Editing Tertullian (section)

====God====
Tertullian reserves the appellation God, in the sense of the ultimate originator of all things, to the Father,<ref name="stanford">{{cite encyclopedia |author=Tuggy, Dale |editor=Zalta, Edward N. |title=History of Trinitarian Doctrines |url=http://plato.stanford.edu/archives/sum2016/entries/trinity/trinity-history.html#Tertul |encyclopedia=The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy |publisher=Stanford University |access-date=24 September 2016|date=2016}}</ref> who made the world out of nothing through his Son, the Word, has corporeity, though he is a spirit ({{lang|la|De praescriptione}}, vii.; {{lang|la|Adv. Praxeam}}, vii). However Tertullian used 'corporeal' only in the [[stoicism|Stoic]] sense, to mean something with actual material existence, rather than the later idea of flesh.

Tertullian is often considered an early proponent of the [[Nicene Creed|Nicene doctrine]], approaching the subject from the standpoint of the [[Logos (Christianity)|Logos doctrine]], though he did not state the later doctrine of the [[immanent Trinity]]. In his treatise against Praxeas, who taught [[patripassianism]] in Rome, he used the words "trinity", "economy" (used in reference to the three persons), "persons", and "substance", maintaining the distinction of the Son from the Father as the unoriginate God, and the Spirit from both the Father and the Son ({{lang|la|Adv. Praxeam}}, xxv). "These three are one substance, not one person; and it is said, 'I and my Father are one' in respect not of the singularity of number but the unity of the substance." The very names "Father" and "Son" indicate the distinction of personality. The Father is one, the Son is another, and the Spirit is another ({{lang|la|"dico alium esse patrem et alium filium et alium spiritum"}} {{lang|la|Adv. Praxeam}}, ix)), and yet in defending the unity of God, he says the Son is not other ({{lang|la|"alius a patre filius non est"}}, ({{lang|la|Adv. Prax.}} 18) as a result of receiving a portion of the Father's substance.<ref name="stanford" /> At times, speaking of the Father and the Son, Tertullian refers to "two gods".<ref name="stanford" />{{efn |{{lang|la|"Ergo, inquis, si deus dixit et deus fecit, si alius deus dixit et alius fecit, duo dii praedicantur. Si tam durus es, puta interim. Et ut adhuc amplius hoc putes, accipe et in psalmo duos deos dictos: Thronus tuus, deus, in aevum, &lt;virga directionis> virga regni tui; dilexisti iustitiam et odisti iniquitatem, propterea unxit te deus, deus tuus."}} ({{"'}}Therefore', thou sayest, 'if a god said and a god made, if one god said and another made, two gods are being preached.' If thou art so hard, think a little! And that thou mayest think more fully, accept that in the Psalm two gods are spoken of: 'Thy throne, God, is for ever, a sceptre of right direction is thy sceptre; thou hast loved justice and hast hated iniquity, therefore God, thy God, hath anointed thee.{{'"}}) {{lang|la|Adv. Prax.}} 13}} He says that all things of the Father belong also to the Son, including his names, such as Almighty God, Most High, Lord of Hosts, or King of Israel.<ref>{{lang|la|Adv. Prax.}} 17.</ref>

Though Tertullian considered the Father to be God (Yahweh), he responded to criticism of the [[Sabellianism|Modalist]] Praxeas that this meant that Tertullian's Christianity was not monotheistic by noting that even though there was one God (Yahweh, who became the Father when the Son became his agent of creation), the Son could also be referred to as God, when referred to apart from the Father, because the Son, though subordinate to God, is entitled to be called God "from the unity of the Father" in regards to being formed from a portion of His substance.<ref name="stanford" />{{efn|{{lang|la|"Si filium nolunt secundum a patre reputari ne secundus duos faciat deos dici, ostendimus etiam duos deos in scriptura relatos et duos dominos: et tamen ne de isto scandalizentur, rationem reddimus qua dei non duo dicantur nec domini sed qua pater et filius duo, et hoc non ex separatione substantiae sed ex dispositione, cum individuum et inseparatum filium a patre pronuntiamus, nec statu sed gradu alium, qui etsi deus dicatur quando nominatur singularis, non ideo duos deos faciat sed unum, hoc ipso quod et deus ex unitate patris vocari habeat."}} ("If they do not wish that the Son be considered second to the Father, lest being second he cause it to be said that there are two gods, we have also showed that two gods are related in Scripture, and two lords. And yet, let them not be scandalized by this – we give a reason why there are not said to be two gods nor lords but rather two as a Father and a Son. And this not from separation of substance but from disposition, since we pronounce the Son undivided and unseparated from the Father, other not in status but in grade, who although he is said to be God when mentioned by himself, does not therefore make two gods but one, by the fact that he is also entitled to be called God from the unity of the Father.") {{lang|la|Adv. Prax.}} 19}} ''The Catholic Encyclopedia'' comments that for Tertullian, "There was a time when there was no Son and no sin, when God was neither Father nor Judge."<ref>{{cite encyclopedia|url= http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/14520c.htm |title=Tertullian | encyclopedia = The Catholic Encyclopedia}}</ref><ref name="Princeton Theological Review 1906, pp. 56, 159">[[Benjamin Breckinridge Warfield|B. B. Warfield]] in ''Princeton Theological Review'', 1906, pp. 56, 159.</ref> Similarly [[J.N.D. Kelly]] stated: "Tertullian followed the Apologists in dating His 'perfect generation' from His extrapolation for the work of creation; prior to that moment God could not strictly be said to have had a Son, while after it the term 'Father', which for earlier theologians generally connoted God as author of reality, began to acquire the specialized meaning of Father of the Son."<ref>J. N. D. Kelly, ''Early Christian Doctrines'', Continual International Publishing Book, c. 1960, 2000, p. 112</ref> As regards the subjects of [[subordinationism|subordination]] of the Son to the Father, the ''New Catholic Encyclopedia'' has commented: "In not a few areas of theology, Tertullian's views are, of course, completely unacceptable. Thus, for example, his teaching on the Trinity reveals a subordination of Son to Father that in the later crass form of [[Arianism]] the Church rejected as heretical."<ref name="lesaint" /> Though he did not fully state the doctrine of the immanence of the Trinity, according to B. B. Warfield, he went a long distance in the way of approach to it.<ref name="Princeton Theological Review 1906, pp. 56, 159" />