Being a cover-to-cover Christian, I am constrained by no means, no message, no ministration, but the whole armor of God, head to toe, when dealing with the other folk.
My idea answers the 2nd century lament of "Father of African Latin Christianity," of Carthage Africa, lawyer, theologian, Tertullian, where he eloquently seems to ask, rhetorically and obliquely :
"If we are enjoined, then, to love our enemies...whom have we to hate ? If injured, we are forbidden to retaliate, lest we become bad ourselves: who can suffer injury at our hands? In regard to this , recall your own experiences . How often you inflict gross cruelties on Christians, partly because it is your own inclination , and partly in obedience to the laws! How often, too, the hostile mob, paying no regard to you, takes the law into its own hand, and assails us with stones and flames! With the very frenzy of the Bacchanals, they do not even spare the Christian dead, but tear them, now sadly changed, no longer entire, from the rest of the tomb, from the asylum we might say of death, cutting them in pieces, rending them asunder. Yet, banded together as we are, ever so ready to sacrifice our lives, what single case of revenge for injury are you able to point to, though, if it were held right among us to repay evil by evil, a single night with a torch or two could achieve an ample vengeance? But away with the idea of a sect divine avenging itself by human fires, or shrinking from the sufferings in which it is tried. If we desired, indeed, to act the part of open enemies, not merely of secret avengers, would there be any lacking in strength , whether of numbers or resources? The Moors, the Marcomanni, the Parthians, themselves , or any single people, however great, inhabiting a distinct territory, and confined within its own borders, surpasses, forsooth , in numbers, one spread over all the world! We are but of yesterday and have filled every place among you --cities, islands, fortresses, towns, market-places, the very camp, tribes, companies, palace, senate, forum,--we have left nothing to you but the temples of your gods. For what wars should we not be fit, not eager, even with unequal forces, we who so willingly yield ourselves to the sword, if in our religion it would not be counted better to be slain than to slay?"
P.60-61, THE APOLOGY (2013)
Thursday, September 15, 2016
TERTULLIAN AND ME
Being a cover-to-cover Christian, I am constrained by no means, no message, no ministration, but the whole armor of God, head to toe, when dealing with the other folk.
My idea answers the 2nd century lament of "Father of African Latin Christianity," of Carthage Africa, lawyer, theologian, Tertullian, where he eloquently seems to ask, rhetorically and obliquely :
"If we are enjoined, then, to love our enemies...whom have we to hate ? If injured, we are forbidden to retaliate, lest we become bad ourselves: who can suffer injury at our hands? In regard to this , recall your own experiences . How often you inflict gross cruelties on Christians, partly because it is your own inclination , and partly in obedience to the laws! How often, too, the hostile mob, paying no regard to you, takes the law into its own hand, and assails us with stones and flames! With the very frenzy of the Bacchanals, they do not even spare the Christian dead, but tear them, now sadly changed, no longer entire, from the rest of the tomb, from the asylum we might say of death, cutting them in pieces, rending them asunder. Yet, banded together as we are, ever so ready to sacrifice our lives, what single case of revenge for injury are you able to point to, though, if it were held right among us to repay evil by evil, a single night with a torch or two could achieve an ample vengeance? But away with the idea of a sect divine avenging itself by human fires, or shrinking from the sufferings in which it is tried. If we desired, indeed, to act the part of open enemies, not merely of secret avengers, would there be any lacking in strength , whether of numbers or resources? The Moors, the Marcomanni, the Parthians, themselves , or any single people, however great, inhabiting a distinct territory, and confined within its own borders, surpasses, forsooth , in numbers, one spread over all the world! We are but of yesterday and have filled every place among you --cities, islands, fortresses, towns, market-places, the very camp, tribes, companies, palace, senate, forum,--we have left nothing to you but the temples of your gods. For what wars should we not be fit, not eager, even with unequal forces, we who so willingly yield ourselves to the sword, if in our religion it would not be counted better to be slain than to slay?"
P.60-61, THE APOLOGY (2013)