Would It Be Lawfull to Take the Sword, When the Lord Proclaims Whoever Uses the Sword Will Perish for It? Tertullian and Military Service Controversy (3rd Century)
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.11606/issn.2177-4218.v12i2p303-320Keywords:
Roman Empire, Tertullian, Christianity, Military ServiceAbstract
This article aims to analyze the thinking of the North African writer Tertullian regarding the controversy of Christian military service. For that, we selected two of his works, namely: De Idololatria and De Corona. The question raised by Tertullian in these treaties shows a Christianity concerned not only with maintaining the status quo of a Christian ethic, considering all the controversies surrounding military service itself (sacrifices to the gods and the emperor and the obligation to torture and murder enemies), but, above all, it exposes an urgent need for identity differentiation with its rival cult, Mithraism, which gathered a large part of its followers in the Roman military ranks.
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