In Germany, Rutgers Grad Student Delves Deep Into Research on the Father of Latin Theology

Tobias Robert Philip is engrossed with the classics, namely the study of ancient Greek and Roman literature and languages, and Tertullian, deemed the father of Latin theology.

Philip, who joined Rutgers University-New Brunswick in 2020 after completing his bachelor degree in Greek and Latin at Swarthmore College, has taught courses on Plato and ancient athletics as well as year-long and summer language courses in Greek and Latin. At Rutgers, Philip earned a master degree in the classics and is pursuing a doctoral degree in the same field.

Aided with a grant from the Fulbright U.S. Student Program, the resident of Brooklyn, New York, is in Heidelberg, Germany, where he is researching and writing his dissertation, “Tertullian and the Philosophical Tradition of Anti-Spectacle Thought.”

The 26-year-old discusses his love for Latin, his dissertation focused on the early Christian rejection of gladiator fights and other Roman spectacles and his fondness for opera and architecture.

What brought you to Rutgers?

The Department of Classics, which has supported my special research interest in the field and given me extraordinary opportunities to teach.

What drew you to your field of study?

Latin was the first foreign language I learned, and I fell in love with it immediately.

There are certainly many ancient authors I love reading, but what I value most in classical philology is the special ability it gives us to engage with people from the ancient past on their own terms—and the ancients saw the world incredibly differently from the way we do.

Briefly describe your Fulbright study-abroad project.

I am researching and writing my dissertation about the early Christian rejection of the Roman public spectacles – like gladiator fights, chariot races and theater. My project aims to establish how Tertullian, the most important pioneer in this early Christian criticism, drew from ancient philosophy like Plato and Seneca to make his case against the spectacles. In Heidelberg, I am working with an expert on this philosophical background.

What have you gained from your study-abroad experience?

Being in a new department – especially one in another country where the classics are taught differently – has exposed me to new people and new ideas on a daily basis, in a way that only being physically planted in a place can. That benefit is very hard to quantify, but it’s been the greatest boon to my research and my formation as a scholar holistically.

It’s been very useful to see how the classics are taught in another country, and Heidelberg especially is a philologist’s paradise with its emphasis on the close textual study of Latin and Greek literature on the level of language. Some of Heidelberg’s contributions are more easily perceptible – like the insights that early printed editions from the library here have given me to Tertullian’s reception history or the excellent comments from the academic supervisor of my work here – and some are less so (this environment is more conducive to writing than any I’ve ever lived in).

How do you plan to apply what you’ve learned moving forward?

Of course, there’s always the benefit of living in a foreign country and the insights one gains into one’s own country and oneself from living abroad – in that sense I now have a much more distinct sense of what I appreciate and dislike in American scholarship and American academic culture.

I’ve also made scholarly and personal bonds that I value very much and hope to maintain long into the future.

Outside of your studies, what are your interests?

I’m a big fan of opera and early music, so I’ve really appreciated the several fantastic opera companies reachable from Heidelberg.

I’m also a bit of an architecture buff, so I’ve enjoyed making excursions to Romanesque and Baroque sites throughout Southwest Germany.