Tertullian on Athens and Jerusalem
“What has Athens to do with Jerusalem? What concord is there between the Academy and the Church?”
Plain English
Tertullian is not making a geography point. "Athens" means speculative Greek philosophy and the academy; "Jerusalem" means the apostolic faith received in the Church.
Why it matters
The line became a famous warning against letting fashionable intellectual systems rewrite Christian doctrine.
About Tertullian
Tertullian gave the Latin West much of the vocabulary it still uses to speak about God. He wrote when serious Christian theology was still mostly Greek, and he made Latin bear words such as Trinity, person, substance, sacrament, and New Testament. Augustine and later Western theologians could argue with greater precision because Tertullian had already made the language possible. His later Montanism kept him from the usual saintly category, but his words outlived the controversy.
- Lifespan
- c. 155 – c. 220
- Era
- Ante Nicene
- Born in
- Carthage
- Region
- Africa
Daily Patristic Wisdom in your inbox
Get one early Church quote each morning, with historical context in plain English. Free. Unsubscribe whenever.