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IRENAEUS

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Originally appearing in Volume V14, Page 792 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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IRENAEUS , See also:

bishop of See also:Lyons at the end of the 2nd See also:century, was one of the most distinguished theologians of the ante-Nicene See also:Church. Very little is known of his See also:early See also:history. His childhood was spent in See also:Asia See also:Minor, probably at or near See also:Smyrna; for he himself tells us (Adv. haer. iii. 3, 4, and Euseb. Hist. Eccl. v. 20) that as a See also:child he heard the See also:preaching of Poly-See also:carp, the aged bishop of Smyrna (d. See also:February 22, 156). But we do not know when this was. He can hardly have been See also:born very See also:long after 130, for later on he frequently mentions having met certain See also:Christian presbyters who had actually seen See also:John, the See also:disciple of our See also:Lord. The circumstances under which he came into the See also:West are also unknown to us; the only thing which is certain is that at the See also:time of the persecution of the Gallic Church under See also:Marcus Aurelius (177) he was a See also:presbyter of the church at Lyons. In 177 or 178 he went to See also:Rome on a See also:mission from this church, to make representations to Bishop See also:Eleutherius in favour of a more lenient treatment of the Montanists (see See also:MONTANISM.; Eus. v.

4. 2). On his return he was called upon to undertake the direction of the church at Lyons in the See also:

place of Bishop Pothinus, who had perished in the persecution (Eus. v. 5. 8). As bishop he carried on a See also:great and fruitful See also:work. Though the statement of See also:Gregory of See also:Tours (Hist. See also:Franc. i. 29), that within a See also:short time he succeeded in converting all Lyons to See also:Christianity, is probably exaggerated, from him at any See also:rate See also:dates the wide spread of Christianity in Lyons and its neighbourhood. He devoted particular See also:attention to trying to reconcile the numerous sects which menaced the existence of the church (see below). In the dispute on the question of See also:Easter, which for a long time disturbed the Christian Church both in West and See also:East, he endeavoured by means of many letters to effect a See also:compromise, and in particular to exercise a moderating See also:influence on See also:Victor, the bishop of Rome, and his unyielding attitude towards the dissentient churches of See also:Africa, thus justifying his name of " See also:peace-maker " (Eirenaios) (Eus. H.E. v.

24. 28). The date of his See also:

death is unknown. His martyrdom under Septimius See also:Severus is related by Gregory of Tours, but by no earlier writer. The See also:chief work of Irenaeus, written about 18o, is his " Refutation and Overthrow of Gnosis, falsely so called " (usually indicated by the name Against the Heresies). Of the See also:Greek See also:original of this work only fragments survive; it only exists in full in an old Latin See also:translation, the slavish fidelity of which to a certain extent makes up for the loss of the original See also:text. The See also:treatise is divided into five books: of these the first two contain a See also:minute and well-informed description and See also:criticism of the tenets of various heretical sects, especially the Valentinians; the other three set forth the true doctrines of Christianity, and it is from them that we find out the theological opinions of the author. Irenaeus admits himself that he is not a See also:good writer. And indeed, as he worked, his materials assumed such unmanageable proportions that he could not succeed in throwingthem into a satisfactory See also:form. But however clumsily he may have handled his material, he has produced a work which is even nowadays rightly valued as the first systematic exposition of See also:Catholic belief. The See also:foundation upon which Irenaeus bases his See also:system consists in the episcopate, the See also:canon of the Old and New Testaments, and the See also:rule of faith. With their assistance he sets forth and upholds, in opposition to the gnostic See also:dualism, i.e. the severing of the natural and the supernatural, the Catholic See also:monism, i.e. the unity of the See also:life of faith as willed by See also:God.

The " See also:

grace of truth " ( the charisma), which the apostles had called down upon their first disciples by See also:prayer and laying-on of hands, and which was to be imparted anew by way of See also:succession (&aboxii, successio) to the bishops from See also:generation to generation without a break, makes those who receive it living witnesses of the salvation offered to the faithful by written and spoken tradition. The Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments, rightly expounded by the church alone, give us an insight into God's See also:plan of salvation for mankind, and explain to us the See also:covenant which He made on various occasions (See also:Moses and See also:Christ; or See also:Noah, See also:Abraham, Moses and Christ). Finally, the " rule of faith " (See also:regula fidei), received at See also:baptism, contains in itself all the riches of Christian truth. To distribute these, i.e. to elucidate the rule of faith as set forth in the creed, and further to point out its agreement with the Scriptures, is the See also:object of Irenaeus as a theologian. Hence he See also:lays the greatest stress on the conception of God's disposition of salvation towards mankind (oeconomia), the object of which is that mankind, who in See also:Adam were sunk in See also:sin and death; should in Christ, comprised as it were in his See also:person, be brought back to life. God, as the See also:head of the See also:family, so to speak, disposes of all. The Son, the Word (See also:Logos) for ever dwelling with the See also:Father, carries out His behests. The See also:Holy See also:Ghost (Pneuma), however, as the Spirit of See also:wisdom for ever dwelling with the Father, controls what the Father has appointed and the Son fulfilled, and this Spirit lives in the church. The See also:climax of the divine plan of salvation is found in the incarnation of the Word. God was to become See also:man, and in Christ he became man. Christ must be God; for if not, the See also:devil would have had a natural claim on him, and he would have been no more exempt from death than the other See also:children of Adam; he must be man, if his See also:blood were indeed to redeem us. On God incarnate the See also:power of the devil is broken, and in Him is accomplished the reconciliation between God and man, who henceforth pursues his true object, namely, to become like unto God.

In the God-man God has See also:

drawn men up to Himself. Into See also:theft human, fleshly and perishable nature imperishable life is thereby engrafted; it has become deified, and death has been changed into See also:immortality. In the See also:sacrament of the Lord's Supper it is the heavenly See also:body of the God-man which is actually partaken of in the elements. This exposition by Irenaeus of the divine See also:economy and the incarnation was taken as a criterion by later theologians, especially in the Greek Church (cf. See also:Athanasius, Gregory of Nyssa, See also:Cyril of See also:Alexandria, John of See also:Damascus). He himself was especially influenced by St John and St See also:Paul. Before him the See also:Fourth See also:Gospel did not seem to exist for the Church; Irenaeus made it a living force. His conception of the Logos is not that of the philosophers and apologists; he looks upon the Logos not as the " See also:reason " of God, but as the " See also:voice " with which the Father speaks in the See also:revelation to mankind, as did the writer of the Fourth Gospel. And the Pauline epistles are adopted almost bodily by Irenaeus, according to the ideas contained in them; his expositions often See also:present the See also:appearance of a patchwork of St Paul's ideas. Certainly, it is only one See also:side of Paul's thought that he displays to us. The great conceptions of See also:justification and See also:atonement are hardly ever touched by Irenaeus. In Irenaeus is no longer heard the See also:Jew, striving about and against the See also:law, who has had to break See also:free from his early tradition of Pharisaism.

Till See also:

recent times whatever other writings and letters of Irenaeus are mentioned by See also:Eusebius appeared to be lost, with the exception of a fragment here or there. Recently, however, two Armenian scholars, Rarapet Ter-Mekerttschian and Erwand Ter-Minassianz, have published from an Armenian translation a See also:German edition (See also:Leipzig, 1907; minor edition 1908) of the work "in See also:proof of the apostolic teaching" mentioned by Eusebius (Ii E. v. 26). This work, which is in the form of a See also:dialogue with one See also:Marcianus, otherwise unknown to us, contains a statement of the fundamental truths of Christianity. It is the See also:oldest See also:catechism extant, and an excellent example of how Bishop Irenaeus was able not only to defend Christianity as a theologian and expound it theoretically, but also to preach it to See also:lay-men.

End of Article: IRENAEUS

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