Christian Assembly in 197 CE: The Witness of Tertullian, Part 1
Carthage, North Africa, in 197 CE. Tertullian describes a gathering of believers in Jesus for his Roman audience.
“We are a body knit together as such by a common religious profession, by unity of discipline, and by the bond of a common hope” (Corpus sumus de conscientia religionis et disciplinae unitate et spei foedere). From Apology, 39:1.
Romans often used corpus (body) for voluntary associations like trade guilds and religious gatherings. Early Christianity was often regarded a superstitious association or faction (factionis in 39:1). Tertullian identifies the nature of Christian meetings for his audience. Christians are a body or society of people arising from three elements:
1. They have a common religious profession, which in Carthage (as represented by Tertullian) is the Rule of Faith that professes faith in God the Creator, the incarnate Son, and the poured out Holy Spirit who fills the body of Christ. They share, essentially, a commitment to what would be minimally stated as the “Apostles’ Creed.” In their meetings they confess their faith in God’s work.
2. They are united by a common discipline. Tertullian uses a Latin phrase that conjures up images of military discipline and training. The Christian body is a discipled (trained) community that shares common moral commitments, and these include practices in their meetings that formed disciples in that community. He describes some of these practices in the paragraph.
3. They live together in the hope of salvation, both present and future. He probably means they are a covenanted (foedere) community that lives in hope. In other words, they are bound together with a joyful expectation of God’s saving work, and they celebrate this and give thanks for it in their meetings.
Christians gather as a community with a particular profession of faith, disciplined ethics for life and formative practices, and a fervent and grateful hope for the future.
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I posted this quote from Tertullian on Facebook several days ago.
Tertulian (d. 220), a lay member of the church in Carthage, North Africa, describes the weekly assembly in his defense of the Christian Faith (Apology, 39).
“We are a body knit together as such by a common religious profession, by unity of discipline, and by the bond of a common hope. We meet together as an assembly and congregation, that, offering up prayer to God as with united force, we may wrestle with Him in our supplications. This strong exertion God delights in. We pray, too, for the emperors, for their ministers and for all in authority, for the welfare of the world, for the prevalence of peace, for the delay of the final consummation. We assemble to read our sacred writings, if any peculiarity of the times makes either forewarning or reminiscence needful. However it be in that respect, with the sacred words we nourish our faith, we animate our hope, we make our confidence more stedfast; and no less by inculcations of God’s precepts we confirm good habits.”