““Tertullian presents the Christian assemblies in terms that non-Christian readers would recognize; he attempts to establish common ground. But Tertullian is also interested in differentiating the Christian assemblies from the collegia. He does this especially by looking, not at the written constitutions of the groups, but at the configuration of activities, customs, and reflexes that constitutes the groups’ habitus. The ways Christians behave, Tertullian is convinced, are their most articulate statements. As he puts it on the last page of his Apology, Christians “teach by deeds.””
