Tertullian not positive and warmth of 1 John but a largely negative morality; avoidance of sin and fearsome preparation for the coming day of judgment seem more imporant than thankful acceptance of God's grace in the gift of his son.
concentration on lordship of Christ combined with rigorous morality of obedience including love of brothers and enemies, nonresistence to evil, prohibitiions of anger and lustful look...puritan...

conflict not with nature but culture where sin resides...comes close to thought that original sin is transmitted through society
vices he condemns..."the most viscious thing, of course, is social, pagan religion, with its polytheism and idolatry, its beliefs and rites, its sensuality and its commericalization.
So political life is to be shuned more drastic in pronouncing prohibilitions of philosophy and the arts (no sympathy with connections between faith and ideas of Greek Philosophers.
he could not emancipate himself and the church from reliance on and participation in culture, pagan though it was. Me> notion of human wisdom? or More