Jenson summarizes several thread of Tertullian’s Trinitarian theology: “Tertullian’s interpretation of God was far more biblical than that of the Apologists. He explicitly distinguished the living personal God of Scripture from both the numina of the old Roman religion and the abstract deity of Hellenism . . . . So far from using ‘God’ as an adjective, he took it for a proper name. And despite formal adherence to the negative theology and lapses into more conventional caution, at the height of his christological passion he can defiantly affirm the ‘humiliations and sufferings of God,’ in full knowledge of the offense to what is also for him the only sensible theology. ‘What is unworthy for God is needed for me . . . . The Son of God has died; it is to be believed because it is unlikely.’ Even the unchangeability axiom could be defied: because nothing is equal to God, so that he has no effective opposite, ‘God can be changed into all things and yet remain as he is.’”
Tertullian also focused on the verbal character of Logos , as opposite to the rational emphasis of the Apologists. He wrote, “God, like us, is rational by silently thinking through and disposing with himself what is abou to be uttered.” Jenson glosses this as “God planned the world and its history in interior discourse. Then he spoke .”
Dear Reader,
Can I be direct with you?
War abroad. Socialists on the rise. AI upending human life. Endless uproar online. The modern attention economy doesn’t want readers — it wants users enslaved to the tyranny of the present.
First Things is the antidote: literary excellence, timeless truths, and a fixed point of reference in a culture that has lost its bearings.
But we can’t do it without readers like you.
Our goal: Raise $150,000 by November 1 to sustain First Things in the year ahead.
Your gift anchors readers in the permanent things.
Make your Fall Campaign gift now using the button below.
If you have any questions or would like more information, please contact Giovanni Del Piero, Director of the Editor’s Circle, at gdelpiero@firstthings.com or 212-627-1985.
YOU MIGHT ALSO LIKE
The Church in the Age of Therapy
In 1966, Philip Rieff wrote in The Triumph of the Therapeutic that “Religious man was born to…
Canada’s Deadliest Blind Spot
On September 20, the Daily Mail ran a story with the provocative headline, “Our 83-year-old Christian grandmother…
The Faithful Joy of Dolly Parton and Fulton Sheen
Dolly Parton and Fulton Sheen seem to have had little in common. She favored rhinestones; he wore…
