Theological Term of the Week: Irenaeus of Lyons

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:

• Ambrose of Milan
• Apollinarius
• Athanasius
• Augustine of Hippo
• Basil of Caesarea
• Cappadocian fathers
• Columba
• Cyril of Alexandria
• Gregory of Nanzianzus
• Gregory of Nyssa
• Gregory the Great
• Hilary of Poitiers
• Jerome
• John Chrysostom
• Justin Martyr
• Maximus the Confessor
• Monica
• Nestorius
• Origen
• Patrick
• Pelagius
• Sabellius
• Tertullian
• Venerable Bede, The

Filed under Christian History

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

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