoics. He called for a return to nature not only in the conduct of one’s life but also in cognition itself; he advocated that the accretions of scholarly knowledge be stripped away in order to penetrate to the primal core of the human soul. To Tertullian, this meant the assertion of empiricism in the mystical and the psychological, as well as in its aspects of sensationalism and realism.

Tertullian demanded trust in spontaneous self-manifestations of the soul, such as unpremeditated screams and stereotyped forms of speech that do not reach the consciousness. In his search for truth, he strove to peer into the human unconscious, which explains the interest in his legacy among such figures of modern psychoanalysis as C. G. Jung. At the same time, Tertullian’s empiricism drew him toward materialism—all that exists is “body,” and therefore god is to be understood as “a body that is incidentally a soul.” His prevailing mood manifested itself in an eschatological yearning for the end of the world. He opposed the Roman order with a cosmopolitanism akin to that of the Cynics and with a moral boycott of politics.

WORKS

Corpus scriptorum ecclesiaslicorum latinorum, vols. 19, 47, 69, 70, 76. Vienna, 1890–1957.
In Russian translation:
Tvoreniia, part 1. Kiev, 1910.

REFERENCES

Popov, K. Tertullian. Kiev, 1880.
Shternov, N. Tertullian, presviter karfagenskii. Kursk, 1889.
Preobrazhenskii, P. F. Tertullian i Rim. Moscow, 1926.
Nisters, V. Tertullian: Seine Persönlichkeit und sein Schicksal. Münster, 1950.

S. S. AVERINTSEV