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Entries in theological terms (565)

Friday
Mar122021

Theological Term of the Week: Irenaeus of Lyons

DateFriday, March 12, 2021 at 2:30AM

Irenaeus of Lyons
The “first great Christian theologian of the patristic age.”1 Irenaeus was Greek and lived from around 130-202.

  • From 2000 Years of Christ’s Power by N. H. Needham:

    • Irenaeus stands out as the most important Church father of the 2nd Century. This is because he wrote against the Gnostics a lengthy book usually known as Against Heresies … . The book has survived, mostly in a Latin translation, and comes down to us today completely intact. It is priceless for what it tells us about the beliefs of Christians in the 2nd Century and about the Gnostic movement. Irenaeus also wrote a smaller work against the Gnostics called Proof of the Apostolic Preaching.

 

Learn more:

  1. Got Questions: Who was Saint Irenaeus of Lyons?
  2. Christian History: Irenaeus of Lyon
  3. Theopedia: Irenaeus
  4. Christian Classics Ethereal Library: St. Irenaeus, Bishop of Lyons
  5. Ligonier.org: Irenaeus of Lyons
  6. Michael Haykin: The Roman Empire and Ireneaus of Lyons (audio)

 

Related terms:

 

Filed under Christian History

1From 2000 Years of Christ’s Power by N. R. Needham.

Do you have a a theological term you’d like to see featured as a Theological Term of the Week? Email your suggestion using the contact button in the navigation bar above. 

Clicking on the Theological Terms button will take you to an alphabetical list of all the theological terms.

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Thursday
Mar042021

Theological Term of the Week: Justin Martyr

DateThursday, March 4, 2021 at 2:30AM

Justin Martyr
The “greatest of the 2nd Century [Christian] apologists.”1 In about AD 165, he was executed in Rome for being a Christian.

  • From 2000 Years of Christ’s Power by N. H. Needham:

    • In his writings, Justin tried to show that all the truths which the Greek philosophers, particularly the Platonists, had been striving to understand were now perfectly revealed in Christianity. To demonstrate this, Justin described Christ as the Logos… . Logos was a term which Greek philosophers used to refer to the eternal principle of Reason that gives order and meaning to the universe. Philosophers saw the Logos standing half-way between God and creation; God was too distant and perfect to have any immediate contact with the universe, but He could deal with it indirectly through His Logos. According to Justin, this eternal Logos or Reason was Christ himself before He became flesh as Jesus of Nazareth… . So instead of setting the Christian faith and Greek philosophy against each other, Justin believed that Christianity was the fulfilment of Greek philosophy. The philosophers had only seen parts of the jigsaw: Christianity gave the complete picture.

 

Learn more:

  1. Got Questions: Who was Justin Martyr?
  2. Christian History: Justin Martyr
  3. Doug Geivett: Justin Martyr: The First Apologist of the Christian Church
  4. Justin Martyr: Dialogue with Trypho
  5. Justin Martyr: How We Christians Worship

 

Related terms:

 

Filed under Christian History

1From 2000 Years of Christ’s Power by N. R. Needham.

Do you have a a theological term you’d like to see featured as a Theological Term of the Week? Email your suggestion using the contact button in the navigation bar above. 

Clicking on the Theological Terms button will take you to an alphabetical list of all the theological terms.

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Friday
Feb262021

Theological Term of the Week: Athanasius

DateFriday, February 26, 2021 at 2:30AM

Athanasius 
The bishop of Alexandria who became “the outstanding champion of Nicene theology in the East” and who was “one of the greatest and most influential thinkers in the history of the Christian Church.”1 He lived from 296-373.

  • From 2000 Years of Christ’s Power by N. H. Needham:

    • Athanasius’s whole theology was centred on the docrine of salvation. In common with Eastern Christians generally, Athanasius understood salvation to mean deification — Christ the Savior makes human beings divine. This did not mean that Christ actually changed the believer’s human nature into God’s nature, but that human nature was lifted up by grace, through Christ, to share in the glory and immortality of God. 2 Peter 1:4 was a favourite text, where Peter describes Christians as “partakers of the divine nature”. How, Athanasius asked, could Christ make human nature divine if He Himself was less than God? Salvation means union with God’s life — human nature sharing in the glory of God’s nature. Therefore if Christ is humankind’s Saviour,  He must be God and man in one person; in Christ the God-man, humanity has been lifted up into the very life of God. Athanasius also argued from the fact that Christians worship Christ. How can we worship Him, Athanasius asked, unless He is God? If we are worshipping a created being, we are committing idolatry.

 

Learn more:

  1. Got Questions: Who was Athanasius?
  2. Christian History: Athanasius
  3. Michael A. G. Haykin: 10 Things You Should Know About Athanasius
  4. John Piper: Contending for Our All
  5. Ryan Reeves: Who Was Athanasius and Why Is He Important?
  6. Nick Needham:  Athanasius and the Deity of Christ: Part 1 and Part 2 (videos)
  7. Athanasius: On the Incarnation (pdf)

 

Related terms:

 

Filed under Christian History

1From 2000 Years of Christ’s Power by N. R. Needham.

Do you have a a theological term you’d like to see featured as a Theological Term of the Week? Email your suggestion using the contact button in the navigation bar above. 

Clicking on the Theological Terms button will take you to an alphabetical list of all the theological terms.

Authorrebecca in | Comments Off
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