Tertullian

(c. 160 - c. 220)

Born around 160 in Carthage to pagan parents, Tertullian converted to the Christian church while in his mid-thirties. He wrote the Apology, a defense of Christianity, around 197. As the founder of Latin Christian theology, he was also an early exponent of Christian life and thought in the West. He saw no correlation between faith and philosophy, and once posed the question, “What has Athens to do with Jerusalem?” The Apology offers one of the first descriptions of agapē, the love feast of early Christians.