Tertullian was a Roman Christian who wrote some of our earliest works in defense of the Christian faith.
Unfortunately, we know very little about his life, and many of his writings have been lost.
To start out, he was probably born sometime around 150 AD (I’ve seen several sources disagreeing with each other, but most say somewhere in the range of 145-155). He was born in the city of Carthage in Roman North Africa as Quintis Septimus Florens Tertullianus. His father was apparently a centurion in the local legion.
Now, that much is pretty solidly agreed upon. Scholars then disagree heavily about the next several decades of his life. You see, Tertullian grew up as a pagan. He doesn’t convert to Christianity until around the age of 40.
So, what did he do for the first 40 years of his life?
Well, there are two options. Option A) We don’t know. Option B) He went to school in Rome and then served as a lawyer for many years.
There are plenty of arguments on both sides using historical accounts and analyzing Tertullian’s word choice. But, overall, some people think Tertullian was a lawyer. Some people don’t.
Alright, well when Tertullian was about 40 he converted to Christianity. Why? Surprise, surprise, we don’t know!
One of the most popular theories though is that Tertullian was awe-stricken when he saw Christians boldly facing death in the arenas when they were executed for their faith. This led him to learning more about Christianity and eventually converting.
From what I can tell, the main evidence for this theory is that Tertullian would later write about how “Christians are made, not born” and how a radical act of conversion is important to Christianity. When you combine this with Tertullian’s praise of Christian martyrs, you get the theory above about how Tertullian himself became a Christian.
Now, the most important stuff we do know about Tertullian come from after age 40. His writings. Several of his works are lost. But, 31 still remain.
Tertullian wrote in defense of the Christian faith and against many heresies of his day. If you want to quote an ancient, sarcastic Christian author, then Tertullian is your guy. His writings contain plenty of irony, sarcasm, and plays on words.
One of the most important facts about Tertullian is the language he wrote in. He was the first Christian that we know of to write extensive works in Latin. Because of this, he is commonly called “the father of Latin Christianity”.
Later in his Christian life, he apparently became a “Montanist”. We don’t know much about the Montanists (shocker), but they were at best a new branch of Christianity and at worst an outright heresy. Either way, Tertullian apparently supported them. And a few scholars (but not many) think he may have formally left the mainstream church.
Throughout his writings he also coined several terms (or he was just the first person to write them down). One famous example is “trinity”. In defense of his views about the oneness of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, he used the Latin word trinitas to describe his viewpoint.
Several of the words he introduced are just translations of Greek words into Latin, like “idolatry” (idololatria), “pentecostal” (pentecostalis), “Gehenna” (Gehenna), “patriarch” (patriarcha), “Pentateuch” (Pentateuchus), and “alphabet” (alphabetum).
But, a couple seem to be unique to Latin, like “trinity” (trinitas), and interestingly “pagan” (paganus). That word, paganus, was Latin for “rural” or “a civilian”. Tertullian used this word to compare the “civilians” of the world with the “soldiers of Christ”. So, thanks to Tertullian, we now describe unbelievers as pagans.
Ultimately, Tertullian died at a nice, old age. Or, at least that’s what the Latin scholar Jerome tells us. Some modern scholars guess that he was actually martyred, which would be a fitting end to a man who praised martyrs to the hilt.
Overall, we don’t know too much about Tertullian. But we do know that he grew up as a pagan (a word that he later created) in the late 2nd Century. He might or might not have been a lawyer. Then, he converted to Christianity and staunchly defended the faith. He then either died at an old age or didn’t. Still, as the father of Latin Christianity, he greatly impacted the early church with his writings.