Identity and Religion in Roman North Africa: the apologetics of Tertullian

Abstract This dissertation examines the strategies employed by Tertullian in the construction and articulation of Christian identity in the pluralistic Roman North African society. The focus will be the apologetic works of Tertullian, the Ad Martyras, the Ad Nationes and the Apologeticum written around 197 A.D. Popular biases against Christians, the Romanizing tendencies of local elites in North Africa, the marginalization of sub-elites, the influence of cultural and intellectual revolution known as the Second Sophistic Movement, and the political ideologies and propaganda of emperor Septimius Severus – all these influenced Tertullian’s attempt to construct and articulate a Christian identity capable of engaging the ever changing socio-political landscape of North African at the dawn of the third century A.D. I shall examine select areas in antiquity where identities were explored, contested and projected namely, socio-cultural, religious, and political. I have identified four spheres which I refer to as “sites” of identity construction, namely paideia, the individual, community and “religion”. Chapter One provides a brief survey of the various contexts of Tertullian’s literary production. It includes a short description of the socio-political landscape during the reign of Emperor Septimius Severus, a brief history of Christianity in Roman North Africa, an introduction to the person of Tertullian, and his place within the “apologetic” tradition. I shall, then, explain the methodologies that will be employed and the concept of “identity” as heuristic tool. Chapter Two discusses Tertullian’s reappropriation of classical culture for the purpose of self-presentation. Christian rhetoric accommodates itself to contemporary social and political realities. The question of Tertullian’s relationship with the Second Sophistic Movement will be revisited. Chapter Three explores the topic of individuality as an apologetic discourse. Aware of the popular philosophical currents of his time which emphasized “the self” or “selfhood,” Tertullian presents the Christian individual as paradigm of individual virtue, especially for the Roman elite preoccupied with the cultivation of the self (souci de soi). In Chapter Four, contrary to contemporary scholarship, I shall argue that Tertullian took a less revisionist approach in his representation of Christian community’s relationship with the Roman empire, both in its dynamics of community formation and its role in society. In chapter Five, I shall examine how Tertullian elaborates on his claim of Christianity as “vera religio.” Two aspects of his discourse on “religion” will be examined: his argument for libertas religionis and what constitutes a holy man. I conclude that the layering and fusion of legal, philosophical, cultural, and theological topics in Tertullian’s apologetic works underscore the complex processes of negotiation and articulation of Christian identity in a pluralistic society. Truth (veritas) serves as the stabilizing point of reference. Hence, harmony and tension characterize Tertullian’s articulation of Christian identity for it is forged in the hearth of the social, cultural, and religious ferment of his time.

Advisor: Bendlin, Andreas