Jason Robert Combs: (En)gendering Christian Dreams: Tertullian, Authority, and a Visionary Woman in Carthage

In De Anima 9, Tertullian describes a woman in his congregation who regularly experienced dream-visions during church services. After the congregation was dismissed, a small group, which included Tertullian, examined this woman’s dream-accounts to determine their legitimacy. Previous studies of this account have interpreted it within the context of the New Prophecy movement (e.g., Amat, Waszink, Miller, and von Dörnberg) without consideration of the complicated gender dynamics inherent in the passage. From the immediate context, it is not clear whether the practice of examining dream-visions was common for everyone in Tertullian’s congregation or whether it was required for this woman because of her gender. Additionally, it is not clear whether any women participated with Tertullian in examining the dream-visions of the unnamed woman. By contrasting the account in De Anima 9 with Tertullian’s other contemporary dreams accounts (De Spec. 26, De Virg. Vel. 17, De Idol. 15) and situating them within the larger context of gendered dream-practices in the Greco-Roman world (as characterized by Artemidorus, Aelius Aristides, Apuleius, etc.), I show that dream-visions functioned as ambiguous cultural currency that required external authority for legitimization. I demonstrate how gender dynamics complicated the relationship between dreams and their legitimacy depending on a woman’s current social status. I conclude that unauthorized male visionaries in Tertullian’s community would likely undergo a similar interrogation; nevertheless, gender dynamics further limited the opportunities for a woman’s dream to be socially accepted in Christian Carthage.