Recently in Irenaeus Category

For many Christians the creation narratives in Genesis 1-2 and the fall in Genesis 3 are key passages in conversations concerning science and faith. The significance of our knowledge of the age of the earth and the theory of evolution hinges on the interpretation of these passages as literal, figurative, mythical,  or mytho-historical. The impact is not in the narratives themselves, but in their implication for key doctrines. One useful approach to this problem is to look carefully at the early Christian interpretations of the creation narratives.

The third chapter of Beginnings: Ancient Christian Readings of the Biblical Creation Narratives by Peter Bouteneff deals with the second century apologists - Ignatius (ok ~ 1st century), Justin, Melito, Theophilus, and most importantly Irenaeus of Lyon. Here we will highlight only Justin and Irenaeus - and concentrate only on their views of Adam and Eve and the primordial sin. In many respects the doctrine of Original Sin is the key conflict in the science and faith debate for many Christians.  Adam as primordial man - through whom sin entered into the world, and death through sin - is a central figure.  But is is not clear that Adam and Eve as unique individuals played such a key role in the thinking of the early church fathers. 

How much stock do you think that we should put in the readings and interpretations of the early church fathers?  Did they simply err and it took ca. 300 years  until Jerome and Augustine, or ca. 1400 years  until Luther, Calvin and the reformers to get the gospel right?

Both Justin and Irenaeus have a Christ-centered view of history and a Christ centered approach to the scriptures - primarily the OT;  they both preach the crucified and risen Lord; they both have a trinitarian outlook - Father, Son, and Holy Spirit; they both describe salvation through Christ alone. Justin died for his faith.  Irenaeus may have - but whether he did or not he was certainly willing to face death for his faith.

In Irenaeus' great studyDemonstration of the Apostolic Preaching we are treated in paragraph six to one of the earliest summaries of the principle articles of the Christian faith. Here they are:

Is there any story of the Christian faith that can ignore these three articles? Trinitarian faith is the historic faith of the Church. Already in the 2d Century -- not fourth -- Irenaeus not only teaches a Trinity-shaped faith but assumes this is the only faith the Church knows.

The "order" begins with the "foundation": "God, the Father, uncreated, uncontainable, invisible, one God, the Creator of all" [6].

Second, "the Word of God, the Son of God, Christ Jesus our Lord ... revealed by the prophets ... "by whom all things were made" and "who, in the last times, to recapitulate all things, became a man amongst men, visible and palpable, in order to abolish death, to demonstrate life, and to effect communion between God and man.

Third, the Holy Spirit. What here? It was through the Spirit the prophets did their work, it was through the Spirit that the patriarchs learned, it was through the Spirit that the righteous were led, and who was poured out "in a new fashion upon the human race renewing man, throughout the world, to God" [6].

Therefore, [7] "the baptism of our regeneration takes place through these three articles." What does it do? "granting us regeneration unto God the Father through His Son by the Holy Spirit."

Irenaeus' theology sets up shop in what is now considered customary; it was probably not an innovation on his part but it is the earliest consolidation of the Christian faith that we now possess. It begins with "God and Man" and this covers these topics: apostolic faith, God as creator, three articles of baptismal faith, God as both Creator and Father, angels, fashioning man, paradise, fashioning women, children in Paradise, law of life, and transgression.

Now to the apostolic faith [3]. The faith Irenaeus teaches is the faith handed down to him by the elders and apostles. "It exhorts us to remember that we have received baptism for the remission of sins" in the name of the Father, Son and Spirit. Baptism is not only for forgiveness; it is also a "seal of eternal life" and it is a "rebirth unto God." Baptism, in other words, is understood in decidedly non-low-church shape: like Acts 2:38, it is connected to forgiveness; it is a "seal of eternal life" and it is about "new birth."

Paragraphs [4-5] assert that God the Father is "uncreated, invisible, Creator of all." And -- I like this -- God is "logikos" -- "verbal" and God is "Spirit." Notice then these words from par. [5]: "Since then the Word establishes, that is to say, gives body and grants the reality of being, and the Spirit gives order and form to the diversity of the powers; rightly and fittingly is the Word called the Son, and the Spirit the Wisdom of God."

Thus, the Word gives body and the Spirit gives order/form.

Here is a fine, early, on-the-way-toward the perichoresis understanding of Trinity: "Now the Spirit shows forth the Word, and therefore the prophets announced the Son of God; and the Word utters the Spirit, and therefore is Himself the announcer of the prophets, and leads and draws man to the Father."

Father, Son, Spirit -- with the Son and Spirit articulating the Other and all for the Father.

Last night I was sitting in front of our college with my colleague and friend, Brad Nassif, nibbling away on our dinners and we struck up a conversation about Irenaeus' great book,Demonstration of the Apostolic Preaching. Brad said something I want to explore more carefully and to do this I'd like to begin a series on this little treatise of Irenaeus'.

Brad's comment: I tell my students that the crucial century was not the 4th, but the 2nd. That is, the ball rolled toward Nicea not because of the events of the 4th Century but because of the ball that was set in motion in the 2d. And that means Irenaeus.

Now a second reason why I want to look at Demonstration: systematic theologies bore me, not so much because of their content but because of their prose and their genre. Detail followed by detail in such a manner that I'm put to sleep. Shouldn't a description of our faith, I say to myself, be more lively, more story-fied, more narrative, more in tune with the Bible. So this is why we need to look at Irenaeus: his is the first real theology of the earliest churches.

The text is available in various formats, but I love the brief introduction and notes by John Behr, an expert on the fathers. The text comes from somewhere between 150 and 200 AD and Irenaeus tells Marcianus, his addressee, that he is giving a "summary memorandum" of the faith so he can "understand all the members of the body of truth." In a set of lines that remind of Didache's opening, he says that one way leads to the kingdom of heaven, "uniting man to God," and the other to "death, separating man from God."

Eternity, in other words, is at stake.

Humans are body and soul, the former for physical devotion and the latter for spiritual. The body and the soul work together; they cannot be "dualized."

His plea, now in paragraph 3, is that "we must keep the rule (kanon) of faith unswervingly, and perform the commandments of God." Faith is the truth as well as adherence to the truth.