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Christianity in the Roman Forum

Christianity in the Roman Forum CHRISTIANITY IN THE ROMAN FORUM: TERTULLIAN AND THE APOLOGETIC USE OF HISTORY BY MARK S. BURROWS Tertullian's Apology entered no empty world. The arena of late anti- quity bristled with debates regarding the nature of religion, society, and the gods. As the empire expanded, those discussions inevitably came to question the status of "new" or "foreign" religions, such as Chris- tianity. If we can rely on Dio Cassius' report of Maecenas' speech to the emperor Augustus, we have an early record of the Roman distrust of such aberrations: "Those who attempt to distort our religion you should abhor and punish, not merely for the sake of the gods, but because the emergence of new divinities in place of the old persuades many to adopt foreign practices, from which spring up conspiracies, factions, and political clubs which are far from profitable to a monar- chy."' Within this world which was skeptical of intrusions on the hallowed ground of "tradition," Tertullian's treatise was by no means the first attempt at a Christian apology. Such responses could already by this time look to the precedent of a developing genre. Before this apologist's contribution had appeared, Christian apologetics already claimed a mature http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Vigiliae Christianae Brill

Christianity in the Roman Forum

Burrows, Mark S.
Vigiliae Christianae , Volume 42 (3): 209 – Jan 1, 1988
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Publisher
Brill
Copyright
© 1988 Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands
ISSN
0042-6032
eISSN
1570-0720
DOI
10.1163/157007288X00228
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

CHRISTIANITY IN THE ROMAN FORUM: TERTULLIAN AND THE APOLOGETIC USE OF HISTORY BY MARK S. BURROWS Tertullian's Apology entered no empty world. The arena of late anti- quity bristled with debates regarding the nature of religion, society, and the gods. As the empire expanded, those discussions inevitably came to question the status of "new" or "foreign" religions, such as Chris- tianity. If we can rely on Dio Cassius' report of Maecenas' speech to the emperor Augustus, we have an early record of the Roman distrust of such aberrations: "Those who attempt to distort our religion you should abhor and punish, not merely for the sake of the gods, but because the emergence of new divinities in place of the old persuades many to adopt foreign practices, from which spring up conspiracies, factions, and political clubs which are far from profitable to a monar- chy."' Within this world which was skeptical of intrusions on the hallowed ground of "tradition," Tertullian's treatise was by no means the first attempt at a Christian apology. Such responses could already by this time look to the precedent of a developing genre. Before this apologist's contribution had appeared, Christian apologetics already claimed a mature

Journal

Vigiliae Christianae – Brill

Published: Jan 1, 1988

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