T
Tertullian
Tertullian
155 CE–220 CE · Carthage
Tertullian (c. 155 – c. 220 AD) was the most important Latin Christian writer of the Ante-Nicene period and is often called the father of Western theology. A native of Carthage in Roman North Africa, he wrote prolifically in Latin and forged much of the vocabulary the Western Church would use ever after — he gave currency to the word trinitas (Trinity) and to the formula of three Persons in one Substance. His works include the Apologeticum, a defense of Christians addressed to Rome's provincial governors; De Praescriptione Haereticorum, against the Gnostics; and Adversus Marcionem, his longest treatise, refuting Marcion. In his later years he was drawn to the rigorist Montanist movement, which set him at a distance from the mainstream church — yet his theological influence on the Latin West proved enormous and lasting.
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Stop 1 of 1155–220Born, Lived, And Wrote
CarthageAfrica Proconsularis
What they did here
Tertullian spent his life in Carthage, the great Latin-speaking city of Roman North Africa, where he produced almost his entire body of work.
Carthage in this era
Under Roman imperial rule, Carthage was the intellectual capital of Latin Christianity: Tertullian wrote the first major Latin theology here, Cyprian served as its bishop and was martyred in 258 CE, and a series of African councils shaped early church discipline.