the mystical theology of valentin weigel - DataSpace at Princeton ...

Tertullian’s De Fuga in Persecutione is another locus classicus for the necessity
of witnessing, arguing that persecution should be welcomed as a divine test of faith: “For
what else is the result of a persecution, what finally is its effect, if not the approval or
condemnation, when God puts the faith of His children to the test? In this sense, then, a
persecution is a ‘judgment,’ and the verdict is either approval or condemnation. To be
sure, to God alone it belongs to judge, and this is His winnowing fan which even now
cleanses the Lord’s threshing floor—His Church, winnowing the mixed heap of the
faithful and separating the wheat of the martyrs from the chaff of the cowards.” 89 In
Tertullian’s view, Weigel would most certainly qualify as chaff rather than wheat. In fact,
Tertullian might have been doubly critical of Weigel for not speaking up, since his public
ministry placed him in a special position of authority. As he writes: “But when persons in
authority themselves—I mean the very deacons, and presbyters, and bishops— take to
flight...When the leaders run away, who of the common crowd can hope to persuade
anyone to stand firm in battle?” 90
Rather than accusing Weigel of cowardice in the face of persecution, as discussed
above, perhaps we might analyse his decision not to testify as a decision to admit
calculation into religious behaviour, rather than the calculation-free attitude of the martyr
(the obligation to testify no matter the cost). Thinking of decision making as risk
management is considered a hallmark of the modern and secular world, dating back not
much further than the seventeenth century, where the modern world is said to think of the
world as a complex system that can be (at least partially) known and (to a certain extent)
89 Tertullian, Disciplinary, Moral and Ascetical Works, trans. Rudolph Arbesmann, Emily Joseph Daly and
Edwin A. Quain (New York: Fathers of the Church, Inc., 1959), 276. See also Eduard Christen, Märtyrer,
Vol. 22, in Theologische Realenzyklopädie (Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, 1991), 196-220.
90 Tertullian, 276.
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