A Glimpse at Early Christian Church Life

by Tertullian, David W. Bercot (Editor)

This books is a collection of five of Tertullian's works that shed considerable light on what Christian church life was like around the year A. D. 200. Topics covered are entertainment, modest dress, baptism, prayer customs, and the Christian woman's head covering. This volume renders Tertullian's writings into living, contemporary English.

Genres: Spirituality, History

166 pages, Kindle Edition

First published November 1, 1990

About the author

Quintus Septimius Florens Tertullianus, anglicised as Tertullian (c. 160 – c. 220 AD), was a prolific early Christian author from Carthage in the Roman province of Africa. He is the first Christian author to produce an extensive corpus of Latin Christian literature. He also was a notable early Christian apologist and a polemicist against heresy. Tertullian has been called "the father of Latin Christianity" and "the founder of Western theology." Though conservative, he did originate and advance new theology to the early Church. He is perhaps most famous for being the oldest extant Latin writer to use the term Trinity (Latin trinitas), and giving the oldest extant formal exposition of a Trinitarian theology. Other Latin formulations that first appear in his work are "three Persons, one Substance" as the Latin "tres Personae, una Substantia" (itself from the Koine Greek "treis Hypostases, Homoousios"). He wrote his trinitarian formula after becoming a Montanist; his ideas were at first rejected as heresy by the church at large, but later accepted as Christian orthodoxy.

Reviews

[John · Rating 4 out of 5]

i thought this was a helpful book to get started on reading about the church fathers. the translation was rewritten for modern readers so it was a pretty easy read.

[Nathan · Rating 2 out of 5]

As a collection of sermons from a very early father, this reads well. It is a very simple line from Tertullian's teachings here and the fundamental movements within the post-enlightenment Church. It was difficult to find a lot of glimpses at early Christian life through the text here. Rather, this reads like a world-weary traveler who, upon finding his way into your town, vehemently warns you to never leave your home if you can help it. While the traveler has enough discernment to navigate the best or worst of times, he enforces and reinforces that you most like do not.