Required reading
Ante-Nicene Fathers (Volume 3) (Available from Amazon or free here) - Conclude 'A treatise on the soul'.
My summary
Today Tertullian concludes his teaching on the soul.
Tertullian discusses:
(i) souls going into animals (including Simon of Samaria's history in this area);
(ii) the sex/gender of the soul;
(iii) the soul and embryos;
(iv) the growth of the soul;
(v) the purity of the soul from birth;
(vi) sleep;
(vii) dreams;
(viii) the soul after death.
What grabbed me
Again, I'm finding trouble agreeing with Tertullian in some matters.
For example Tertullian appeared to deny total depravity: 'Still there is a portion of good in the soul, of that original, divine, and genuine good, which is its proper nature. For that which is derived from God is rather obscured than extinguished. It can be obscured, indeed, because it is not God; extinguished, however, it cannot be, because it comes from God.'
But I was pleased to see Tertullian attack abortion: 'The embryo therefore becomes a human being in the womb from the moment that its form is completed. The law of Moses, indeed, punishes with due penalties the man who shall cause abortion, inasmuch as there exists already the rudiment of a human being, which has imputed to it even now the condition of life and death, since it is already liable to the issues of both, although, by living still in the mother, it for the most part shares its own state with the mother.'
Next week's reading
Read 'The prescription against heretics'.
Now it's your turn
Please post your own notes and thoughts in the comments section below.
No comments:
Post a Comment