Skip to main content Accessibility help

We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.

Close cookie message
×
  1. Home
  2. Search

Refine search

Refine search

Access:
Content type:
Publication date:
Apply   From and To filters
Subject: Show more
Journals Show more
Publishers: Show more
Societies Show more
Series: Show more
Collections: Show more

Actions for selected content:

Select all | Deselect all
  • View selected items
  • Export citations
  • Download PDF (zip)
  • Save to Kindle
  • Save to Dropbox
  • Save to Google Drive

Save Search

You can save your searches here and later view and run them again in "My saved searches".

Please provide a title, maximum of 40 characters.
Cancel
×

17 results

  • 21 - North Africa

  • from Part IV - Regional Varieties of Christianity in the First Three Centuries
  • Edited by Margaret M. Mitchell, University of Chicago, Frances M. Young, University of Birmingham
  • Book:
    The Cambridge History of Christianity
    Published online:
    28 March 2008
    Print publication:
    19 January 2006, pp 380-396

  • Summary

    Literary evidence for Christianity in North Africa in the first three centuries comes from Tertullian, Minucius Felix, Cyprian, Commodian, Pseudo-Cyprian, and various homilies and stories of martyrdom. It illustrates the beliefs of the Christian communities, their structures and practices. African social organisation was primarily tribal until the arrival of the Phoenicians, whose culture centred on cities. In general, Africans used Romanisation when it was to their own advantage. The Semitic roots of Punic religion raise the question of the origins of Christianity in Rome. There was great respect for Christians at Rome, but no tradition of a foundation from that city. The intransigence of African Christianity manifests itself from the very beginning through martyrdom and apology. Christians in Africa were persecuted intermittently from 180 until 305. True heirs of African Christianity, they maintained literal and strict interpretations of scripture and a culture of martyrdom. They fostered unity and collegiality among those who continued to oppose the Roman state.

  • Dilatory Donatists or Procrastinating Catholics: The Trial at the Conference of Carthage

  • Maureen A. Tilley
  • Journal:
    Church History / Volume 60 / Issue 1 / March 1991
    Published online by Cambridge University Press:
    28 July 2009, pp. 7-19
    Print publication:
    March 1991

  • In the year 411 the bishops of Christian North Africa, Augustine among them, assembled in Carthage to debate whether Catholics or Donatists should be recognized as the true Christian church in North Africa. Although most biographies of Augustine and histories of Christianity in North Africa mention this conference, they spend little time on the substance of the discussion which took place between the two parties. Accusations by fourthcentury Catholics, especially Augustine, and remarks by modern commentators often charge the Donatists with delaying the debate on the real issues of the Conference by interventions and procedural motions which served no useful purpose. Even W. H. C. Frend in The Donatist Church, and Peter Brown in his biography of Augustine take Catholic propaganda on this issue at face value.

  • Scripture as an Element of Social Control: Two Martyr Stories of Christian North Africa

  • Maureen A. Tilley
  • Journal:
    Harvard Theological Review / Volume 83 / Issue 4 / October 1990
    Published online by Cambridge University Press:
    10 June 2011, pp. 383-397
    Print publication:
    October 1990

  • The martyr stories, the earliest hagiographical writings, were not composed simply as memorials to the courage of those who preferred death to apostasy. Their authors recorded the stories both to preserve beliefs and to enforce norms of behavior. The authors of the martyr stories often provided explicit testimony to why they wrote. They expected the stories to proclaim the validity of the charismatic authority of the martyrs, to manifest martyrs as exemplars of virtue, and to show people how to react during interrogation by Roman authorities. Thus the readers were inscribed in the narratives as potential martyrs. They came to know the attitudes they ought to have, the phrases they should use to parry the insults of their tormentors, and the prayers they should offer for endurance. In this way those who promulgated the martyr stories achieved or attempted to achieve some control over the behavior and beliefs of readers by assigning value to community standards. In doing so the stories provided cohesion and stability for their churches.