March 17, 2008: Tertullian on Idolatry - 0 Comments

"The principal crime of the human race, the highest guilt charged upon the world, the whole procuring cause of judgment, is idolatry. For, although each single fault retains its own proper feature, although it is destined to judgment under its own proper name also, yet it is marked off under the general account of idolatry. . . [All murder and adultery, for example are idolatry, for they arise because something is loved more than God - yet in turn, all idolatry is murder for it assaults God, and all idolatry is also adultery for it is unfaithfulness to God] . . . Thus it comes to pass, that in idolatry all crimes are detected, and in all crimes idolatry."

-- Tertullian (with notes by Tim Keller), On Idolatry, 220ish