Tertullian

Tertullian (Quintus Septimius Florens Tertullianus) was a prolific early Christian author from Carthage in the Roman province of Africa. He was the first Christian author to produce an extensive body of Latin Christian literature. He was also an early Christian apologist and a polemicist against heresy, including Christian Gnosticism.

Tertullian was the first theologian to write in Latin, and so has been called "the father of Latin Christianity." He is perhaps most famous for being the first writer in Latin known to use the term "trinity."

Tertullian was born in Carthage, which was second only to Rome as a cultural and educational centre in the West. He received an exceptional education in grammar, rhetoric, literature, philosophy, and law. His parents were pagan, and his father may have been a centurion in an African-based legion assigned to the governor of the province. After completing his education in Carthage, he went to Rome to study further and perhaps begin work as a lawyer. 

While in Rome, he became interested in the Christian movement, but not until he returned to Carthage toward the end of the 2nd century was he converted to the Christian faith. By the end of the 2nd century, the church in Carthage had become large, firmly established, and well organized and was rapidly becoming a powerful force in North Africa. Tertullian emerged as a leading member of the African church, using his talents as a teacher in instructing the unbaptized seekers and the faithful and as a literary defender (Apologist) of Christian beliefs and practices.

From his early 40s to his mid-60s, Tertullian devoted himself almost entirely to literary pursuits. Developing an original Latin style, the fiery writer became a lively and pungent propagandist. Tertullian is known less for what he did than for what he wrote. The range of his interests and the vigour with which he pursued them encouraged other Christians to explore previously uninvestigated areas of life and thought. Like his contemporaries, he wrote works in defense of the faith (e.g., Apologeticum) and treatises on theological problems against specific opponents: Adversus Marcionem (“Against Marcion,” an Anatolian heretic who believed that the world was created by the evil god of the Jews), Adversus Hermogenem (“Against Hermogenes,” a Carthaginian painter who claimed that God created the world out of preexisting matter), Adversus Valentinianos (“Against Valentinus,” an Alexandrian gnostic, or religious dualist), and De resurrectione carnis (“Concerning the Resurrection of the Flesh”). He also wrote the first Christian book on baptism, a book on the Christian doctrine of humanity, De anima (“Concerning the Soul”); essays on prayer and devotion and a treatise directed against all heresy, De praescriptione haereticorum (“Concerning the Prescription of Heretics”).

Sometime before 210 Tertullian left the orthodox church to join a new prophetic sectarian movement known as Montanism, which had spread from Asia Minor to Africa. His own dissatisfaction with the laxity of contemporary Christians was in line with the Montanist message of the imminent end of the world combined with a stringent and demanding moralism. Tertullian gave himself fully to the defense of the new movement as its most articulate spokesperson. However, since even the Montanists were not rigorous enough for Tertullian, he eventually broke with them to found his own sect. According to tradition, he lived to be an old man. His last writings date from approximately 220, but the date of his death is unknown.