Tertullian's Unique Views about the Eucharist

What is it about?

Early Christian writings such as the Didache and Justin Martyr show that the eucharist was widely understood as a sacrificial offering to God. The ritual of the bread and wine made the space for early followers of Jesus to commune with each other as well as to offer their gratitude to God for provisioning their 'daily bread.' Most scholars would see this view - the eucharist as an oblation, a sacrifice - as nearly unanimous in Ante-Nicene Christianity. But this article argues that the African apologist and father of Latin Christianity, Tertullian of Carthage, is a notable exception. When his treatises are examined closely, sacrifice is consistently identified with prayer and good works rather than with the eucharist. Even when Tertullian is describing the eucharistic gathering, it is prayer 'offered with a clean conscience' in place of the eucharist that is emphasized as the Christian sacrifice par excellence. Tertullian's unique views here are explained as an effort to distance his Christianity from the carnal, shocking accusations and caricatures of his Roman opponents.

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Photo by Morgan Winston on Unsplash

Photo by Morgan Winston on Unsplash

Why is it important?

This project was ambitious; my findings challenge nearly two centuries of modern scholarly consensus and ultimately compliment the view that early Christian theology was less uniform than is sometimes imagined.