Product or Foundation? the Relationship between the Doctrine of the Holy Trinity and Christology in Hippolytus' and Tertullian's Debate with Monarchianism

In this essay the question of how Christology and the doctrine of the Holy Trinity are connected is explored, both chronologically and structurally. In a first step modalistic Monarchianism as an answer to the Christological question in the second century is introduced. Then the reactions of Hippolytus, Contra Noëtum and Tertullian, Adversus Praxean are discussed, pointing out that for Hippolytus Christology is the foundation on which he develops a first doctrine of Trinity, which therefore can be regarded as a product of his Christology. Tertullian on the contrary, building on Hippolytus' thoughts, starts off with introducing his doctrine of Trinity as the foundation on which he then develops his doctrine of Christ, thereby returning to Christology on a higher level than Hippolytus.