Christian and Pagan in the Roman Empire: The Witness of Tertullian
Digital Logos Edition
Overview
Among the voices that come across the centuries from early Christianity, few speak with sharper accents, or in more highly colored tones, than that of Tertullian. First in the Latin-speaking West to leave a major corpus of writings, Tertullian is also the first in the West to address the issues confronted by Christians in their encounter with the surrounding pagan world. Tertullian belonged to an era when Roman imperial power was at its height and paganism could proudly claim the blessings of the widespread Roman civilization. Though it was an officially tolerant world, unofficially it was suspicious of the politically incorrect: challenging social structures was an act of unthinkable bravado. Tertullian took on the challenge. Before his conversion, Tertullian appears to have participated fully in his contemporary pagan culture. A Carthaginian, his education was thoroughly Roman; he was fluent in Latin and Greek, and widely read in literature, philosophy, rhetoric, and medicine. His conversion to Christianity brought to him a radically new vision of the world, while his pagan education provided him with the tools to express that vision with almost unparalleled power. He possessed a logic that penetrated through misty ambiguities to the heart of things; he practiced a formulaic style that sharpened inherent contrasts; and he refined a narrative art that enriched theology with vignettes of the pagan and Christian worlds of his day.
- Title: Christian and Pagan in the Roman Empire: The Witness of Tertullian
- Authors: Robert D. Sider, Tertullian
- Series: Selections from the Fathers of the Church
- Volume: 2
- Publisher: Catholic University of America
- Print Publication Date: 2001
- Logos Release Date: 2019
- Language: English
- Resources: 1
- Format: Digital › Logos Research Edition
- Subjects: Christianity and other religions › Roman; Rome › Religion
- ISBNs: 0813210208, 0813210216, 9780813210209, 9780813210216
- Resource ID: LLS:CHRSTNPGNTRTLLN
- Resource Type: Monograph
- Metadata Last Updated: 2024-03-25T19:21:06Z