Irenaeus was a great Biblical theologian who, in the theological confusion of the 2nd century, clarified a number of issues relating to the understanding of the church about the gospel.

Irenaeus was proud to say, he had listened to Bishop Polycarp, who himself had heard the apostles. So Irenaeus felt he had some claim to know the true apostolic tradition. Irenaeus was a minister or elder in the church in Lyons. When Bishop Pothinus perished in a local persecution in 177, Irenaeus was chosen as his successor.

Irenaeus lived up to his name, which means promoter of peace. He was a mediator and urged reconciliation within the church during many of the arguments of his era. However to the Gnostics, Irenaeus gave no encouragement. In his view their ideas were a perversion of the gospel, and he put enormous energy into fighting them. His major surviving work, 'Against Heresies', is a long argument overturning their teachings, together with an account of what he considers to be the true apostolic gospel. Unlike the actual gospel this is the opposite of simple. Simplifying it as much as possible below is a summary of Irenaeus Theology:

• Humans were created in the image and likeness of God.
• We are in an immature moral state, though we have the potential for moral perfection.
• Throughout our lives we change from being human animals to ‘children of God’.
• This is a choice made after struggle and experience, as we choose God rather than our baser instinct.
• There are no angels or external forces at work here.
• God brings in suffering for the benefit of humanity.
• From it we learn positive values, and about the world around us.

Suffering and evil are:

• Useful as a means of knowledge. Hunger leads to pain, and causes a desire to feed. Knowledge of pain prompts humans to seek to help others in pain.
• A predictable environment. The world runs to a series of natural laws. These laws are independent of our needs, and operate regardless of anything. Natural evil is when these laws come into conflict with our own perceived needs.

Heaven and hell are important within Irenaeus’s Theology as part of the process of deification, the lifting up of humanity to the divine. This process enables humans to achieve perfection.

BORN:130 A.D., Asia Minor.

DIED: c.200, probably Lyon.

The theological views expressed by Irenaeus Theology do not necessarily reflect the views of later theologians or of the Prayer7s Ministry. They are shared here because they encourage thought and discussion on theological matters.