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c. A.D. 155 – c. 220
Tertullian
of Carthage
Worth knowing
- The first major Christian writer to work in Latin, and the man who had to invent much of the Latin the church has used ever since — including the word trinitas.
- He wrote like a lawyer and hit like one. His Prescription argues that heretics have no standing to dispute the Scriptures at all, because the church has held them since the apostles.
- "What has Athens to do with Jerusalem?" is his most misread line. He used philosophy constantly; what he refused was letting people who had abandoned the apostles' teaching call their speculations Christian.
- In later life he joined the rigorist Montanists, which is part of why the church has never quite known what to do with him.
The 3 books
Who else was alive
Tertullian against everyone else in the game.