3,880
edits
Irenaeus: Difference between revisions
→Irenaeus' Theology
No edit summary |
|||
| Line 52: | Line 52: | ||
|- | |- | ||
|} | |} | ||
The central point of Irenaeus' theology is the unity of God, in opposition to the Gnostics' division of God into a number of divine "Aeons", and their distinction between the utterly transcendent "High God" and the inferior "Demiurge" who created the world. Irenaeus uses theology similar to that found in the Gospel of John and book of 1 John (which makes sense, as Irenaeus was a student of Polycarp, who was tutored by John the Apostle). Irenaeus speaks of the Son and the Spirit as the "hands of God". | The central point of Irenaeus' theology is the unity of God, in opposition to the Gnostics' division of God into a number of divine "Aeons", and their distinction between the utterly transcendent "High God" and the inferior "Demiurge" who created the world. Irenaeus uses theology similar to that found in the Gospel of John and book of 1 John (which makes sense, as Irenaeus was a student of Polycarp, who was tutored by John the Apostle). Irenaeus speaks of the Son and the Spirit as the "hands of God". The concept of the trinity is absent from Irenaeus' writings. | ||
:''The Spirit, therefore, descending under the predestined dispensation, and the Son of God, the Only-begotten, who is also the Word of the Father, coming in the fulness of time, having become incarnate in man for the sake of man, and fulfilling all the conditions of human nature, our Lord Jesus Christ being one and the same, as He Himself the Lord doth testify, as the apostles confess, and as the prophets announce,'' | :''The Spirit, therefore, descending under the predestined dispensation, and the Son of God, the Only-begotten, who is also the Word of the Father, coming in the fulness of time, having become incarnate in man for the sake of man, and fulfilling all the conditions of human nature, our Lord Jesus Christ being one and the same, as He Himself the Lord doth testify, as the apostles confess, and as the prophets announce,'' | ||
| Line 65: | Line 65: | ||
:''And thus, as the human race fell into bondage to death by means of a virgin, so is it rescued by a virgin; virginal disobedience having been balanced in the opposite scale by virginal obedience. For in the same way the sin of the first created man (protoplasti) receives amendment by the correction of the First-begotten, and the coming of the serpent is conquered by the harmlessness of the dove, those bonds being unloosed by which we had been fast bound to death.'' (Vol. I Ante-Nicene Fathers 547) | :''And thus, as the human race fell into bondage to death by means of a virgin, so is it rescued by a virgin; virginal disobedience having been balanced in the opposite scale by virginal obedience. For in the same way the sin of the first created man (protoplasti) receives amendment by the correction of the First-begotten, and the coming of the serpent is conquered by the harmlessness of the dove, those bonds being unloosed by which we had been fast bound to death.'' (Vol. I Ante-Nicene Fathers 547) | ||
Irenaeus also wrote against [[The Serpent's Seed|the heresy that Cain was the offspring of Eve and the Serpent]]. | |||
Irenaeus taught that the world has been intentionally designed by God as a difficult place, where human beings are forced to make moral decisions, as only in this way can they mature as moral agents. Irenaeus likens death to the whale that swallowed Jonah: it was only in the depths of the whale's belly that Jonah could turn to God and act according to the divine will. Similarly, death and suffering appear as evils, but without them we could never come to know God. | Irenaeus taught that the world has been intentionally designed by God as a difficult place, where human beings are forced to make moral decisions, as only in this way can they mature as moral agents. Irenaeus likens death to the whale that swallowed Jonah: it was only in the depths of the whale's belly that Jonah could turn to God and act according to the divine will. Similarly, death and suffering appear as evils, but without them we could never come to know God. | ||
According to Irenaeus, the high point in salvation's history is the coming of Jesus Christ. Irenaeus believed that Christ would always have been sent, even if humanity had never sinned; but the fact that they ''did'' sin determines his role as a savior. He sees Christ as the new Adam, who systematically ''undoes'' what Adam did: thus, where Adam was disobedient concerning God's edict concerning the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge, Christ was obedient even to death on the wood of a tree. In addition to reversing the wrongs done by Adam, Irenaeus thinks of Christ as "recapitulating" or "summing up" human life. This means that Christ goes through every stage of human life, from infancy to old age, and simply by living it, sanctifies it with his divinity. Irenaeus argues that Christ did not die until he was older than conventionally portrayed. | According to Irenaeus, the high point in salvation's history is the coming of Jesus Christ. Irenaeus believed that Christ would always have been sent, even if humanity had never sinned; but the fact that they ''did'' sin determines his role as a savior. He sees Christ as the new Adam, who systematically ''undoes'' what Adam did: thus, where Adam was disobedient concerning God's edict concerning the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge, Christ was obedient even to death on the wood of a tree. In addition to reversing the wrongs done by Adam, Irenaeus thinks of Christ as "recapitulating" or "summing up" human life. This means that Christ goes through every stage of human life, from infancy to old age, and simply by living it, sanctifies it with his divinity. Irenaeus argues that Christ did not die until he was older than conventionally portrayed. | ||
=Irenaeus and Rome= | =Irenaeus and Rome= | ||