One proof of that ignorance of yours, which condemns whilst it excuses your injustice, is at once apparent in the fact, that all who once shared in your ignorance and hatred (of the Christian religion), as soon as they have come to know it, leave off their hatred when they cease to be ignorant; nay more, they actually themselves become what they had hated, and take to hating what they had once been. Day after day, indeed, you groan over the increasing number of the Christians. Your constan...

WE are accustomed, for the purpose of shortening argument, to lay down the rule against heretics of the lateness of their date. For in as far as by our rule, priority is given to the truth, which also foretold that there would be heresies, in so far must all later opinions be prejudged as heresies, being such as were, by the more ancient rule of truth, predicted as (one day) to happen. Now, the doctrine of Hermogenes has this taint of novelty. He is, in short, a man living in the world at ...

IT happened very recently a dispute was held between a Christian and a Jewish proselyte. Alternately with contentious cable they each spun out the day until evening. By the opposing din, moreover, of some partisans of the individuals, truth began to be overcast by a sort of cloud. It was therefore our pleasure that that which, owing to the confused noise of disputation, could be less fully elucidated point by point, should be more carefully looked into, and that the pen should determine, f...

The Complete Works of the First Fathers of the Church gathers a formative body of early Christian writing: pastoral epistles, martyrial exhortations, apologies, theological treatises, biblical interpretation, ecclesiastical histories, and visionary instruction. Spanning the generations from the apostolic age to late antiquity, it records Christianity's emergence within Jewish, Greek, and Roman intellectual worlds. Particularly compelling are its defenses of Christian belief before pagan cr...

The Passion of the Holy Martyrs Perpetua and Felicity is one of the oldest and most notable early Christian texts. It survives in both Latin and Greek forms, and contains a first person prison diary of the young mother and martyr Perpetua. Scholars generally believe that it is authentic although in the form we have it may have been edited by others. The text also appears to contain, in his own words, the accounts of the visions of Saturus, another Christian martyred with Perpetua.Pe...

A second century theologian from Carthage, Tertullian was an important early Christian writer, who produced an extensive corpus of literature. As the initiator of ecclesiastical Latin, he was instrumental in shaping the vocabulary and thought of Western Christianity. Tertullian has been described by some as the father of Latin Christianity and the founder of Western theology. Delphi’s Ancient Classics series provides eReaders with the wisdom of the Classical world, with both Englis...

Have you ever wondered why the power of a sacrament depends on God rather than the perfection of the person performing it?In On Baptism B, St. Augustine delivers a masterful and defining continuation of his defense regarding the sacred rite of baptism. During the fourth and fifth centuries, the North African church was violently fractured by the Donatists, a puritanical sect that claimed sacraments performed by flawed or compromised leaders were entirely...

Have you ever wondered why the power of a sacrament depends on God rather than the perfection of the person performing it?In On Baptism B, St. Augustine delivers a masterful and defining continuation of his defense regarding the sacred rite of baptism. During the fourth and fifth centuries, the North African church was violently fractured by the Donatists, a puritanical sect that claimed sacraments performed by flawed or compromised leaders were entirely...

Have you ever wondered why water became the ultimate symbol of salvation and spiritual rebirth in the early Christian church?In On Baptism, Tertullian of Carthage provides a vigorous and deeply spiritual exploration of one of Christianity's most essential practices. Written during a time when the early church was still defining its boundaries and defending its doctrines, this treatise serves as a crucial pillar of Christian theology. Tertullian addresses...

Have you ever wondered why water became the ultimate symbol of salvation and spiritual rebirth in the early Christian church?In On Baptism, Tertullian of Carthage provides a vigorous and deeply spiritual exploration of one of Christianity's most essential practices. Written during a time when the early church was still defining its boundaries and defending its doctrines, this treatise serves as a crucial pillar of Christian theology. Tertullian addresses...

Have you ever wondered why water became the ultimate symbol of salvation and spiritual rebirth in the early Christian church?In On Baptism, Tertullian of Carthage provides a vigorous and deeply spiritual exploration of one of Christianity's most essential practices. Written during a time when the early church was still defining its boundaries and defending its doctrines, this treatise serves as a crucial pillar of Christian theology. Tertullian addresses...

Have you ever wondered why water became the ultimate symbol of salvation and spiritual rebirth in the early Christian church?In On Baptism, Tertullian of Carthage provides a vigorous and deeply spiritual exploration of one of Christianity's most essential practices. Written during a time when the early church was still defining its boundaries and defending its doctrines, this treatise serves as a crucial pillar of Christian theology. Tertullian addresses...