| Abstract: | Astute scholars have already pointed to the fact that it isTertullian's vehement anti-docetism that best explains his rejectionof the notion that Mary's virginity did not relate only to thequestion of the conception of Jesus. Insistence on Mary's virginityin the act of giving birth (in partu) or thereafter (post partum)would, for Tertullian, weaken the argument that Jesus was possessedof true humanity in his flesh. This important question in historicaltheology is revisited from the literary perspective of rhetoricalcriticism. I wish to argue that it is really Tertullian's handlingof Scripture as an evidential tool in the construction of arhetorical position that allows him to use reference to Mary'svirginity as part of his anti-docetic position. A close examinationof the rhetoric of Tertullian's De Carne Christi will illustratethis point. |
