"God is never anything other than society": A materialistic interpretation of Tertullian's theodicy in "De praescriptione haereticorum"

According to Pierre Bourdieu, theodicy is always sociodicy, that is, theodicy functions as an important rhetorical device which does not deal with an eschatological compensation for present suffering but rather with the justification of God and its creation. In this sense, the religious dimension of the problem of evil is replaced by three other aspects that characterize the sense of theodicy (and sociodicy): (1) every form of the sacred has its profane complement; (2) the question of the origin of evil becomes a questioning of the meaning of human existence only in the privileged classes; (3) people who ask this question are interested in a justification for existing in a determinate social position and existing as they exist. Aim of this paper is to profitably apply this Bourdieu-oriented understanding of theodicy to Tertullian’s treatise "De Praescriptione Haereticorum".