You may, I assure you, more easily find a man born without a heart or without brains, like Marcion himself, than without a body, like Marcion’s Christ. — Against Marcion IV.X It would have been but right that a new god should first be expounded, and his discipline be introduced afterwards; because it would be the god that would impart authority to the discipline, and not the discipline to the […]
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Tertullian: Divine Passions
What would be said, if, when you thought the doctor necessary, you were to find fault with his instruments, because they cut, or cauterize, or amputate, or tighten; whereas there could be no doctor of any value without his professional tools?… Your conduct is equally unreasonable, when you allow indeed that God is a judge, but at the same time destroy those operations and dispositions by which He discharges His […]
Read moreTertullian: Divine Goodness and Justice
In short, from the very first the Creator was both good and also just. And both His attributes advanced together. His goodness created, His justice arranged, the world; and in this process it even then decreed that the world should be formed of good materials, because it took counsel with goodness. The work of justice is apparent, in the separation which was pronounced between light and darkness, between day and […]
Read moreTertullian: The Prescription Against Heretics
The Rule of Faith Now, with regard to this rule of faith—that we may from this point acknowledge what it is which we defend—it is, you must know, that which prescribes the belief that there is one only God, and that He is none other than the Creator of the world, who produced all things out of nothing through His own Word, first of all sent forth; that this Word […]
Read moreTertullian: A Treatise On the Soul
A comprehensive treatise on the soul. Its substance, attributes, origin, and final destiny. Tertullian argues that the soul is corporeal, in opposition to the Gnostics, and Plato, with whom (he believes) the Gnostic heresies originated. He critiques pagan philosophers and writers on various opinions about the soul, and strives to ground beliefs on the Scripture. Stoics’ Arguments for Corporeal Soul Zeno, defining the soul to be a spirit generated with […]
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Tertullian: The Soul’s Testimony
Call the soul before you, and put her to the question. Why does she worship another? why name the name of God? Why does she speak of demons, when she means to denote spirits to be held accursed? Why does she make her protestations towards the heavens, and pronounce her ordinary execrations earthwards? Why does she render service in one place, in another invoke the Avenger? Why does she pass […]
Read moreMaximus the Confessor: Passion in Contemplation
This state, which is brought about by the contemplation of God and the enjoyment of the gladness that follows it, has rightly been described as pleasure, passion, and joy. It is called pleasure, insofar as it is the consummation of all natural strivings (for this is the meaning of pleasure). It is called passion, insofar as it is an ecstatic power, elevating the passive recipient to the state of an […]
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