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Work #951 · Late (composed in Tertullian's Montanist period but with orthodox Trinitarian content)

Against Praxeas

Quintus Septimius Florens Tertullianus
c. 213 (in Tertullian's Montanist period) · Latin
Theological treatise · Early Latin Christian theology / North African Trinitarianism

There are three Persons in one Substance — the formula "tres personae, una substantia" enters Christian theology

Attribute Fingerprint

Rows where works disagree are highlighted in gold. The full ontology grid is shown.

Attribute Against Praxeas (Late (composed in Tertullian's Montanist period but with orthodox Trinitarian content))
Time · Extent Infinite
Time · Ontological Status Substantival
Time · Grain Continuous
Time · Freedom Non-Deterministic
Time · Traversability Linear
Time · Dimensionality One
Time · Direction Non-directional
Space · Extent Infinite
Space · Ontological Status Substantival
Space · Curvature Flat
Space · Dimensionality Three
Space · Locality Non-local
Matter · Extent Infinite
Matter · Ontological Status Substantival
Matter · Conservation Conserved
Matter · Dimensionality Three
Matter · Locality Local
Observer · Time Instance Multiple
Observer · Space Instance Single
Observer · Knowledge Extent Partial
Observer · Knowledge Retainment Total
Observer · Physicality Both
Observer · Agency Both
Observer · Number Plural
Observer · Metaphysical Agency Personal
Observer · Moral Authority Scripture
Observer · Theological Method
Energy · Extent Infinite
Energy · Ontological Status Substantival
Energy · Conservation Conserved
Energy · Dispersibility Irreversible
Information · Ontological Status Substantival
Information · Cosmic Conservation Conserved
Information · Personal Conservation Conserved
Information · Granularity Discrete

Dimension-by-Dimension Evidence

What each work's passages reveal about its stance on each of the six dimensions.

Time

Against Praxeas

Eternal trinitarian processions (the Father generates the Son, the Spirit proceeds) within the eternal divine life; temporal-economic missions (Incarnation, Pentecost) in created history.

Space

Against Praxeas

God as non-spatial; the divine missions extending the trinitarian life into space through the Incarnation.

Matter

Against Praxeas

The Incarnation as the entry of the Son into materiality — a central anti-Patripassian argument, since the Father, who has no body, cannot suffer except through the Son's assumed nature.

Observer

Against Praxeas

The three divine Persons as the supreme model of personal distinction-in-unity; the human knower whose theological vocabulary must respect both the unity and the distinction.

Energy

Against Praxeas

The single divine energy expressed in the trinitarian missions; the economy of salvation as the trinitarian work made visible.

Information

Against Praxeas

The scriptural evidence (the trinitarian formulae, the baptismal formula, the Johannine prologue, Pauline trinitarian passages) as the discrete content of the doctrine.

Internal Tensions

Where each work's argument pulls against itself.

Against Praxeas

Against Praxeas was composed during Tertullian's Montanist period, but its theology is fully Catholic-orthodox — a fact that has puzzled commentators since Augustine. The work's influence has not been universally welcomed: Eastern theologians sometimes object that the Latin "una substantia" can suggest a univocal divine being underlying the persons (the worry that produced the filioque controversy); Modalists and Unitarians throughout the centuries have continued to argue that the trinitarian distinctions are over-drawn. The work's vocabulary, however, has been universally adopted.