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Tertullian
Ad Nationes

Ad Nationes

By Tertullian

Table of Contents

Title Page
Chapter I. --The Hatred Felt by the Heathen Against the Christians is Unjust, Because Based on Culpable Ignorance.
Chapter II. --The Heathen Perverted Judgment in the Trial of Christians
Chapter III. --The Great Offence in the Christians Lies in Their Very Name. The Name Vindicated.
Chapter IV. --The Truth Hated in the Christians; So in Measure Was It, of Old, in Socrates. The Virtues of the Christians.
Chapter V. --The Inconsistent Life of Any False Christian No More Condemns True Disciples of Christ, Than a Passing Cloud Obscures a Summer Sky.
Chapter VI. --The Innocence of the Christians Not Compromised by the Iniquitous Laws Which Were Made Against Them.
Chapter VII. --The Christians Defamed A Sarcastic Description of Fame; Its Deception and Atrocious Slanders of the Christians Lengthily Described.
Chapter VIII. --The Calumny Against the Christians Illustrated in the Discovery of Psammetichus Refutation of the Story.
Chapter IX. --The Christians are Not the Cause of Public Calamities: There Were Such Troubles Before Christianity.
Chapter X. --The Christians are Not the Only Contemners of the Gods Contempt of Them Often Displayed by Heathen Official Persons. Homer Made the Gods Contemptible.
Chapter XI. --The Absurd Cavil of the Ass's Head Disposed of.
Chapter XII. --The Charge of Worshipping a Cross The Heathens Themselves Made Much of Crosses in Sacred Things; Nay, Their Very Idols Were Formed on a Crucial Frame.
Chapter XIII. --The Charge of Worshipping the Sun Met by a Retort.
Chapter XIV. --The Vile Calumny About Onocoetes Retorted on the Heathen by Tertullian.
Chapter XV. --The Charge of Infanticide Retorted on the Heathen.
Chapter XVI. --Other Charges Repelled by the Same Method The Story of the Noble Roman Youth and His Parents.
Chapter XVII. --The Christian Refusal to Swear by the Genius of Cæsar Flippancy and Irreverence Retorted on the Heathen.
Chapter XVIII. --Christians Charged with an Obstinate Contempt of Death Instances of the Same are Found Amongst the Heathen.
Chapter XIX. --If Christians and the Heathen Thus Resemble Each Other, There is Great Difference in the Grounds and Nature of Their Apparently Similar Conduct.
Chapter XX.--Truth and Reality Pertain to Christians Alone The Heathen Counselled to Examine and Embrace It.
Chapter I.--The Heathen Gods from Heathen Authorities
Chapter II.--Philosophers Had Not Succeeded in Discovering God The Uncertainty and Confusion of Their Speculations.
Chapter III.--The Physical Philosophers Maintained the Divinity of the Elements; The Absurdity of the Tenet Exposed.
Chapter IV.--Wrong Derivation of the Word Theos The Name Indicative of the True Deity. God Without Shape and Immaterial. Anecdote of Thales.
Chapter V.--The Physical Theory Continued Further Reasons Advanced Against the Divinity of the Elements.
Chapter VI.--The Changes of the Heavenly Bodies, Proof that They are Not Divine. Transition from the Physical to the Mythic Class of Gods.
Chapter VII.--The Gods of the Mythic Class The Poets a Very Poor Authority in Such Matters. Homer and the Mythic Poets. Why Irreligious.
Chapter VIII.--The Gods of the Different Nations Varro's Gentile Class. Their Inferiority. A Good Deal of This Perverse Theology Taken from Scripture. Serapis a Perversion of Joseph.
Chapter IX.--The Power of Rome Romanized Aspect of All the Heathen Mythology. Varro's Threefold Distribution Criticised. Roman Heroes (Æneas Included,) Unfavourably Reviewed.
Chapter X.--A Disgraceful Feature of the Roman Mythology It Honours Such Infamous Characters as Larentina.
Chapter XI.--The Romans Provided Gods for Birth, Nay, Even Before Birth, to Death Much Indelicacy in This System.
Chapter XII. --The Original Deities Were Human--With Some Very Questionable Characteristics Saturn or Time Was Human. Inconsistencies of Opinion About Him.
Chapter XIII. --The Gods Human at First. Who Had the Authority to Make Them Divine? Jupiter Not Only Human, But Immoral.
Chapter XIV.--Gods, Those Which Were Confessedly Elevated to the Divine Condition, What Pre-Eminent Right Had They to Such Honour? Hercules an Inferior Character.
Chapter XV.--The Constellations and the Genii Very Indifferent Gods The Roman Monopoly of Gods Unsatisfactory. Other Nations Require Deities Quite as Much.
Chapter XVI.--Inventors of Useful Arts Unworthy of Deification They Would Be the First to Acknowledge a Creator. The Arts Changeable from Time to Time, and Some Become Obsolete.
Chapter XVII. --Conclusion, the Romans Owe Not Their Imperial Power to Their Gods The Great God Alone Dispenses Kingdoms, He is the God of the Christians.
Appendix.
Elucidation.