Early African Church - Christian Literature of Africa

Christian Literature of Africa

The ecclesiastical literature of Christian Africa is the most important of Latin Christian literatures. The first name that presents itself is Tertullian, an admirable writer, much of whose work we still possess, notwithstanding the lacunae due to lost writings. Such works as the "Passio S. Perpetuae" have been attributed to him, but the great apologist stands so complete that he has no need to borrow from others. Not that Tertullian is always remarkable for style, ideas, and theology, but he has furnished matter for very suggestive studies. His style, indeed, is often exaggerated, but his faults are those of a period not far removed from the great age of Latin literature. Nor are all his ideas alike novel and original, so that what seems actually to be his own gains in importance on that very account. In contradistinction to the apologists of, and before, his time, Tertullian refused to make Christian apologetics merely defensive; he appealed to the law of the Empire, claimed the right to social existence, and took the offensive. His theology is sometimes daring, and even inaccurate; his morality inadmissible through very excess. Some of the treatises that come down to us were written after he separated from the Catholic Church. Yet, whatever verdict may be passed on him, his works remain among the most valuable of Christian antiquity. The lawyer, Minucius Felix, has shown so much literary skill in his short treatises of a few pages that he has deservedly attained to fame. The correspondence, treatises, and sermons of St. Cyprian, Bishop of Carthage, belong approximately to the middle of the 3rd century, the correspondence forming one of the most valuable sources for the history of Christianity in Africa and the West during his time. His relations with the Church of Rome, the councils of Carthage, his endless disputes with the African bishops, take the place, to some extent, of the lost documents of the period. St. Cyprian, indeed, although an orator before he became a bishop, is not Tertullian's equal in the matter of style. His treatises are well composed, and written with art; they do not, however, contain that inexhaustible abundance of views and perspectives that are the sole privilege of certain very lofty minds. Arnobius, the author of an apology for Christianity, is of a secondary interest; Lactantius, more cultured and more literary, only belongs to Africa by reason of the richness of his genius. The peculiar bent of his talent is purely Ciceronian, nor was he trained in the schools of his native land. Among these, each of whom has his name and place, there moved others, almost unknown, or hidden under an impenetrable anonymousness. Writings collected among the Spuria of Latin literature have been sometimes attributed to Tertullian, sometimes to St. Cyprian, or even to Pope Victor, the contemporary of the Emperor Commodus. Other authors, again, such as Maximius of Madaura and Victorinus, stand, with Optatus of Milevi, in the front rank of African literature in the 4th century, before the appearance of St. Augustine.

The literary labours of St. Augustine are so closely connected with his work as a bishop, that it is difficult, at the present time, to separate one from the other. He wrote not for the sake of writing, but for the sake of doing. From the year 386 onward, his treatises appeared every year. Such profuseness is often detrimental to their literary worth; but what is more injurious, however, was his own carelessness concerning beauty of form, of which he hardly ever seems to think in his solicitude about other things. His aim above all else was to ensure conviction. The result is that we have the few beautiful passages that fell from his pen. It is to the loftiness of his thought, rather than to the culture of his mind, that we owe certain pages which are admirable, but not perfect. The language of Augustine was Latin indeed, but a Latin that had already entered on its decline. His desire was to be understood, not to be admired, which explains the shortcomings of his work in respect of style. But when from his style we pass to his thoughts, we may admire almost unreservedly. Even here we find occasional traces of bad taste, but it is the taste of his period: florid, fond of glitter, puns, refinements-in a word, of the weaknesses of contemporary Latin. Of all St. Augustine's vast labours, the most important, as they are among the first Christian writings, are: The "Confessions," the "City of God," and the "Commentary on the Gospel of St. John." As regards theology, his works gave Christianity an impulse that was felt for centuries. The doctrine of the Trinity supplied him with matter for the most finished exposition to be found among the works of the Doctors of the Church. Other writers, theologians, poets, or historians, are to be met with after St. Augustine's time, but their names, honourable as they are, cannot compare in fame with the great ones we record as belonging to the 3rd and 4th centuries. The endeavour of St. Fulgentius, Bishop of Ruspe, is to think and write as a faithful disciple of St. Augustine. Dracontius, a meritorious poet, lacks elevation. Only an occasional line deserves a place among the poetry that does not die. Victor of Vita, an impetuous historian, makes us sometimes wish, in presence of his too literary descriptions, for the monotonous simplicity of the chronicles, with their rigorous exactness. In the theological or historical writings of Facundus of Hermiane, Verecundus, and Victor of Tunnunum, may be found bursts of passion of literary merit, but often of doubtful historical accuracy.

The writings of African authors, e.g., Tertullian and St. Augustine, are full of quotations drawn from the Sacred Scriptures. These fragmentary texts are among the most ancient witnesses to the Latin Bible, and are of great importance, not only in connection with the formation of the style and vocabulary of the Christian writers of Africa, but also in regard to the establishment of the biblical text. Africa is represented at the present day by a group of texts that preserved a version commonly known as the "African Version" of the New Testament. It may now be taken as certain that there never existed in early Christian Africa an official Latin text known to all the Churches, or used by the faithful to the exclusion of all others. The African bishops willingly allowed corrections to be made in a copy of the Sacred Scriptures, or even a reference, when necessary, to the Greek text. With some exceptions, it was the Septuagint text that prevailed, for the Old Testament, until the 4th century. In the case of the New, the MSS. were of the western type. (See Bible, Canon.) On this basis arose a variety of translations and interpretations. The existence of a number of versions of the Bible in Africa does not imply, however, that no one version was more widely used and generally received than the rest, i.e., the version found nearly complete in the works of St. Cyprian. Yet even this version was not without rivals. Apart from discrepancies in two quotations of the same text in the works of two different authors, and sometimes of the same author, we know that of several books of Scripture there were versions wholly independent of each other. At least three different versions of Daniel were used in Africa during the 3rd century. In the middle of the fourth, the Donatist Tychonius uses and collates two versions of the Apocalypse.