St. Irenaeus

• By far the most important of the theologians of the 2nd century.
• St. Irenaeus was born in Smyrna Asia Minor, where he knew Bishop Polycarp and from him learned of the Johannine tradition.
• The exact date of his birth is unknown, but he was probably born ca. 140.
• For reasons not known, St. Irenaeus left Asia Minor and went to Gaul. He studied and taught at Rome before moving to Lyons.
• In 177, as a presbyter of the Church of Lugdunum in Lyons, he went on a mission to bishop Eleutherus of Rome to urge toleration with regard to adherents of Montanism in Asia Minor.
• On his return in 178, he succeeded Photinus (who had died in the persecution of 177/8) as bishop of a Greek- speaking Christian community.
• Later, Pope Victor I, excommunicated the Asiatics in the Paschal controversy; St. Irenaeus wrote to a number of these bishops and to Victor himself exhorting them to make peace.
• Irenaeus bishop of Lyons was a pastor concerned with protecting Christians against Gnosticism.
• In opposition to Gnostic dualism, Irenaeus teaches that there is but one God who is the Creator of the world and the Father of Jesus Christ, that there is one divine economy of salvation and one revelation. The visible

creation is good, not evil, and the body will rise again.

• According to him, although the Gnostics thought that they could arrive at saving knowledge through human effort, true salvation is attained only through faith in what God has revealed and in what He has done.
• Irenaeus was the first great theologian, who emphasized the role of the Church, the canon of Scripture, and the religious and theological tradition.

• Among Irenaeus’ writings is the Demonstration, or Epideixis, a work on the apostolic preaching. It explains Christian doctrine and then proves it from Old Testament prophecies.
• Against Heresies or Adversus haereses. - Book 1 refutes Gnostic arguments by reason. - Book 2 sets forth the traits of false Gnosis and the history of Gnosticism. - Book 3 refutes Gnosticism from the teaching and tradition of the apostles. - Book 4 refutes it from the sayings of Jesus. - Book 5 treats the things to come containing remarks on Millenarianism with a Chiliastic tendency.
• He was interested in philosophy only insofar as it could help one to penetrate more deeply into what one believed. He taught that human thinking is powerless to know God and his dispensation for the salvation of all people.
• His major writing, Against Heresies, describes and refutes the teachings of Gnostics, who claimed to have secret teachings unknown to most Christians. But Revelation, according to Irenaeus, is public and common to all Christians. No secret tradition supersedes the Church’s tradition.
• Irenaeus said: It is better that one should have no knowledge whatever of any one reason why a single thing in creation has been made but should believe in God and continue in his love than that, puffed up through knowledge of this kind,

he should fall away from that love which is the life of man; and that he should search after no knowledge except Jesus Christ, who was crucified for us, than that by subtle questions and hairsplitting expressions, he should fall into impiety. 9