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Tertullian
Ad Nationes

Christology

Ad Nationes

Tertullian · c. 197 AD

1h 36m read

Ante-Nicene

An early apologetic work addressed to the nations, defending Christians against common charges and exposing the absurdities of pagan religion.

Table of Contents

1Book I 1The Hatred Felt by the Heathen Against the Christians is Unjust, Because Based on Culpable Ignorance 2The Heathen Perverted Judgment in the Trial of Christians. They Would Be More Consistent If They Dispensed with All Form of Trial. Tertullian Urges This with Much Indignation 3The Great Offence in the Christians Lies in Their Very Name. The Name Vindicated 4The Truth Hated in the Christians; So in Measure Was It, of Old, in Socrates. The Virtues of the Christians 5The Inconsistent Life of Any False Christian No More Condemns True Disciples of Christ, Than a Passing Cloud Obscures a Summer Sky 6The Innocence of the Christians Not Compromised by the Iniquitous Laws Which Were Made Against Them 7The Christians Defamed. A Sarcastic Description of Fame; Its Deception and Atrocious Slanders of the Christians Lengthily Described 8The Calumny Against the Christians Illustrated in the Discovery of Psammetichus. Refutation of the Story 9The Christians are Not the Cause of Public Calamities: There Were Such Troubles Before Christianity 10The Christians are Not the Only Contemners of the Gods. Contempt of Them Often Displayed by Heathen Official Persons. Homer Made the Gods Contemptible 11The Absurd Cavil of the Ass's Head Disposed of 12The Charge of Worshipping a Cross. The Heathens Themselves Made Much of Crosses in Sacred Things; Nay, Their Very Idols Were Formed on a Crucial Frame 13The Charge of Worshipping the Sun Met by a Retort 14The Vile Calumny About Onocoetes Retorted on the Heathen by Tertullian 15The Charge of Infanticide Retorted on the Heathen 16Other Charges Repelled by the Same Method. The Story of the Noble Roman Youth and His Parents 17The Christian Refusal to Swear by the Genius of Cæsar. Flippancy and Irreverence Retorted on the Heathen 18Christians Charged with an Obstinate Contempt of Death. Instances of the Same are Found Amongst the Heathen 19If Christians and the Heathen Thus Resemble Each Other, There is Great Difference in the Grounds and Nature of Their Apparently Similar Conduct 20Truth and Reality Pertain to Christians Alone. The Heathen Counselled to Examine and Embrace It 2Book II 1The Heathen Gods from Heathen Authorities. Varro Has Written a Work on the Subject. His Threefold Classification. The Changeable Character of that Which Ought to Be Fixed and Certain 2Philosophers Had Not Succeeded in Discovering God. The Uncertainty and Confusion of Their Speculations 3The Physical Philosophers Maintained the Divinity of the Elements; The Absurdity of the Tenet Exposed 4Wrong Derivation of the Word Θεός. The Name Indicative of the True Deity. God Without Shape and Immaterial. Anecdote of Thales 5The Physical Theory Continued. Further Reasons Advanced Against the Divinity of the Elements 6The Changes of the Heavenly Bodies, Proof that They are Not Divine. Transition from the Physical to the Mythic Class of Gods 7The Gods of the Mythic Class. The Poets a Very Poor Authority in Such Matters. Homer and the Mythic Poets. Why Irreligious 8The Gods of the Different Nations. Varro's Gentile Class. Their Inferiority. A Good Deal of This Perverse Theology Taken from Scripture. Serapis a Perversion of Joseph 9The Power of Rome. Romanized Aspect of All the Heathen Mythology. Varro's Threefold Distribution Criticised. Roman Heroes (Æneas Included,) Unfavourably Reviewed 10A Disgraceful Feature of the Roman Mythology. It Honours Such Infamous Characters as Larentina 11The Romans Provided Gods for Birth, Nay, Even Before Birth, to Death. Much Indelicacy in This System 12The Original Deities Were Human--With Some Very Questionable Characteristics. Saturn or Time Was Human. Inconsistencies of Opinion About Him 13The Gods Human at First. Who Had the Authority to Make Them Divine? Jupiter Not Only Human, But Immoral 14Gods, Those Which Were Confessedly Elevated to the Divine Condition, What Pre-Eminent Right Had They to Such Honour? Hercules an Inferior Character 15The Constellations and the Genii Very Indifferent Gods. The Roman Monopoly of Gods Unsatisfactory. Other Nations Require Deities Quite as Much 16Inventors of Useful Arts Unworthy of Deification. They Would Be the First to Acknowledge a Creator. The Arts Changeable from Time to Time, and Some Become Obsolete 17Conclusion, the Romans Owe Not Their Imperial Power to Their Gods. The Great God Alone Dispenses Kingdoms, He is the God of the Christians 18Appendix: A Fragment Concerning the Execrable Gods of the Heathen