Irenaeus

(c. 130–c. 200)

   Bishop, Theologian and Saint.

   Irenaeus is thought to have been born in Smyrna since, as a boy, he heard St polycarp. He became a Presbyter in Lyons, Gaul, and was commissioned to ask Bishop Eleutherus of Rome for toleration for the Montanists. In c. 177 there was a persecution against the Christians of Lyons during which the Bishop died. On his return from Rome, Ilrenaeus was appointed to succeed him. He was the author of Adversus Omnes Haereses against the Gnostics. Although a complete version only survives in a Latin translation, it gives a valuable account of the various Gnostic beliefs of the time. Another work, The Demonstration of the Apostolic Preaching, was only found, in an Armenian translation, in the modern period. Irenaeus is regarded as an important early link between the theologies of the Eastern and Western Churches and between the ideas of the Apostolic Church and those of the developed ecclesiastical tradition. He stressed the unity of the Three Persons of the Trinity in the works of creation and redemption and he defended the canon of the Four Gospels. He also developed the doctrine of ‘recapitulation’ and understood the incarnation of Jesus Christ to be the summation of God’s dealings with humanity, thus giving positive value to Christ’s humanness.

   G. Wingren, Man and the Incarnation: A Study in the Biblical Theology of Irenaeus (1959);

   D. Minns, Irenaeus (1995);

   R.M. Grant, Irenaeus (1997).