Required reading
Ante-Nicene Fathers (Volume 3) (Available from Amazon or free here) - Read 'The soul's testimony'.
My summary
This week Tertullian examines the claims of the heathen that the human soul is divine.
Firstly he criticises the philosophers for their perverted teaching and asks that the soul stand forth itself and testify whether it is divine.
Secondly Tertullian proclaims that there is one God and calls pagans to deny all others.
Thirdly Tertullian comments on the existence of demons and Satan.
Fourthly Tertullian explains what happens to the soul after death and compares the Christian understanding with the pagan philosophers' understanding.
Fifthly Tertullian teaches us that everything we know is from God.
Sixthly Tertullian calls on the pagans to question the soul's greatness.
What grabbed me
A great rebuttal of those who would like to think that they are essentially divine.
I liked Tertullian's comparison of the differing views of the after life: 'Even now, as the matter refers to thy opinion on a point the more closely belonging to thee, in so far as it bears on thy personal well-being, we maintain that after life has passed away thou still remainest in existence, and lookest forward to a day of judgment, and according to thy deserts art assigned to misery or bliss, in either way of it for ever; that, to be capable of this, thy former substance must needs return to thee, the matter and the memory of the very same human being: for neither good nor evil couldst thou feel if thou wert not endowed again with that sensitive bodily organization, and there would be no grounds for judgment without the presentation of the very person to whom the sufferings of judgment were due. That Christian view, though much nobler than the Pythagorean, as it does not transfer thee into beasts; though more complete than the Platonic, since it endows thee again with a body; though more worthy of honour than the Epicurean, as it preserves thee from annihilation,—yet, because of the name connected with it, it is held to be nothing but vanity and folly, and, as it is called, a mere presumption. But we are not ashamed of ourselves if our presumption is found to have thy support.'
The Christian hope is a marvelous hope!
Next week's reading
Read 'A treatise on the soul' by reading Chapters 1 to 16.
Now it's your turn
Please post your own notes and thoughts in the comments section below.
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