Negotia Christianorum ... (Apologeticum 39,1-20). A study of some salient themes of the moral life and discipline in the daily life of early Christian communities - 2nd & 3rd CE. Tertullian and the Case of North Africa

Abstract

In this article, the author attempts an appreciation, description and critical evaluation, of the theological and sociological implications of some of the major philanthropic and other religious activities (negotia) practiced within Christian communities of the second and third centuries CE which Tertullian had come across. The North African theologian meant to bring to the light of day the nature and content of these activities in order to appreciate them and defend them against the

futility and injustice of pagan criticism and because of which those quiet and law- abiding citizens Christians in North Africa were being harshly and unjustly harassed

and persecuted. Fr Salvino Caruana OSA is Senior Lecturer in the Department of Church History and Patrology in the Faculty of Theology at the University of Malta, and Director of the Augustinian Institute - Pieta.