Introduction
Before a gathering of the Irenaeus Joint Orthodox-Catholic Working Group in the fall of 2021, Pope Francis announced his intention to declare St. Irenaeus of Lyons a Doctor of the Church with the title Doctor Unitatis, the Doctor of Unity. Recalling that Irenaeus’s name contains the word peace, Pope Francis noted that Christian peace “reconciles” and “brings together in unity.” Francis’s predecessor, Pope Benedict XVI, said in a weekly catechesis on the Fathers of the Church that Irenaeus emerged as “the first great theologian who created systematic theology; he himself speaks of the system of theology, that is of the internal coherence of all faith.” We can bring together the words of Popes Francis and Benedict. Thanks to Irenaeus, Christians can see the coherence and unity of their faith and how their faith unifies them with God and with one another. Irenaeus bridges another divide. These two popes remind us that Irenaeus is not simply an author whose works appeal to scholars of early Christianity. As Pope Benedict XVI notes, Irenaeus taught that there is “no superior Christianity for intellectuals.” Instead, Irenaeus’s vision stands for all Christians in all ages. “The faith publicly confessed by the Church is the common faith of all.” As such, the works of Irenaeus should be available to all—scholars and laypeople alike.
With this in mind, we are pleased to present this volume, which completes the translation of Irenaeus’s magnum opus Adversus Haereses—Against the Heresies. Paulist Press published volume 1 of Adversus Haereses in 1992. This was translated and annotated by Dominic Unger, OFM Cap, with further revisions by John Dillon. Volumes 2 and 3 were published in 2012. Both were based on the work of Fr. Unger, whose untimely death meant that he could not complete the project. John Dillon revised volume 2 and Michael Slusser introduced it. Irenaeus Steenberg wrote the introduction for and revised the notes and translation of volume 3. In this volume, I have updated Fr. Unger’s work. Since he wrote, there has been particular emphasis in the scholarship on how Irenaeus has structured his arguments in Adversus Haereses and his deep theological, philosophical, and rhetorical sophistication.
Scholars of early Christianity have come to understand that Irenaeus was not simply, or even primarily, a heresiologist. He is first and foremost an interpreter of the Scriptures who sought to explain the truth of Christianity by offering a comprehensive interpretation of the unifying message of the Christian Scriptures. He also makes an argument about what constitutes the Scriptures. He is the first voice of early Christianity to view the entire Christian drama, which is recounted in the old and new covenants and the continuing life of the Church. His contributions to the history of Christian theology are numerous, and in this introduction, I want to highlight four that bear directly on Books 4 and 5 of Adversus Haereses. These four are (1) the rule of faith, (2) oikonomia, (3) anakephalaiosis, and (4) the homo vivens. In order to fill out the picture of these themes, I also need to discuss the role of Scripture in Irenaeus, his cultural context, and his use of the word gnostic.
The Faith
Scholars often associate Irenaeus with the “rule of faith” or the “rule of truth.” Irenaeus, however, does not use the term “rule of faith.” Instead, he refers to “the faith.” He discusses this numerous times in Adversus Haereses, most importantly in Book 1, chapters 9–10 and chapter 22. If you were to ask someone today what faith means, you’d likely get an answer about a private belief that does not rely on and might well be opposed to reason or evidence. Faith in this sense would likely be connected to feeling. Whatever the merits of this definition, it has little to do with Christianity and certainly nothing to do with Irenaeus. For Irenaeus, the faith is a threefold statement about God and God’s relationship with creation. Irenaeus writes that the Church received from the apostles and their disciples “the faith in one God the Father Almighty…in one Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who was enfleshed for our salvation, and in one Holy Spirit” (1.10.1). Through the Prophets, the Holy Spirit “preached the Economies, the coming, the birth from a Virgin, the passion, the resurrection from the dead, and the bodily ascension into heaven of the beloved Son, Christ Jesus our Lord” (1.10.1). The Prophets declared, furthermore, that Christ will come “from heaven in the glory of the Father to recapitulate all things and to raise up all flesh of the whole human race” (1.10.1). We can say, then, that for Irenaeus, there are three points to the faith. The first is in the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The second is in the work of the Spirit in the old and new covenants. The third is in the redemptive work of Christ. You will notice there that the faith as Irenaeus states it provides an outline of the Scriptures. But it does more than this. By offering this outline, the faith provides a key to understand scriptural passages. The faith reminds the reader of Scripture that one and the same God creates and saves, that one and the same God works in the old and new covenants, that one and the same God is the God and Father of Jesus Christ, who is both God and man.
The faith of the Church provides a rule for understanding the Scriptures. But Irenaeus also discusses the faiths—and the rules—of his various opponents. He describes what they believe, how those beliefs influence the way they interpret the Scriptures, and ultimately how those beliefs are incoherent on their own terms. The first two books of Adversus Haereses lay out and refute his opponents’ rules. Books 3, 4, and 5 lay out, describe, and are shaped by the rule that comes from the apostles. In Book 3, Irenaeus establishes the role the Church plays in proclaiming the faith in one God the Father, one Jesus Christ, and one Holy Spirit. Book 3 is thus an explication of the first point of the faith. In Book 4, Irenaeus shows how Christ fulfills the prophecies of the old covenant, how the old and new covenants form one oikonomia of God’s salvation. We can align Book 4 with the second point of the faith. Likewise, we can align Book 5 with the third point of the faith. In Book 5, Irenaeus focuses on Christ’s interpretation of Scripture an on Christ’s just judgment. Thus, we can see how the faith shapes both the Scriptures and Irenaeus’s argument about the Scriptures in Adversus Haereses.
Scripture in Irenaeus
For Irenaeus, the books that belong in the Scriptures are the books that conform to the rule of faith. In other words, the faith precedes the Scriptures, even as the faith provides the interpretative key to understanding the Scriptures. To be sure, Irenaeus did not have a physical Bible in the way we envision one today. Irenaeus would have read the Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible known as the Septuagint. He would have had a collection of writings that have come to be part of the New Testament. The exact relationship between the books of the old covenant (in the Septuagint) and the writings of the new covenant (the gospels, epistles, and so forth) was part of a continuing debate. And a large part of that debate was what books belonged in the new covenant.
The fact that today people (with important exceptions) now think of the Bible as a single book that begins with Genesis and ends with Revelation shows that Irenaeus won the argument with his opponents on this point. Not only do people think of Genesis and Revelation as belonging between the same covers, but they also believe that these books are part of the same story. Another way to say this is to say that, for Irenaeus, the Scriptures—the old and new covenants—form one economy (oikonomia) of God’s creation and salvation. In order to say more about this, let us turn to Irenaeus’s cultural context.
Irenaeus’s Cultural Context
Like all of us, Irenaeus’s education and cultural background deeply influenced how he understood Christianity. After all, he was not only a leader of a Christian community, but he was also an educated member of society. We should not find it surprising, then, that Irenaeus borrows terms from his cultural context to write about Christianity. We have already discussed the rule of faith. The word that gets translated into English as “rule” is the Greek word kanon. This word has specific philosophical and rhetorical connotations in Greek. Today we use canon to describe a list of “approved” books. Besides kanon, Irenaeus borrows two words from that tradition and uses them to great effect in his theological treatise. These two words—oikonomia and anakephalaiosis—have both rhetorical and scriptural valences, and both are essential for understanding Irenaeus’s argument in Books 4 and 5.
A passage from the Letter to the Ephesians can show us how Irenaeus would have been comfortable using “rhetorical” terms in his theological argument. In the first chapter of that epistle, we read: “In all wisdom and insight, he has made known to us the mystery of his will in accord with his favor that he set forth in him as a plan for the fulness of time, to sum up all things in Christ, in heaven and on earth” (Eph 1:8–10). The word for “plan” here is oikonomia and the world for “sum up” is anakephalaiosis. Thus, Irenaeus finds these rhetorical terms in Paul. For the rhetor, oikonomia is the arrangement of the speech after he has decided what points he will discuss. The word itself means the management of a household. In this sense the economy of God can be understood as God’s rule over and care for creation. The history of salvation is God’s ordered oikonomia, the management of God’s household. Christ, as the Word of God, is the speech through which God recapitulates all of creation, as the Word tells the history of the people of Israel. Irenaeus shows that the entire Scripture, from Genesis to Revelation, makes up the economy of God’s creation and salvation. He also shows how Christ stands at the center of this economy. This is Irenaeus’s task in Book 4. When the Scriptures are interpreted properly, they reveal that the Prophets spoke of Christ, and so the God of the old covenant is the same God and Father of Jesus Christ.
If we reread Ephesians 1:8–10 rhetorically and theologically, we can see that Christ is the anakephalaiosis of God’s economy of salvation. The anakephalaiosis or recapitulatio is the final moment in a speech. The orator’s task is to make clear the stakes of the decision before his audience. This is Irenaeus’s task in Book 5. The stakes are nothing less than the salvation that comes through a life of faith that understands oneself as part of God’s economy of salvation. If one follows the apostolic rule of faith, one becomes fully alive. We see this in the most famous line of Adversus Haereses.
Homo vivens
Adversus Haereses ultimately presents two visions of Scripture: the apostolic and the diabolical. The apostolic vision comes from the apostles and is carried on by Irenaeus. It presents the Scriptures as they ought to be interpreted. The diabolical vision comes from the rules of Irenaeus’s opponents. Irenaeus underlines this comparison when he discusses Christ’s temptation in Book 5, chapter 20. I use the word vision here purposely. The theme of vision is important for Irenaeus. It is a theme found both in the Scriptures he interprets and in the rhetorical tradition in which he was schooled. Irenaeus’s text paints a picture of what choices lay before his readers and what the consequences of those choices are. Ultimately, Irenaeus seeks to reveal the vision of God’s economy of salvation that is recapitulated by Christ.
Any discussion of Books 4 and 5 ought to include something about Irenaeus’s most famous dictum, homo vivens gloria dei, the living human being is the glory of God. Part of the reason the line is so famous is that it seems to be able to apply to any number of contexts. But Irenaeus provides context for what he means immediately following. He writes, vita hominis visio Dei—the life of the human being is the vision of God. The question, then, is what the vision of God means. Irenaeus knows full well that God can be seen in Christ, but Irenaeus’s understanding of vision is broader than that. For Irenaeus, in order to behold the vision of God, one must understand properly the picture found in the Scriptures. In Book 4, Irenaeus argues that the old and new covenants refer to Christ and in Book 5, he shows the ramifications of the choice one makes in following that interpretation or not. Once one partakes of this vision, he is truly a living human being and the glory of God. The only proper response to beholding this vision is to praise God. Irenaeus wants to unify all people—make all people homines viventes—in the praise of God who created and saved them.
Thus, the homo vivens is the one to whom God has manifested the Word. And this human being can see God only because he has understood that the Scriptures recount the economy of God’s salvation. Indeed, such an understanding is seeing God, which is simply another way to talk about human salvation. The story found in the economy of salvation is the story of preparing for the Lord’s arrival. It is ultimately the story of understanding oneself in light of the economy of salvation. Irenaeus hopes to persuade his audience that God’s economy—proclaimed in the law and the Prophets, lived in and through Christ, and taught by the apostles—makes them fully alive.
Overview of Books 4 and 5
With all of this in mind, let us turn to a general overview of both books. Remember that these books follow the outline of the faith as Irenaeus explains it. The first part of the faith is the belief in one Father, one Son, and one Holy Spirit. In chapters 1 through 19 of Book 4, Irenaeus shows how Jesus only speaks of one God and Father who was present in the old covenant and the new. The second part of the faith is the work of the Holy Spirit in the economy of salvation. In chapters 20 through 35 Irenaeus demonstrates how the old covenant prophesies the new. The third part of the faith is the redemptive work of Christ. In chapters 36 through 41, Irenaeus discusses Christ’s parables and how they relate to judgment. By showing the unity of the old and new covenants through the words of Christ, Irenaeus argues that the God of both covenants is one and the same. By showing how the old covenant prophesies the new, Irenaeus proves through the interpretation of Scripture the unity of God’s oikonomia of creation and salvation. The parables Irenaeus discusses deal with the salvation of human beings. By showing how these parables ought to be understood in light of the old covenant, Irenaeus both recapitulates his argument about the unity of the Scriptures and reiterates how Christ himself recapitulates all things through his interpretation of the Scriptures.
We can divide Irenaeus’s discussion in Book 5 into three major parts. These parts also mirror the three major moments of the faith. In chapters 1 through 14, he focuses on an exegesis of Paul that proves the resurrection of the flesh. These chapters demonstrate the power and unity of God. In chapters 15 through 24, he shows how the unity of God the Creator and God the Father of Jesus Christ is shown in the life of Christ. In these chapters Irenaeus shows the unity of the God of the old and new covenants by explaining how Christ interprets the words of the Prophets in his life and teaching. In chapters 25 through 36, he shows how the unity of God the Creator and God the Father of Jesus Christ is portrayed through an exegesis of the Scriptures concerning the end times. These latter chapters, then, focus on Christ’s work of recapitulation. In Book 5, Irenaeus wants to present as clearly as he can the choice that faces the reader of Scripture. Either the reader will follow the apostolic rule of faith that Irenaeus follows or the rules of Irenaeus’s opponents. If the reader of Scripture does follow the interpretation based on the apostolic rule of faith, he will surely be the homo vivens who participates in the vision of God.
Gnosticism
Thus far in this introduction, I have consistently referred to “Irenaeus’s opponents.” I have not referred to “Gnostics” or “Gnosticism.” I should spend a bit of time discussing why. Traditionally, Irenaeus’s opponents were collectively known as the “Gnostics,” who believed in a set of doctrines loosely called “Gnosticism.” Gnosticism, so it seemed, taught that the creator god was different from the God and Father of Jesus Christ. Gnostics held that the material creation was bad, and that Jesus offered saving knowledge that led to freedom from the body and from creation as a whole. Only certain elect people could fully understand this teaching.
As thumbnail sketches go, this one is fine, and it certainly points to some beliefs that certain teachers held. We should note, though, that Irenaeus is quite careful to note which teachers and which teaching he is opposing at various points in his treatise. He rarely uses the word gnostic. Instead, he refers to Ptolemy, Valentinus, Marcion, and a host of other specific teachers. Throughout the text, and especially in Books 1 and 2, Irenaeus lays out specific teaching and distinguishes it from other teaching. A careful reading of Irenaeus would show that he does not indulge in the sorts of generalizations some might claim he does. But I follow the tide of scholarship that largely avoids “Gnostic” and “Gnosticism” altogether. I have modified Fr. Unger’s notes to change “Gnostics” to “Irenaeus’s opponents.”