On Idolatry
c. 200
De Idololatria
Tertullian on idolatry in life, trade, festivals, and speech. English translation by S. Thelwall in the Ante-Nicene Fathers.
Translated by S. Thelwall
English translation by the Rev. S. Thelwall, in Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol. III (eds. Alexander Roberts and James Donaldson; Buffalo: Christian Literature Publishing Co., 1885). Public domain. Digital text via New Advent Church Fathers.
Contents
- 1. The principal crime of the human race, the highest guilt charged upon the world, the whole
- 2. But let the universal names of crimes withdraw to the specialities of their own works; let idolatry
- 3. Idol in ancient times there was none.
- 4. Idols Not to Be Made, Much Less Worshipped. Idols and Idol-Makers in the Same Category
- 5. We will certainly take more pains in answering the excuses of artificers of this kind, who ought
- 6. Idolatry Condemned by Baptism. To Make an Idol Is, in Fact, to Worship It
- 7. Grief of the Faithful at the Admission of Idol-Makers into the Church; Nay, Even into the Ministry
- 8. There are also other species of very many arts which, although they extend not to the making of
- 9. We observe among the arts also some professions liable to the charge of idolatry.
- 10. Moreover, we must inquire likewise touching schoolmasters; nor only of them, but also all other
- 11. Connection Between Covetousness and Idolatry. Certain Trades, However Gainful, to Be Avoided
- 12. Further Answers to the Plea, How Am I to Live?
- 13. But why speak of sacrifices and priesthoods?
- 14. But, however, the majority (of Christians) have by this time induced the belief in their mind that
- 15. Concerning Festivals in Honour of Emperors, Victories, and the Like. Examples of the Three Children and Daniel
- 16. Touching the ceremonies, however, of private and social solemnities as those of the white toga, of
- 17. But what shall believing servants or children do?
- 18. But we must now treat of the garb only and apparatus of office.
- 19. In that last section, decision may seem to have been given likewise concerning military service,
- 20. But, however, since the conduct according to the divine rule is imperilled, not merely by deeds,
- 21. But it is a mark of timidity, when some other man binds you in the name of his gods, by the making
- 22. Equally, one who has been initiated into Christ will not endure to be blessed in the name of the
- 23. But there is a certain species of that class, doubly sharpened in deed and word, and mischievous on
- 24. Amid these reefs and inlets, amid these shallows and straits of idolatry, Faith, her sails filled