The Unfortunate Tertullian

I mentioned 'the unfortunate Tertullian' over at Enbrethiliel's comment box a couple of days ago, and got my wrist slapped because she thinks that Tertullian was 'pretty cool'. And I must confess to having an affection for him, and thinking that he could indeed be pretty cool, even if I still insist that he was 'unfortunate'. I mean, if you start off being an exceptionally talented orthodox Christian polemicist and apologist, then drift into the somewhat murky waters of Montanism, and then find that the Montanists are too soft for you and become a Tertullianist, then you're unfortunate. If you break away from the Church, become a Tertullianist and you yourself are called Tertullian, you should probably realise that something's gone awry with your spiritual life.

But, as Enbrethiliel herself reminded me, Tertullian was pretty cool. He was certainly the earliest theologian of talent who wrote in Latin (late 2nd and early 3rd Century AD) and we can thank him for much of our Latin theological vocabulary. Speaking of the 'Trinity' as 'one substance' and 'three persons' is something that we can thank Tertullian for. His fellow North African St Cyprian of Carthage used to simply refer to him as 'the Master', and Pope Benedict devoted a Wednesday Catechesis to him back in 2007. Tertullian is as good an example as any as to why we shouldn;t confine our reading to those who have managed to stay within the confines of orthodox thought.

That being said, he is an essentially tragic figure, one whose talent and high moral standards, led him on an increasingly individualistic spiritual journey, ultimately cutting himself of from the societas permixta, the Church of saints and sinners. As Pope Benedict points out:

This great moral and intellectual personality, this man who made such a great contribution to Christian thought, makes me think deeply. One sees that in the end he lacked the simplicity, the humility to integrate himself with the Church, to accept his weaknesses, to be forbearing with others and himself.

And yet he did the Church some service. So many of the important insights and thoughts which would prove crucial in the development of Christian thought find early and robust expression in Tertullian. The principle that only the Church can soundly interpret scripture finds a typically lawyerly expression in Tertullian's Prescription of Heretics:

Thus, not being Christians, they have acquired no right to the Christian Scriptures; and it may be very fairly said to them, "Who are you? When and whence did you come? As you are none of mine, what have you to do with that which is mine? Indeed, Marcion, by what right do you hew my wood? By whose permission, Valentinus, are you diverting the streams of my fountain? By what power, Apelles, are you removing my landmarks? This is my property. Why are you, the rest, sowing and feeding here at your own pleasure? This (I say) is my property. I have long possessed it; I possessed it before you. I hold sure title-deeds from the original owners themselves, to whom the estate belonged. I am the heir of the apostles. Just as they carefully prepared their will and testament, and committed it to a trust, and adjured (the trustees to be faithful to their charge), even so do I hold it. As for you, they have, it is certain, always held you as disinherited, and rejected you as strangers— as enemies. But on what ground are heretics strangers and enemies to the apostles, if it be not from the difference of their teaching, which each individual of his own mere will has either advanced or received in opposition to the apostles?"

Even though Tertullian at his best is 'punchy', his writing wasn't all polemic. He also wrote a very early exposition of the Lord's Prayer describing it as a 'summary of the entire Gospel'. Some hold that he was one of the proto-protestants. Whatever one might make of that assessment, I think that unfortunate is the best word for one who lapsed through rigorism and enthusiasm.