 thumb|a woodcut illustration depicting tertullian quintus septimius florens tertullianus, anglicised as tertullian (; c. 160 â c. 225 ad),t.d.barnes, tertullian: a literary and historical study, oxford, 1971 was a prolific early christian author from carthage in the roman province of africa.t. d. barnes, tertullian: a historical and literary study (oxford: clarendon press, 1985), 58. he is the first christian author to produce an extensive corpus of latin christian literature. he also was a notable early christian apologist and a polemicist against heresy. tertullian has been called "the father of latin christianity"ekonomou 2007, page 22 google books and "the founder of western theology."justo l. gonzÃ¡les, the story of christianity, volume 1: the early church to the dawn of the reformation (new york: harpercollins publishers, 2010), 91â93. though conservative, he did originate and advance new theology to the early church. he is perhaps most famous for being the oldest extant latin writer to use the term trinity (latin: trinitas),"trinitas" is itself a latinization of the greek "he trias" (the triad), a term that was used earlier than tertullian by theophilus of antioch in ad autolycum 2.15 to refer to god, god's logos (jesus), and god's sophia (holy spirit) and giving the oldest extant formal exposition of a trinitarian theology.in adversus praxean; see barnes for a summary of the work. other latin formulations that first appear in his work are "three persons, one substance" as the latin "tres personae, una substantia" (itself from the koine greek "treis hypostases, homoousios"). he wrote his trinitarian formula after becoming a montanist. however, unlike many church fathers, he was never canonized by the catholic church, as several of his later teachings directly contradicted the teachings of the church. == life == scant reliable evidence exists to inform us about tertullian's life. most history about him comes from passing references in his own writings. according to church tradition, he was raised in carthagecross, f. l., ed. the oxford dictionary of the christ
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