ABSTRACT
Perhaps the two most oft-quoted lines from Tertullian are ‘Therefore what of Athens and Jerusalem? What of the academy and the church?’ (On the Prescriptions of Heretics 7.9) and ‘I believe it because it is absurd (credo quia absurdum est)’. From this, it is only natural that he has often been considered as a fideist and opponent of philosophy rather than as a rationalist. The fact that what Tertullian wrote in Latin is actually credibile est, quia ineptum est (On the Flesh of Christ 5.4) should be enough to make us want to look more carefully at Tertullian’s position with regard to the relationship between faith and reason and the broader issue of the relationship between Christianity and philosophy. As Osborn writes: ‘Some writers take the passage by itself and find irrationalism, while others look at the context and find rational argument.’ (Osborn 1997a:48-9).
