Page 72 - LD215 History of the Church in Africa A4 final

A History of the Church in Africa

He might have taken part in the persecution of Christians during the
rule of Marcus Aurelius. He saw Christians being tortured and killed
in the Roman arenas. His lawyer instincts told him that was not right.
People should be free to follow their conscience; the Christians died
to defend that right. (266)

In approximately A.D. 193, Tertullian decided to follow Christ. He
returned to Carthage to become a part of the Christian community. As
a brilliant lawyer and gifted writer, he is known as the father of Latin
theology. He was the first to develop the term Trinity to explain the
godhead and especially the divinity of Christ.

It is interesting indeed to note that the doctrine of the Trinity developed
in Africa. Under Tertullian and Cyprian, a theological school of Carthage
provided much needed training for the area. Tertullian became one of the
great apologists in defending Christianity against such errors as Gnosticism.
Since the church was growing rapidly at that time, one of the problems it
faced was the acceptance of people in the church who were not living moral
lives. Shaw states, “What we do know is that Tertullian, writing in [A.D.] 197
to his non-Christian opponents, could say ‘Day by day you groan over the
ever-increasing number of Christians’” (1996, 43).

Tertullian spoke as a prophet against worldliness and called for
Christ-like living. Smeeton notes that “He was a layman activated by
a holy zeal to serve Jesus Christ. He tried to call the church away from
a growing dependence on ecclesiastical machinery at the expense of
denying the leading of the Holy Spirit” (73).

Tertullian’s great contributions to the church concerned spiritual life
and a call to holiness. In contrast to the immoral, extravagant feasts in
his society, Tertullian wrote about Christian feasts:

Yet about the modest supper-room of the Christians alone a great
ado is made. Our feast explains itself by its name. The Greeks call
it agape, i.e., affection. Whatever the cost, our outlay in the name
of piety is gain, since with the good things of the feast we benefit
the needy. As the feast commenced with prayer, so with prayer
it is closed. We go from it, not like troops of mischief-doers, nor
bands of vagabonds, nor to break into licentious acts, but to have

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