"HE WHO LOVES FATHER OR MOTHER MORE THAN ME..." - A LOOK AT PERPETUA OF CARTHAGE

 

History books are dominated by men, and Church History books are no exception. You may have noticed that in my series based on Getting to Know the Church Fathers: An Evangelical Introduction by Bryan Litfin, so far it has all been men included, and starting in chapter 6, that trend resumes and continues through the book. But does that mean women had no impact on Christian history?

Perpetua was included by Litfin to introduce a female who had a role in church history. My opinion - I do not consider Perpetua a "church father" like most of the others in the book not because of gender but because to me the Church Fathers earned that role by influential writing. (I wouldn't list the famous martyr Polycarp one either, and there's a gentleman included later in Litfin's book who I also would not consider a church father.) However, her story is definitely influential.

We're in an era where we admire if not idolize independence and individualism. For example, in real life would a military officer keep his job if he showed the same adherence to regulations as Captain James T. Kirk of the Starship Enterprize did? This was not the world of the Roman empire. In those days, when a daughter was born, the father had the choice of accepting her into the family or leave her exposed to her death. Thus, an highborn accepted daughter was expected to be loyal and have absolute respect for her father and her clan.

Perpetua and several of her family - including her personal slave Felicity - became Christians. The one exception - Perpetua's father. When she was arrested, tried, and sentenced to death for her faith, her father begged her to renounce Christ for his sake as well as to spare her life. This was not accepted behavior by a daughter.

But Perpetua lived out Jesus' teaching "He who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me. And he who loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me. And he who does not take up his cross and follow Me is not worthy of Me. He who seeks to find his life will lose it and he who loses his life for My sake will find it." (Matthew 10:37-39) 

In a coming segment, I will deal with a Church Father who did not believe women should preach but they were allowed to sing. Perpetua was considered to be a Montanist, a segment of the church that gave a stronger role to women as well as being open to a continuance of the gifts like tongues and prophecy (Montanists referred to their movement as "the New Prophecy") and to a strict, almost legalistic, lifestyle. In its homeland of Phrygia, they wrote down their "prophecies" and equated it with the rest of Scripture.

When Montanism made its way to North Africa, where Perpetua lived, it kept its rigorism but was more compatible with orthodox Christianity. Tertullian, who shared Perpetua's hometown of Carthage, was considered by some to have converted to Montanism, and that would not be the case if they were off-base on the essentials of the faith. Litfin quotes a couple of prophecies given by Perpetua concerning her martyrdom.

What was so awful about being a Christian that they were thrown to the lions? One thing is they considered their King not to be Caesar, but Christ. Caesar was a rival king to the True Sovereign of the Universe. In addition, Romans were expected to offer incense to "the genius" - that is guardian spirit or divine power - of the Emperor. The Greek word for "genius" is "daimon" - what word does that remind you of? Yep, Perpetua and other Christians thought the same thing. Any way they would sacrifice to a demon?

Like Ignatius of Antioch and others Christian martyrs, Perpetua and Felicity and their fellow martyrs did not see themselves as victims or their deaths as a tragedy, but they considered themselves as victors over the wiles of the Devil and their deaths as an honor to their Ruler.

ONE OF THE MOST INFLUENTIAL CHRISTIANS, YET NOT A SAINT? A LOOK AT TERTULLIAN

 

When I first read Bryan Litfin's Getting To Know The Church Fathers: An Evangelical Introduction, I was able to describe nine of the twelve church leaders with one sentence... or less! (There were three I knew nothing about.) Two of the three were men I consider heroes of the faith, and the third was Augustine. 

In a previous installment, I mentioned doing a term paper on six early church movements, and Tertullian had connection with two of them - a positive connection with Montanism (some believe he joined the group, others thought he just accepted them), and an advesarial relationship with Marcionism. 

As my title stated, Tertullian was not canonized as a saint - more about this later. Regardless of that, he is an important figure in church history. Pope Benedict XVI lists this non-saint in his book on church fathers. While Irenaeus was the first to mention a collection of Christian Scripture, Tertullian was the first use the term "New Testament." Another term he was the first to use is "Trinity" relating to the relationship of the Father, Christ, and the Holy Spirit (he was also the first Church Father to write primarily in Latin). You may have heard Tertullian's question "What does Athens have to do with Jerusalem" and more likely to be familiar with the line "The blood of Christians is seed" (more commonly rephrased as "The blood of martyrs is the seed of the church").

In this series I've mentioned the seven letters of Ignatius, the three writings of Justin Martyr, and Irenaeus' two classics. Tertullian's bibliography consists of more than twice the listings of the other trio combined - a total of thirty one in the original Latin.  His biggest is a five volume set titled Against Marcionism.

Who is Marcion? He was a wealthy shipmaker, and had enough money to spread his heretical doctrine. Marcion is included in lists of Gnostic teachers because his theology is similar (especially in a non-physical Jesus who came to forgive sins but didn't pay for them on the cross). However, most Gnostics used their own writings as well as Scripture. 100% of Marcion's Bible is contained in our Bible.

Marcion was the first to give a canon of New Testament books, which consisted of Luke and ten of Paul's letters (excluding the Pastoral Epistles). He believed there were two different gods - the Creator who the Jews worshipped, and the true God who sent Jesus. Thus, Marcion rejected the Old Testament and anything "corrupted" with Jewish thought in our New Testament.

One reason I'm a Tertullian fan is because of how he dealt with Marcion. Two of the five books against Marcion refuted the shipmaker's teachings from Scripture - Volume 3 using Marcion's edited version of Luke, and the next one using Paul's letters. In other words, even Marcion's limited Scripture was enough to disprove him.

When I did my term paper, Tertullian was considered to have joined the Montanists. His version differed from the movement's founder Montanus version, and the authors I read gave three possible reasons: 1) Montantism mellowed between Montanus' time and Tertullian's; 2) North African Montanism which influenced Tertullian was more orthodox than the Middle Eastern Montanism of Montanus; and what I consider the most likely theory, 3) Montanus was Montanus and Tertullian was Tertullian.

If Tertullian was a conservationist, he'd probably be another Crocodile Hunter. Then, maybe you might call him the Rush Limbaugh of Church Fathers. Tertullian could be very harsh and legalistic. He wrote a list of what women could and could not wear, for example.  His crusty personality may be why he wasn't canonized as a saint. Of course, if you use the NT definition of saints as being all of Christ's followers, then Tertullian would definitely be a saint.

One last comment. In dealing with heretical movements, Tertullian said they had no authority to use Scripture. Scripture belongs to the church, and it is ours to use, not those who twist it.

Do you have any heroes of the faith that, while orthodox, can be controversial?