Tertullian on Freedom of Religion

 "Let one worship God, another Jupiter."

The Christian author Tertullian of Carthage (ca. 160-ca. 225) has a reputation of being strict and rigorous. His writings are famous for their moral admonitions and fire-and-brimstone passages. There is, however, more to Tertullian than this, and for instance his view on freedom of religion is liberal and easily applicable to a modern context.
In Tertullian's time Christians were persecuted and threatened because of their religion. Christians were also forced to worship other gods than their own to prove their loyalty to the surrounding society. Tertullian thus argued for freedom of religion from a minority perspective and was in a way forced to argue as he did within his particular historical situation. However, Tertullian did not promote freedom of religion as something that should be granted only to Christians - it is a principle for him. He calls freedom of religion  a "human right" (humani iuris) and a privilege of nature (naturalis potestatis). Tertullian argues that forced worship cannot satisfy gods: "No being, not even a man, will desire to be worshipped by an unwilling person..." Another one of Tertullian's points is that "one man's religion neither harms nor helps another man." Tertullian thus points to the benefits of worship as being primarily individual and dependent on the will that lies behind.
Nowadays freedom of religion is - in theory - almost universally acknowledged as a human right according to the 18th article in the Universal Declarations of Human Rights. But history shows that the practice of freedom of religion is often neglected. One example of this is the frequent persecutions of Jews in the course of history - just recently, it was exactly 75 years ago that the so-called "Crystal Night" took place in Germany with raids against Jews and their property. Another example of the neglect of freedom of religion is the contemporary mistreatment of Christians in areas in the Middle East.
Below you find two passages where Tertullian writes about his idea of freedom of religion. In this case I find Tertullian's thoughts to be a useful reminder also today.

Maria Munkholt

Tertullian: Ad Scapulam 2,2

"However, it is a fundamental human right, a privilege of nature, that every man should worship according to his own convictions: one man's religion neither harms nor helps another man. It is assuredly no part of religion to compel religion - to which free-will and not force should lead us - the sacrificial victims even being required of a willing mind. You will render no real service to your gods by compelling us to sacrifice. For they can have no desire of offerings from the unwilling, unless they are animated by a spirit of contention, which is a thing altogether undivine." (translated by Rev. S. Thelwall, 1869)

"Tamen humani iuris et naturalis potestatis est unicuique quod putauerit colere; nec alii obest aut prodest alterius religio. Sed nec religionis est cogere religionem, quae sponte suscipi debeat, non ui, cum et hostiae ab animo libenti expostulentur. Ita etsi nos compuleritis ad sacrificandum, nihil praestabitis diis uestris: ab inuitis enim sacrificia non desiderabunt, nisi si contentiosi sunt; contensiosus  autem Deus non est." (ed. Dekkers, 1954).

Tertullian: Apologeticum 24,5-9

"Let one worship God, another Jupiter; let one hold out suppliant hands to the sky, another to the altar of Fides; let one, if such is your opinion, count the clouds while he prays, another the panels of the ceiling; let one dedicate to his God his own life, another the life of a goat. Beware, too, lest this also should be combined with the charge of irreligion, the taking away of the liberty of worship and the forbidding of the choice of a god, so that I should be prevented from worshipping him whom I will, but should be compelled to worship (another) against my will. No being, not even a man, will desire to be worshipped by an unwilling person; and yet even the Egyptians were allowed the power of such a foolish superstition, for the deification of birds and beasts, and the condemnation to death of any one who had killed a god of this sort. Each province also and city-state has its own god, as Syria has Astartes, as Arabia Dusares, as the Norici have Belenus, as Africa has Caelestis, Mauretania its own chieftains. It is a list of Eoman provinces that I have given, I think, and yet their gods are not Roman, because they are not more worshipped at Rome than those who throughout Italy itself also are ranked as gods from municipal consecration: Deluentinus of Casinum, Visidianus of Narnia, Ancharia of Asculum, Nortia of Volsinii, Valentia of Ocriculum, Hostia of Sutrium, Juno of the Falisci, who also received the surname (Curritis) in honour of Father Curis. But we alone are debarred from a religion of our own. We offend the Romans and are not considered Romans because we do not worship the god of the Romans. It is well that there is a God of all, to whom willy nilly we all belong. But among you it is lawful to worship anything except the true God, as if He to whom we all belong were not rather the God of all." (translated by Souter, 1917).

"Colat alius deum, alius Iovem; alius ad caelum manus supplices tendat, alius ad aram Fidei manus; alius (si hoc putatis) nubes numeret orans, alius lacunaria; alius suam animam deo suo voveat, alius hirci. Videte enim, ne et hoc ad irreligiositatis elogium concurrat, adimere libertatem religionis et interdicere optionem divinitatis, ut non liceat mihi colere quem velim, sed cogar colere quem nolim. Nemo se ab invito coli volet, ne homo quidem. Atque adeo et Aegyptiis permissa est tam vanae superstitionis potestas avibus et bestiis consecrandis et capite damnandi qui aliquem huiusmodi deum occideri<n>t. Unicuique etiam provinciae et civitati suus deus est, ut Syriae Atargatis, ut Arabiae Dusares, ut Norici<s> Belenus, ut Africae Caelestis, ut Mauritaniae reguli sui. Romanas, ut opinor, provincias edidi, nec tamen Romanos deos earum, quia Romae non magis coluntur quam qui per ipsam quoque Italiam municipali consecratione censentur: Casi[a]niensium Deluentinus, Narnensium Visidianus, A[e]sculanorum Ancharia, Volsiniensium Nortia, Ocriculanorum Valentia, Sutrinorum Hostia; Faliscorum in honorem patris Curris et accepit cognomen Iuno. Sed nos soli arcemur a religionis proprietate. Laedimus Romanos nec Romani habemur, qui non Romanorum deum colimus. Bene quod omnium deus est, cuius, velimus ac nolimus, omnes sumus. Sed apud vos quodvis colere ius est praeter deum verum, quasi non hic magis omnium sit deus, cuius omnes sumus."(ed. by Becker 1961).