Required reading
Ante-Nicene Fathers (Volume 3) (Available from Amazon or free here) - Read 'The Chaplet' and 'To Scapula'.
My summary
This week we read two shorter works from Tertullian.
Firstly, in 'The Chaplet', Tertullian looks at whether Christians can wear crowns/wreaths. He speaks about a Christian soldier who refused to wear a crown before a tribune, was questioned and then imprisoned. Tertullian defends the man's actions, particularly due to the relationship between wreaths and pagan religions.
The second work is written to Scapula who, according to the elucidations, was the Proconsul of Carthage. The writing is in defence of Christians in general, encouraging Scapula to consider that Christians are a positive benefit to the nation, not citizens deserving persecution.
What grabbed me
I loved this comment about the Christian view of persecution: 'Your cruelty is our glory. Only see you to it, that in having such things as these to endure, we do not feel ourselves constrained to rush forth to the combat, if only to prove that we have no dread of them, but on the contrary, even invite their infliction.'
Not the reaction the persecutors were expecting.
Next week's reading
Read 'Ad Nationes' Book I.
Now it's your turn
Please post your own notes and thoughts in the comments section below.
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