Course talk:Carey HIST501/Project 2/Tertullian

Very interesting reading and wrestling with the legacy of Tertullian. On one hand, he was clearly zealous to glorify God and he used his gifts and talents (particularly with his writings and latin) to edify the Church which is to be admired. On the other, he seems to get (what I would deem as) pretty extreme in his veiws on martyrdom and Christian exclusion from many forms of society (I do agree with the witholding of oneself from military service personally). He gives me the feeling of someone who in his earnestness dances quite close to legalism and self-rightousness which when we confuse for passion to be admired I fear can have lasting negative repercussions.

Hi Amanda, you are right. It is very hard to really dive into Tertullian's "great" mind. Upon researching, reading and listening to people discuss his views, we can observe that his opinions can be misunderstood or cause disagreements. The risk of writing so much and on a lot of topics is that you are bound to offend someone. It is not surprising that the Catholic church eventually condemned his works.