Tertullian (Quintus Septimius Florens Tertullianus)
c.155-c.220 · Latin Fathers · Known
Tertullian wrote in Carthage around the year 200 and was the first major Christian theologian to work in Latin. 'What has Athens to do with Jerusalem?' he asked, meaning what use is Greek philosophy to faith. He coined much of the West's vocabulary for God anyway: trinitas is his, and he turned substantia and persona into the terms for one being in three persons, the Latin shape of the Trinity.
Signature
The position Tertullian is most identified with in the Profiler:
- Ignorance
- leans Bliss
- Theology
- Trinitarian Monotheism
Positions on the 14 axes the sources answer
- Natural Processes
- leans Purposeful (75 on a 0–100 scale from Mechanistic to Purposeful)
- Society
- leans Collectivism (25 on a 0–100 scale from Collectivism to Individualism)
- The Divine
- leans Describable (25 on a 0–100 scale from Describable to Indescribable)
- Identity
- leans Unchanging (25 on a 0–100 scale from Unchanging to Changing)
- Meaning
- leans Inherent (78 on a 0–100 scale from Constructed to Inherent)
- Order
- leans Vertical (25 on a 0–100 scale from Vertical to Horizontal)
- Nature of Reality
- leans Unity (17 on a 0–100 scale from Unity to Multiplicity)
- Ground of Being
- leans Transcendence (84 on a 0–100 scale from Immanence to Transcendence)
- Truth
- leans Objective (75 on a 0–100 scale from Subjective to Objective)
- Ethics
- leans Means (75 on a 0–100 scale from Ends to Means)
- War
- leans Pacifism (25 on a 0–100 scale from Pacifism to Militarism)
- Ignorance
- leans Bliss (75 on a 0–100 scale from Bondage to Bliss)
- Conviction
- leans Certain (81 on a 0–100 scale from Uncertain to Certain)
- Allegiance
- leans Local (25 on a 0–100 scale from Local to Global)
6 of 20 axes are left blank: the sources do not answer them, or Tertullian refused the framing. Nothing is imputed; a blank is not a middling score.
Foundational questions
- Theology
- Trinitarian Monotheism
What is your position on the existence and nature of God or gods? - Government
- Clerical Theocracy
What is your ideal form of government? - Highest Good
- Union with God
What is the highest good? - Good and Evil
- Good Real, Evil Privative
What is the fundamental nature of good and evil? - End of Things
- Apocalyptic Renewal
What is the ultimate end of all things? - Knowledge
- Tradition
What is the ultimate foundation of knowledge? - Agency
- Synergism
What is the nature of human agency and freedom? - Beginning of Things
- Creation ex Nihilo
What is the origin of reality? - Time
- Eschatological
What is the fundamental shape of time? - Authority
- Divine Revelation / Sacred Tradition
What is the legitimate source of authority? - Language
- Sacred Speech
What is the fundamental nature of language? - Paradox
- Existential Leap
What is the status of paradox? - Law
- Divine Law
What is the ultimate source of legitimate law? - Death
- Judgement
What happens at death? - Role of Emotion
- Obstacle to Reason
What is the proper role of emotion? - Human Nature
- Redeemably Corrupted
What is human nature? - Primary Bond
- The Divine
What is your primary bond and loyalty?