Editing Tertullian (section)

== Life ==
Scant reliable evidence exists regarding Tertullian's life; most knowledge comes from passing references in his own writings. [[Africa (Roman province)|Roman Africa]] was famous as the home of [[orator]]s, and that influence can be seen in his writing style with its archaisms or provincialisms, its glowing imagery and its passionate temper. He was a [[scholar]] with an excellent education. He wrote at least three books in [[Koine Greek]]; none of them are extant.

Some sources describe him as [[Berbers|Berber]].<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=IkwBAAAAMAAJ|title=L'Algérie et son passé: ouvrage illustré de 82 gravures en phototypie|last=Berthier|first=André|date=1951|publisher=Picard|page=25|isbn=978-2-7084-0171-6|language=fr}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_BYtAQAAIAAJ|title=Intellectual Traditions of Pre-colonial Africa|last=Hilliard|first=Constance B.|date=1998|publisher=McGraw-Hill|isbn=978-0-07-028898-0|page=150|language=en}}</ref> The linguist René Braun suggested that he was of [[Punics|Punic]] origin but acknowledged that it is difficult to decide since the heritage of Carthage had become common to the Berbers.<ref name="Wilhite">{{Cite book|last=Wilhite|first=David E.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=sXNJeW0g6kMC&pg=PA134|title=Tertullian the African: An Anthropological Reading of Tertullian's Context and Identities|date=2011|publisher=Walter de Gruyter|isbn=978-3-11-092626-2|page=134|language=en}}</ref> Tertullian's own understanding of his ethnicity has been questioned:<ref name="Wilhite" /> He referred to himself as ''Poenicum inter Romanos'' ({{Literal translation|Punic among Romans}}) in his book ''De Pallio''<ref>{{Cite book|last1=Young|first1=Frances Margaret|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rTpSoYGM2WcC&pg=PA358|title=Other Greek Writers, John of Damascus and Beyond, the West to Hilary|last2=Edwards|first2=Mark J.|last3=Parvis|first3=Paul M.|date=2006|publisher=Peeters Publishers|isbn=978-90-429-1885-6|language=en}}</ref> and claimed Africa as his ''patria''.<ref name="Wilhite" /> According to church tradition, Tertullian was raised in Carthage.<ref name ="Oxford">{{cite book| editor-last =Cross | editor-first = F. L. |title=The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church|location= New York|publisher= Oxford University Press|date= 2005}}</ref> Jerome claimed that Tertullian's father held the position of ''centurio proconsularis'' ("aide-de-camp") in the [[Roman army]] in Africa.<ref>[[Jerome]], 'Chronicon' 16.23–24</ref>

Tertullian has been claimed to have been a trained lawyer and an ordained priest. Those assertions rely on the accounts of [[Eusebius of Caesarea]], ''[[Church History (Eusebius)|Church History]]'', II, ii. 4, and [[Jerome]]'s ''[[De Viris Illustribus (Jerome)|De viris illustribus]]'' (''On famous men'') chapter 53.{{efn|See introduction to {{harv |Barnes|1971}}; however, Barnes retracted some of his positions in the 1985 revised edition.}} Tertullian has also been thought to be a lawyer, based on his use of legal analogies and on an identification of him with the jurist Tertullianus, who is quoted in the ''[[Pandects]]''. Although Tertullian used a knowledge of Roman law in his writings, his legal knowledge does not demonstrably exceed what could be expected from a sufficient Roman education.{{sfn|Barnes|1971|pp=24, 27}} The writings of Tertullianus, a lawyer of the same ''[[agnomen]]'', exist only in fragments and do not explicitly denote a Christian authorship. The notion of Tertullian being a priest is also questionable. In his extant writings, he never describes himself as ordained in the church{{sfn|Barnes|1971|p=11}} and seems to place himself among the laity.<ref>Tertullian, De Exhortatione Castitatis 7.3 and De Monogamia 12.2</ref>

His conversion to Christianity perhaps took place about 197–198 (cf. [[Adolf Harnack]], [[Bonwetsch]], and others), but its immediate antecedents are unknown except as they are conjectured from his writings. The event must have been sudden and decisive, transforming at once his own personality. He writes that he could not imagine a truly Christian life without such a conscious breach, a radical act of conversion: "Christians are made, not born" (''Apol''., xviii). Two books addressed to his wife confirm that he was married to a Christian wife.<ref>{{cite web|title=Book Written to His Wife|website=New Advent |url=http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/0404.htm|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140304214727/http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/0404.htm|archive-date=2014-03-04}}</ref>

In his middle life (about 207), he was attracted to the "New Prophecy" of [[Montanism]], but today most scholars reject the assertion that Tertullian left the mainstream church or was excommunicated.<ref>{{Cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tXnQjPvrDZUC&q=%22overwhelming+consensus+that+Tertullian+was+not+a+Montanist+schismatic%22&pg=PA46
 | title=Tertullian and Paul| isbn=978-0-567-55411-6| last1=Still| first1=Todd D| last2=Wilhite| first2=David E| date=2012| publisher=A&C Black}}</ref> "[W]e are left to ask whether Saint Cyprian could have regarded Tertullian as his master if Tertullian had been a notorious schismatic. Since no ancient writer was more definite (if not indeed fanatical) on this subject of schism than Saint Cyprian, the question must surely be answered in the negative."<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.tertullian.org/articles/powell_tertullianists.htm|title=Tertullian: Douglas Powell, Tertullianists and Cataphrygians, Vigiliae Christianae 29 (1975), pp. 33–54}}</ref>

In the time of [[Augustine of Hippo|Augustine]], a group of "Tertullianists" still had a basilica in Carthage, which within the same period passed to the orthodox church. It is unclear whether the name was merely another for the North African Montanists{{efn|The passage in ''[[Praedestinatus]]'' describing the Tertullianists suggests that might have been the case, as the Tertullianist minister obtains the use of a church in Rome on the grounds that the martyrs to whom it was dedicated were Montanists.  However, the passage is very condensed and ambiguous.}} or that it means that Tertullian later split with the Montanists and founded his own group.

Jerome<ref>{{cite book|author= Jerome |title=De viris illustribus | page =53}}</ref> says that Tertullian lived to old age. By the doctrinal works he published, Tertullian became the teacher of [[Cyprian]] and the predecessor of Augustine, a key figure of western theology.