The Ancient Witnesses

Chapter 1: A Journey to Nicaea • 45

out-debate any heretic or intellectual. For this reason, he was much admired and in-demand as a controversialist 6 in the Church: he had an amazing gift for words and for debating. In a memorable line, he wrote that the heretic Praxeus had “crucified the Father and chased away the Holy Spirit”—a reference to modalism. 7 But Tertullian lacked patience with Church leaders, especially bishops who were unable to match wits with him. He called some of them fools, and quickly fell out of favor with those who formerly called on him to serve the Church with his gifts. He would have died all alone but was invited to join a divisive group known as the Montanists. They also condemned the high Church leaders, and isolated themselves far from Rome in a remote place where they considered themselves to be the only true Church. I felt kinship and sympathy for this ancient believer who, single handedly, had defeated notorious heretics, invented Trinitarian language (speaking of the divine “Persons” of the Trinity), and was known in our day as the Father of Christian theology in the Latin language. His attitude toward Roman Church leaders and his association with the Montanists stained his otherwise brilliant record, keeping him off the roles, so to speak, of the fathers and doctors of the Church. Origen of Alexandria He was born in the legendary city named for Alexander the Great, who conqueror the then known world and became the ambassador of Greek culture. Origen’s parents

6 Christian leaders who would debate unbelievers in public before an audience.

7 The view that God appeared in different modes of being (see chapter 2).