Tertullian, answered from the texts and cited to the page.
Not "faith against reason." That pair is not mine. Mine is the Church against the schools, and the question is one of title: whose are the Scriptures, and who was there first? Philosophy is the mother of heresies, and I will name the children. Valentinus, of Plato's school, brought out his Aeons and his trinity of man; Marcion's better god, with all his tranquillity, came of the Stoics; the death of the soul is Epicurus; matter made equal to God is Zeno; the god of fire is Heraclitus walking in.1
The same questions are chewed over by heretic and philosopher alike: whence comes evil, why is it permitted, whence is man, and whence is God? Valentinus, latest in the line, settles that last one with enthymesis and ectroma. Unhappy Aristotle, who invented for such men the art of building up and pulling down, an art that embarrasses even itself, retracting everything and treating of nothing!2
Hence the apostle. He had been at Athens and had tasted that human wisdom which pretends to know the truth while corrupting it, and he warned the Colossians that no one should beguile them through philosophy and vain deceit.3 So I ask: what has Athens to do with Jerusalem? What concord between the Academy and the Church? Our instruction comes from the porch of Solomon, who taught that the Lord is sought in simplicity of heart.
Away with a mottled Christianity of Stoic, Platonic and dialectic composition! Having Christ Jesus, we want no curious disputation; having the gospel, no inquisition.3 The famous "Seek, and ye shall find" does not open the door again. The Lord said it at the outset, when it was still doubtful to all whether he were the Christ, and it was said to the Jews, who had a revelation in which to seek him.4
A man who goes on seeking after Christ confesses he has not found him. Do I therefore refuse reason? Not for a moment. I refuse the schools' title to judge. When I take up the soul against the philosophers I do not retire into silence; I fight them with their own weapons, shattering their arguments from the principles of things and setting against them the maxims of heavenly wisdom revealed by the Lord.5
Inquiry has its limit, where a question can be solved. The apostle forbids endless questions, and nothing is found but what is learned of God.6 So in Against Marcion I have shown that every one of his tenets has a philosophical parent, and then set the plain verity of the Catholic faith against it: God made all things out of nothing, the same flesh that died will rise, Christ was born of a virgin's womb.
Philosophers, heretics and heathen laugh at this, because God has chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise.7 A borrowed tool is not a borrowed judge.
Philosophy has no standing in the Church. The heresies are its children: Valentinus comes from Plato, Marcion from the Stoics, the denial of resurrection from Epicurus. Once a man has the rule of faith he needs no inquisition after it, and the itch to go on asking is itself the disease. But this is a refusal of philosophy's authority, not of reason.
The soul untaught by any school testifies to God; nature is the first teacher and God the teacher of the teacher; the argument that no one would invent a crucified God is an argument, made in the forms the schools taught him.891011
From this source came the Aeons, and I known not what infinite forms, and the trinity of man in the system of Valentinus, who was of Plato's school. From the same source came Marcion's better god, with all his tranquillity; he came of the Stoics.The Prescription Against Heretics
Unhappy Aristotle! who invented for these men dialectics, the art of building up and pulling down; an art so evasive in its propositions, so far-fetched in its conjectures, so harsh, in its arguments, so productive of contentions—embarrassing even to itself, retracting everything, and really treating of nothing!The Prescription Against Heretics
What indeed has Athens to do with Jerusalem? What concord is there between the Academy and the Church? what between heretics and Christians? Our instruction comes from \"the porch of Solomon,\" who had himself taught that \"the Lord should be sought in simplicity of heart.\"The Prescription Against Heretics
With good reason, therefore, was it then said, \"Seek, and ye shall find,\" when inquiry was still be to made of Him who was not yet become known. Besides, this was said in respect of the Jews.The Prescription Against Heretics
it will be for Christians to clear away, both by shattering to pieces the arguments which are drawn from the principles of things-I mean those of the philosophers-and by opposing to them the maxims of heavenly wisdom-that is, such as are revealed by the LordA Treatise on the Soul
for \"endless questions\" the apostle forbids. It must, however, be added, that no solution may be found by any man, but such as is learned from GodA Treatise on the Soul
firmly believes that He produced all things out of nothing, and promises to us a restoration from the grave of the same flesh (that died) and holds without a blush that Christ was born of the virgin's womb! At this, philosophers, and heretics, and the very heathen, laugh and jeer.The Five Books Against Marcion
The Holy Ghost had even then foreseen that there would be in a certain virgin (called) Philumene an angel of deceit, "transformed into an angel of light," by whose miracles and illusions Apelles was led (when) he introduced his new heresy. Chapter VII.-Pagan Philosophy the Parent of Heresies. The Connection Between Deflections from Christian Faith and the Old Systems of Pagan Philosophy.The Prescription Against Heretics
Besides the question which Valentinus has very lately proposed—Whence comes God? Which he settles with the answer: From enthymesis and ectroma.The Prescription Against Heretics
For he says above that we are "reconciled in His body through death; " meaning, of course, that He died in that body wherein death was possible through the flesh: (therefore he adds,) not through the Church (per ecclesiam), but expressly for the sake of the Church (proper ecclesiam), exchanging body for body----one of flesh for a spiritual one.The Five Books Against Marcion
But in the few words there always arises certainty to him; nor is he permitted to give his inquiries a wider range than is compatible with their solution; for "endless questions" the apostle forbids. It must, however, be added, that no solution may be found by any man, but such as is learned from God; and that which is learned of God is the sum and substance of the whole thing.A Treatise on the Soul
The position he is known for and mostly misread on. Taken as fideism since the seventeenth century; the texts show a rhetorician refusing philosophy as a rival court while arguing from nature at every turn.