Irenaeus: An Introduction

192 Pages·2010·0.841 MB·English

by  Denis Minns

Irenaeus
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Irenaeus
An Introduction
Denis Minns
Published by T&T Clark International
A Continuum Imprint
The Tower Building, 11 York Road, London SE1 7NX
80 Maiden Lane, Suite 704, New York, NY 10038
www.continuumbooks.com
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or
by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or any information
storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.
Copyright© Denis Minns, 2010
Denis Minns has asserted his right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988, to be
identifi ed as the Author of this work.
British Library Cataloguing- in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
ISBN: 978- 0-567-03365-9 (Hardback)
978- 0-567-03366-6 (Paperback)
Typeset by Pindar NZ, Auckland, New Zealand
Printed and bound in Great Britain by CPI Antony Rowe Ltd, Chippenham, Wiltshire
For Bernice
In memory of Jack
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Contents
Abbreviations viii
Preface ix
1 Introduction 1
2 Heresies 15
3 The One God 31
4 Knowing the One God as Father, Son and Holy Spirit 47
5 The Divine Plan of Salvation 69
6 From Adam to Christ 97
7 From Christ to the Kingdom 119
8 Conclusion 149
Bibliography 159
General Index 169
Index to Works of Irenaeus 171
Index of Biblical Passages 175
Abbreviations
AH Adversus Haereses
Dem Demonstration of the Apostolic Preaching
SC Sources chrétiennes
Preface
When Erasmus published the fi rst edition of Adversus Haereses in 1526
he referred to its author as ‘my Irenaeus’. He was proud to claim own-
ership not just because he had restored to light a book that had been
virtually forgotten for over a thousand years, but much more because
it revealed a picture of the life and thought of the early Church that
was markedly and refreshingly different from the life and thought of
the Church of his own times. It breathed, he said, the ancient vigour
of the Gospel. This was in the letter by which he dedicated the edition
to the bishop of Trent, the city in which the Council of the Counter-
R eformation was to meet some 19 years later. Erasmus hoped that in
his own troubled times another Irenaeus might rise up and lead the
Church back to peace through the spirit of the Gospel.1
Irenaeus has shown no sign of falling back into oblivion. Many edi-
tions and translations of his works have appeared, and much scholarship
has been devoted to them. Most authors writing from within the broad
catholic tradition have shared Erasmus’ enthusiasm for Irenaeus. Some
have even gone beyond Erasmus’ claim of ownership to contend that
others, for confessional purposes, have tried to steal him. Thus, the
French Catholic Massuet thought the German Anglican Grabe had
tried to make an unwilling and reluctant Anglican of Irenaeus.2
While his admirers look to Irenaeus as one of the earliest repre-
sentatives of the developing catholic tradition and could point to the
documents of the Second Vatican Council as witness to the reinvigorat-
ing infl uence of his theology, admiration for him has not been universal.
Those who have considered his early catholicism itself to be a perversion
1 D. Erasmus (ed.), Opus eruditissimum Divi Irenaei (Basle, 1526), pp. 2–3.
2 Massuet (ed.), Sancti Irenaei . . . Opera (Paris, 1710), pp. vi–vii.
ix