Irenaeus of Lyon

Ireneo de Lyon , known as San Irene of the city of Lyon since 189. considered the most important adversary of the gnosticism of the century II . His main work is against heresies . Recently, Pope Francis declared him a doctor of the Church, with the title of " Doctor Unitatis " ( " Doctor of the Unit ").

Christian Ministry

Born in Esmirna, Anatolia (current Turkey), Irenaeus was one of the disciples - considerate the best of all - of the bishop of Esmirna, Polycarpo, disciple, in turn, of the Apostle St. John. Polycarpo sent him to Gaul (157). In Lugdunum (current Lyon), capital of the Gaul Lugdunense, where there was a cruel persecution that caused numerous martyrs among Christians, he was ordered priest and since 177 he exercised there as a presbyter. He was sent to the Bishop of Rome Eleuterio to beg, through "the most pious and orthodox of the letters", on behalf of the unity and peace of the Church, to be treated with softness to the Montanistas brothers of Frigia.

explained that by rejecting false prophets, the true gift of prophecy had to be welcomed. Despite rejecting the "charismatic excesses" and apocalyptic of montanism, he considered that the manifestations of the Holy Spirit within the Roman churches could not be prohibited.

It happened to Potino at the Episcopal Headquarters of Lyon since 189 and intervened before the Roman bishop Víctor (190) so that he did not separate from communion the eastern Christians who celebrated Easter the same day as the Jews. There is no certainty about his death date, but it is estimated that it occurred between 202 and 207. He was buried in the church of San Juan in Lyon and his tomb was desecrated by Huguenots (Calvinist Protestants) in 1562.

The name of San Irenaeus is linked, above all, to the controversy against Gnostics.

work

wrote the Treaty against heresies in five volumes (see: Irenaeus of Lyon. Against heresies. Archive from the original in 16 June 2006. «In Latin: adversus haereses , ah». %3AIRENEO+DE+LYON & AMP; RFT.AU = IRENEO+DE+LYON & AMP; RFT.AULAST = IRENEO+DE+LYON & AMP; RFT.btitle = AGAINST+THE+HEREJ%C3%ADAS & AMP; RFT.GENR = BOOK & AMP; RFT_ID = HTTP %3a%2f%2fwww.multimedios.org%2fdocs%2fd001092%2f & amp; rft_val_fmt = info%3AOFI%2FFMT%3AKEV%3AMTX%3OBook "class =" z3988 "> ), whose full title is to unmask and refute the falsely called science ( gnosis in Greek, language in which it was written).

explained that there is no plertome about the creative God. The rule of truth is summarized in the following: there is only one universal sovereign God who created all things through his verb, which has organized and done all things all things so that they exist. The God of the Old Testament is the same and only New Testament god, contrary to what Marción said.

Irenae confronted the conceptions that there would be bad souls aimed at condemning or three kinds of humans: materials that cannot be saved, psychics that can be saved and spiritual that are saved. God has locked everyone in disbelief, to have compassion for all ( Romans 11:32 ). He especially rejected the Gnostic version of Christ, who did a spiritual man who was administered a body formed with psychic substance, but arranged with an ineffable art so that it could be seen, palpated and suffering and of the that he fought when he died, and that instead he never took anything from the material man, because he has nothing to be saved. He showed how, according to the arguments they propose, the verb would not have done flesh. Book V exposes its millenarian eschatology, inherited from the apostles: the Antichrist, the resurrection of the righteous and the millennium.

Irenaeus would also have written the Demonstration of the apostolic preaching found in 1904 in the Armenian language, it is a Christian instruction addressed to his friend Marciano.

The Demonstration of Apostolic Preaching offers the best insight into Irenaeus. Here he links the preaching of the apostles (the New Testament writers) with the Law, the Psalms, and the Prophets.

First, he outlines the faith transmitted by the elders, who had known the apostles, personified in the three articles of the "canon of faith": the one God and Father; the only Lord, Jesus Christ crucified and risen; and the only Holy Spirit. Following the manner of the great apostolic discourses in the Acts, he relates the biblical narrative of God's work of salvation that culminates in Christ. Finally, he demonstrates that what the apostles proclaimed was fulfilled in Christ, confirmed as it is by Scripture.

Irenaeus stresses the way the apostles themselves used Scripture: after Paul's proclamation that Christ died and rose again according to Scripture (1 Cor. 15:3-5), the four canonical Gospels center their accounts of Jesus in the Passion, and they always tell the story with references to Hebrew Scripture. Neither Marcion nor Gnostic writings, such as the Gospel of Thomas, use Scripture in this way in proclaiming Christ. Irenaeus criticizes heretics on the ground that they have "disregarded the order and connection of Scripture." He accuses the heretics of having rearranged the members of the body of truth, as do those who take a mosaic of a king and rearrange the stones to form an image of a dog or a fox, claiming that this is the original image. Those who know the "canon of truth," delivered at baptism, will be able to restore the passages to their correct order, thus revealing the image of the King.

The "canon of truth" works much like the "healthy word model" to which Paul urged Timothy to stand firm (2 Tim. 1:13). By upholding this canon, Christians can proclaim, in an ever-changing context, the same gospel: the "tradition" preserved in the Church. Thus, Christ is, for Irenaeus, the subject of Scripture at all times. The apostles announced it by reference to the Scriptures. The prophets saw the Son of God as a man conversing with men; they prophesied what was to come... declaring that he who was in heaven had descended into the 'dust of death''; (Ps. 21.16; Septuagint). Christ was not yet present, but his saving Passion was already the object of the words and visions of the prophets.

Jesus wrote it all: Jesus Christ is not only the subject of Scripture, from beginning to end, but also its ultimate author: Irenaeus takes Jesus' statement that "Moses wrote of me" (John 5.46) to mean that "the writings of Moses are his words," and then extends this to include "the words of the other prophets." Thus, Irenaeus urges Marcian, "read carefully the Gospel that the apostles have given us, and read carefully the prophets, and you will find that all the conduct, and all the doctrine, and all the sufferings of our Lord, were foretold through them." "If someone reads the Scriptures in this way," argues Irenaeus, "he will find in them the Word relating to Christ and a foreshadowing of the new vocation." Using Christ's image of treasure hidden in a field (Matthew 13:44), where the disciples are sent out to reap what others have sown (John 4:35-8), Irenaeus suggests that Christ himself is the treasure, hidden in the Scriptures, in the types and parables, the words and actions of the patriarchs and prophets, which foreshadow what was to take place in and through Christ at his human advent, as contained in the Gospel. With his writings, the patriarchs and the prophets have prepared the world for the advent of Christ, so that the field is ready for the harvest.

Prior to their consummation at the advent of Christ, these types and prophecies could not be understood. But now the cross sheds light on these writings, revealing what they actually mean and how they are, therefore, the Word of God. For those who read Scripture without knowing the "explanation" (literally "exegesis") of things pertaining to Christ, the Scriptures remain only fables. However, those who read the Scripture with understanding will be enlightened and shine like the stars in the sky.

Theology of Irenaeus of Lyon

In his work Milestones of Theology, Irenaeus considers Scripture as the primary source of faith. It is necessary to compare the different passages so that, illuminating each other, their meaning can be understood in the context (cf. AH II, 10,1; 27,1; III, 12,9). With humility we must accept that it is not We know everything and we must approach the Word with a humble spirit and let ourselves be taught by it.

Ireneo defends the principle of tradition. The second book of the AH develops or founds the principle of tradition, which Hegesippus already initiates, and formulates this principle against Gnosticism, which admits private revelations, typical of its schools, and also against them demands consistency with the Scriptures, since the Gnostics tried to eliminate certain aspects of them, arguing a secret tradition. He says that the true tradition is to be found in the Church founded by the apostles, where their successors have taught the authentic doctrine.

Irenaeus is strongly convinced that the apostles' doctrine continues to hold true. This tradition is the source and norm of faith (regula fidei or regula veritatis). For Irenaeus this canon of truth seems to be the baptismal creed, because he says that we receive it at baptism. Only the churches founded by the apostles can serve as support for the authentic teaching of the faith and as witnesses to the truth, since the uninterrupted succession of bishops in these churches guarantees the truth of their doctrine. Regarding this, he says that it would take too long to refer to all the churches, so he narrows it down to that of Rome, thanks to which we have the entire list of Roman bishops (cf. AH III, 3,3).

Irenaeus is above all a great exegete, especially of Saint Paul and Saint John, in such a way that when he explains Saint Paul or Saint John it is almost as if they were explaining themselves. Irenaeus is the representative of the Asia Minor school. The theology of the flesh does not come from Saint John.

The battle around the Gnostics is done with Saint Paul. The central theme of Irenian theology revolves around the Salus Hominis (anthropology), that is, the salvation of man. In anthropology everything else converges, trinity, ecclesiology, eschatology, etc. The starting point of his anthropology is the two biblical texts of Genesis that speak of the creation of man: the Genesis 1:1-26 and the Genesis 2:7. In contrast to the Gnostics who distinguished three kinds of man, the material or hiliacal man, the psychic or animal man (because his substance is the psiché or soul), and third, the spiritual or pneumatic man (made up of pneuma or spirit).

There is only one man, carnal, spiritual and animal. He repeatedly says that man is a mixture of body, soul and spirit, in this he uses a Pauline terminology, Paul in 1Thessalonians 5:23 . The Gnostics gave these three elements the category of substance, and said that the three men were made of three different substances, although theoretically each of these three could live independently, or perhaps together. The spirit is clothed with the psychic man and this in turn with the material man. The ideal of that spirit is to get rid of the other two, which will happen with death. The spiritual substance is the substance of God, therefore man is consubstantial with the Father. Salvation for spiritual men is due to their own substance, because it is of divine matter. The substance of the seven heavens is the world of the demiurge, God inferior to the one God, he has a psychic nature, he is the one who creates the material man, but the spiritual man is of divine substance.

San Ireneo says that there is only one man, who assumes the substances, so there is something in favor of things. Man is body, he is flesh, the soul is the principle of rational and animal life through plasma (mud). The soul is a rational principle, the principle that communicates sensitive and rational life to the clay. The spirit is the principle of spiritual life of the plasma. Man through sin loses his spirit. Man is a mixture of body, soul and spirit. They are qualities inherent to the body. Sarcology: man is flesh, thus anthropology is the philosophy of flesh. Car Capax Salutis: meat capable of salvation. This is where the battle is played, for the Gnostics the flesh is not capable of salvation, for Saint Irenaeus it is. Salvation means divinization of the flesh, that is why the Son of God incarnates to divinize the flesh. The flesh, for being matter, for the Gnostics, is corruptible, and will end with annihilation. That is why the flesh of God is not real, but apparent (docetism), thus losing the mysteries of Jesus Christ. The flesh is essential for Saint Irenaeus, man per se is flesh, but a flesh destined for salvation.

In Genesis 2:7a. «Yahveh took mud from the earth», we find the origin of the body, it is mud from the earth, now, from what earth? Of this visible that we have before us, and the mystery of the healing of the man blind from birth makes it clear. Man is a being under construction, an idea of progress, man has not finished being made until man is equal to the glorious flesh of Christ, then man will be perfectly what God wants, image and likeness of God.

On the other hand, it emphasizes that this clay taken from the earth was not molded by angels, but by the hands of God, directly, the hands of God are the Son and the Holy Spirit. The Son is the one who communicates the image to the clay, and the Holy Spirit is the one who communicates the divine likeness. Each of the three divine persons in creation acts according to its personal qualities. The Father creates matter ex nihilo, the Son shapes it, and the Holy Spirit fills it with life. Genesis 2:7b. This breath of life is identified with the soul, infused into the plasma, and takes the form of the plasma, just as the content takes the form of the container, and is subject to the same causality at the hands of God.

Man is a microcosm, in the very being of man there is a summary of all creation, of the material world for being material, and of the rational for being rational. Saint Irenaeus says that God made man king not only of this world, but also of the world of angels. Man himself is a summary of creation. According to Genesis 1:26 we must distinguish image from likeness. Image is similarity with the form, figure, lineaments, and it occurs between equal natures, it necessarily occurs between two equal natures, we therefore have the same nature of God, possible through Christ, who has human nature. Here trinitarian theology is introduced. The Father has no form, it is not possible to know the Father without the Son, who does have a form. Thus, man, who is material, corporeal, carnal, is the image of God in its horizontal sense, that is, the image of Christ God who is to come, is to be incarnated, is the paradigm.

In Christ it is possible to distinguish several stages. The paradigm of Adam is Christ, who is prior to the first Adam, since the first Adam is only prior in time, not in the mind of God. In Christ it is possible to distinguish different stages (when he was born, as a child, etc.). In which of these stages is the paradigm from which Adam was created? In the resurrection, that is the paradigm or model that God had in mind. It will be the image of God when his flesh is glorified. Man, then, is destined by God to be glorified in his flesh, meanwhile we are in the construction period. Being a carnal economy, a story is necessary, if it had been an angelic economy it would not have been necessary.

Similarity means assimilation of man with God, which must be distinguished from another resemblance, assimilation of man with God, that is, man becomes God, similarity consists in man being divinized, deified, man is destined to become God This resemblance is progressive, since the "kata" (second particle) has a dynamism of its own. It indicates a process that has to be developed until the perfection of the flesh of Christ, but it will never sweep the physical distance, but the qualitative distance. One thing is the "ousía" (substance) or being of God, and another is the human "ousía", which is carnal, the distance is between the being of God and that of man, it will never be erased, the divinization of man is given in the field of quality, the qualitative field, this means that the divine substance has congenital properties (poiotes), the divine substance itself is impassible, immortal, incorruptible, and the human substance itself is corruptible, mortal, and passable. The divinization of man comes from the fact that the human substance forgets his faculties and assumes divine qualities. The risen Christ is the model that God had before him in modeling Adam. Therefore Christ is the goal to which human flesh has to arrive.

Man is a being in fieri, under construction, which is being made, he will become perfect man only after the resurrection, when his flesh has acquired incorruptibility and immortality. Meanwhile, he is subjected to the work of divine hands, God, why didn't he make man perfect from the beginning? Because although according to the Gnostics the explanation lies in the demiurge, imperfect creator God, for Saint Irenaeus man is incapable of receiving perfection at once because he is carnal, he needed a story. God is capable of giving perfection to man, but man is incapable of receiving this perfection. The whole issue is that God has established a carnal, material economy. That is why the Son of God was incarnated (by the carnal economy) and was not angelized. The task of assimilating man to God is linked to the soul, we are a body taken from the earth, and a soul, the soul is a mediator between this body and the spirit. Just as the perfection of the image is virtually linked to the body, the soul takes the same image of the body, the body communicates the image of the body to the soul, and so God communicates the image of the soul to the soul, so that it communicates it to the body, It acts as an intermediary. The resemblance would be especially linked to the soul.

Christology of Irenaeus of Lyon

The Christology of Saint Irenaeus of Lyon is closely connected with anthropology, Christ, the incarnate verb is the ideal man, that is, the paradigm of Adam, the model of which Adam was made. Christ was present in the mind of God in the molding of man, "opera dei plasmatio hominis" ("God's work is the molding of man"). God begins to model man according to a sketch, the second Adam (Christ) who is the perfect and finished work. The first Adam is prior to the second only in time.

All Old Testament theophanies since Adam are manifestations of the verb. We must point out the great importance of the incarnation, therefore the reality of the passion, death and resurrection, against the Gnostics (appearance). The recapitulation, Greek term (anakefalaiosis), means summary, Christ summarizes in his own flesh the entire history of salvation of the flesh that has been given and from beginning to end, fully in the flesh of the glorified Christ. In Christ the summary has been given. Christ sums up Adam, all of humanity, summing up the past and the future, from creation to glorification.

Regarding original sin, note that Saint Irenaeus constitutes a testimony in favor of the doctrine of original sin. Saint Augustine spreads this thesis for which he was accused of a badly converted Manichaean, to which he rescues the reference to Saint Irenaeus. According to Saint Irenaeus, our first parents, created in the image and likeness of God, lost their similarity, but kept the image, although obscured. Christ made the image shine and returned the likeness. Highlight the location of paradise in the 4th heaven (the one in the middle). Man, made of clay from the earth, is elevated to paradise but later because of sin he is expelled to earth again. Thus, in paradise he was equidistant from the earth and from the highest heaven, thus explaining the reign of man on earth. Paradise does not admit the sinner, that is why they were expelled.

Mariology of Irenaeus of Lyon

In his Mariology he develops a lot of the parallelism between Eva and María de San Justino. According to Irenaeus, Mary repaired Eve's disobedience, with which she contradicted the Gnostic currents that held that Jesus was not God and man. Irenaeus asserted that Jesus must have human nature to be able to redeem it, but at the same time the holiness of God to be able to present himself without stain.

Irenaeus guarantees against the Gnostics the reality of the flesh of Jesus, without which the historical life of Christ is impossible, and his real death and resurrection:

"They say that He received nothing from the Virgin... Otherwise his descent to Mary would have been useless: why would he go down to her, if nothing should be taken from her?"

Saint Irenaeus of Lyon (AH III, 22:1-2).

He says that the Son, by becoming flesh, by being “really” born of Mary, is the pledge that he is a descendant of Adam, whose seed he had to assume in order to transform it into what he is like God. For this reason, her flesh is the same flesh as Mary, daughter of Adam (cf. AH III, 21,10, V, 1,2). Through her, Jesus is also linked to the generation of Abraham and David, and Only for this reason can the Son of Mary become the fulfillment of the promises made to the Fathers (cf. AH III, 16,2-3; D 35-36, 40, 59).

Eschatology of Irenaeus of Lyon

It is necessary to distinguish between Catholic, intermediate and final eschatology. The intermediate is the situation of man from death to resurrection, each individual, in what situation is he? In this regard Saint Irenaeus teaches the following things taken from the exegesis of the rich Dives and the poor Lazarus Luke 16:19. This text for him is not a parable, but a real story that the Lord tells us. Through the parable he shows us the following points: 1st perseverance of souls, that is, souls, after death, persevere in being, they do not dissolve; 2.º the non-transmigration of souls, maintains itself with its own subsistence, here the omnipotence of God intervenes; 3rd, the souls retain the figure of the body, which makes them recognizable, for this reason the rich Dive recognizes Lazarus, for having the same figure as in life. The souls retain the memory of their sinful work and also the merit, Abraham retains the prophetic gift and recognizes the works of the rich and the poor; 4th, in the afterlife there is a place of rest and pain, the good souls rested in the bosom of Abraham, the bad ones, like the rich man, are in a place of pain; 5th, Saint Irenaeus also sees confirmed one of his favorite theses, the unity of the two testaments, which allows us to see the words of Christ in the law and prophets, what they said according to the word of Christ.

In Irenian theology the important thing is always the salus carni, because the historia salutis consists in the deification of the flesh, the joy of the soul during the intermediate eschatology is a relative, intermediate joy, not only does he not see the Father, but also the risen Son. ('No one has ever seen God': 1Jn 4,12; Jn 5, 37; Jn 6, 46)

In the final eschatology, true beatitude, for man to acquire it, the resurrection of the Word is necessary, the people resurrected with the resurrection will begin the millennium, a thousand years during which the Father will not be seen, but only the Son resurrected getting used to the flesh (Christ) to later pass on to the Father, also this millennium will happen on earth, but in a new heaven and a new earth. The vision of the Father does not occur in the millennium, but rather a preparation of the people for the vision of the Father but secundum carnem. Therefore, there is a gradual process, which is initiated by the Holy Spirit, continued by the Son, and completed by the Father. Thus, he distinguishes three points in the history of salvation: Holy Spirit, stage of the Old Testament; the 2nd is that of the Son, which in turn is subdivided into two, begins in the incarnation, and lasts until the parousia; to then continue the stage of the Son for a thousand years, after the seventh millennium the Father will arrive. Thus, in the Old Testament law we have received a prophetic spirit, then, with Christ, an adoptive spirit, and finally the paternal spirit. So there is a process of adaptation.

Against the Gospel of Judas

His extensive and complete refutation of the different Gnostic doctrines has been recalled on the occasion of the rediscovery of the pseudo-epigraphical text called Gospel of Judas. Irenaeus says that it is a book used by a Gnostic group that he calls Cainites, which:

"They say that Cain was born of a superior Potestad, and the brethren of Esau, Korah, the Sodomites, and all their fellow men, profess themselves. That's why the Maker attacked them, but none of them could do them wrong. For Wisdom took for itself what was born of them. And they say that Judas the traitor was the only one who knew all these things exactly, because only he among all knew the truth to carry out the “mystery of betrayal”... For this they show a book of their invention, which they call the Gospel of Judas. »

Irenaeus in various parts of his work refers to the opposition between Cain and Abel.

“God put his eyes on the Oblates of Abel, for he offered them with simplicity and righteousness; instead he did not look at Cain’s sacrifice, because his heart was divided by jealousy and evil intentions against his brother, according to God Himself said to him by rebuking him for what he hid: “Do you not sin even if you offer your sacrifice straightly, if you do not share with righteousness? Calm down.” »

Genesis 4:7 LLX: ο:κ אν προθος προσεροσος γγκεος δ: δ δικες μμαρτεος:σεος σον πρ ἀ ἀ πποσποστροροφ αἄ αἄ αἄ αἄ αἄτροροεροερερερεροερερερερερερερερερερειἄ σιερερερερερερερερερερερερερερερερερερεος σος σος σορεος σος σιἄ σιἄ σιἄ σιἄ σιἄ σιἄ σιἄ σιἄ σιἄ σιἄ σιἄ σιἄ

“Cain, when God advised him to calm down, for he had not justly shared with his brother the duties of fraternity, but with envy and evil imagined that he could rule over him, not only did he not put himself in peace, but he added sin to sin, showing his intention with works. He carried out what he had planned (Genesis): He stood on him and killed him. »

Abel's sacrifice is a symbol of Jesus' sacrifice:

"God subjected the righteous to the unrighteous, so that the first through his suffering might manifest himself as righteous, but the second through his acts unmask his injustice... the God who unmasks them is not guilty of them nor does evil work."

"It is not sacrifices that purify the human being, for God does not need them; but the pure conscience of those who offer it is what sanctifies the sacrifice. »

Jesus gave his life not to "free himself from the body" but so that everyone who believes in him should not perish but have eternal life... so that the world hail for him; he who believes in him is not condemned (John 3:16-18); and the condemnation is that light has come into the world and men loved darkness rather than light... so that their works may not be blamed (John 3: 19-20,12:4-6).

Festivity

Eastern Christians celebrate the feast of Saint Irenaeus on August 23. The Catholic Church celebrates it on June 28. His name is also included in the Lutheran Calendar of Saints.