The Development of Episcopal Ministry for the Purpose of Canon and Creed
By Alex Pak
In this article, I would like to look at life and work of Irenaeus of Lyon and his understanding of Episcopal ministry for the purpose of canon and creed.
It is very important to know and understand how and why Irenaeus insisted on apostolic authority and it tradition. And it is also important to know his background in order to understand his insistence on tradition of church and its teaching based on apostolic teachings. Now, I would like to take a look at life of Irenaeus of Lyons.
Life of Irenaeus
Irenaeus is considered the first catholic theologian, a teacher and a saint in the church. He was born around A. D. 130 in Smyrna near Turkey and died of martyrdom around A. D. 202 (there are still debate about his death). His name means “peaceful or peaceful one”, and a legend notes that while he was young, he listened a sermon of Polycarp, who was a disciple of Apostle John. He moved and went to Rome to study and later became a presbyter of Lyons in France. According to Williston Walker, Irenaeus was a bishop emigrated to the West from Asia Minor. He is first known to history as a presbyter of the church at Lyons.(Walker 78, 1985) With his Eastern background and Western training, he became a bridge between West and East. In dealing with heresy, he was once sympathetic with Montanist movement, a 2-century heretical movement that arose in the region of Phrygia and Mysia. The movement began within the church by Montanus. It was called “the New Prophecy” by the follower of Montanus, who converted to Christianity. A legend notes that Irenaeus even asked Pope Eleutherius to allow Montanist to remain, yet his association with the sect is not evident.(Livingstone 847, 1997) Here we can see Irenaeus’ tolerance and his sympathy of the sect. He wanted to bring a bridge between East and West, for the former church was engulfed in Quartodeciman Controversy. On the other hand, his dealing with Gnostics is rather harsh. Because it was a direct threat to church.
His exposure of Gnosticism is well known and documented. Irenaeus’ writing is different than of apologist, who wrote usually against heretics and gentiles. Instead his writing is addressed to Christians. Evans notes that, “The major work of Irenaeus, bishop of Lugdunum (Lyons) form A. D. 178, is a polemic against Gnostic heresies, elaborated with extensive treatment of orthodox Christian teaching… It is a work of different literary genre from that of the apologists, and expects different kind of readership, i. e. a Christian one.” (O'Donovan 15, 1999) Unlike the other apologist who had much interaction with Gnostics and their writings, Irenaeus did not dealt directly with them. Instead he wrote to the Christians to do away with them. He was more of a pastor/bishop who protected and nurtured the flocks of Christ than deal head on with the heretics.
Irenaeus’ main literary works are Demonstration of the Apostolic Preaching, and An Indictment and Overthrow of the Falsely named ‘Knowledge’. The latter work is commonly called Against Heresies (Adersus omnes Haereses). The work was probably completed around A. D. 185. The Against Heresites survives in fragments, but a Latin translation from about 380 is complete. It is stimulated but not determined by opposition to Gnosticism, a form of theosophy that today attracts interest and sympathy. Now I would like to focus more on contents of Against Heresies.
Against Heresies
In Irenaeus view, the first and most urgent threat was Marcion and the Gnostics that arose out their denial that the true God and the World-Creator are one and the same.
In his reply, Irenaeus insisted that the rule of faith and Scripture alike know only one God, the Creator, who ‘contains all things’ while being himself contained limited by nothing.”(Irenaeus 359-360, 1987 (Reprinted)) Irenaeus saw God as not some remote being or distanced, but He himself is intimately present in His creation. Here we already see that his theology is very pastoral and relational. Unlike the teaching of Gnostics, which taught impersonal god, dualistic views of world as good and evil, and highly alienated understanding of knowledge (gnosis). For many Gnostics, knowledge is not for everyone, but for those few and enlightened ones. In this kind of heretical teachings, Irenaeus had no room for discussion nor being apologectical with them. He was not interested in arguing with Gnostics. Rather, Irenaeus saw himself as above all a preserver and interpreter of tradition, and he was integrating themes from Pauline and Jeannine thought, and weaved into his anti-Gnostic synthesis theme. (Walker 78, 1985)
Irenaeus saw the importance of emphasizing the traditional elements in the church, especially the Episcopate, Scripture and religious and theological tradition. (Livingstone, 847, 1997) He stressed that the continuity in the apostolic tradition was the continuity of the apostles with one another as the faithful messenger of Christ. Thus, it was important for him to acknowledge the apostolic succession. For Irenaeus, “Peter was an apostle of the very same God as Paul was.” (Irenaeus, 436, 1987) They were the pillars of the church and stood the tradition of apostolic. Walker noted that “Peter and Rapul both died at Rome, and the luster of their name was associated with the church there (Rome) from an early date, even though neither was actually its founder”(Walker, 75, 1985).
Marcionism and Montanism brought worldliness and compromised church’s teaching. In order to combat these, Irenaeus stressed the apostolic continuity. Pelikan notes that, “Apostolic foundation and the apostolic succession were another criterion of apostolic continuity” (Pelikan, 118, 1971). Irenaeus notes that, “It is within the power of all, therefore, in every Church, who may wish to see the truth, to contemplate clearly the tradition of the apostles manifested throughout the whole world; and were are in a position to reckon up those who were by the apostle instituted bishops in the Churches and [to demonstrate the succession of these men to our own times; those who neither taught nor knew of anything like what these [heretics] rave about.”(Irenaeus, 415, 1987) Irenaeus clearly supports the perpetual succession of bishops. Stuart G. Hall argues that “By A. D. 180, Irenaeus argued that everywhere bishops were appointed by apostles, and that the pedigree of the bishops of his time could be traced back to the apostolic founders of churches” (Stuart, 34, 1991). The role of the Apostles as the teachers of the Church is now evident throughout Irenaues’ teaching. Now let us look at Irenaeus’ understanding of canonicity of Scripture and Creeds.
In dealing with Gnostics, he saw the importance of authority of Scripture, both the Old and the New Testament and Episcopal ministry based on apostolic tradition. He believed the apostolic teaching and tradition.
Irenaeus emphasized on the canonicity of Scripture. He is the first Catholic theologian to limit to first four gospels in the New Testament: Book of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. He is the first Catholic theologian to incorporate into canon of Scripture as the divinely inspired. Pelikan notes that “ For Irenaeus, Christ is the treasure which was hidden in the field, that is, in the Old Testament Scripture.”(Pelikan 1971) He acknowledged all of the New Testament books except, the epistle of Hebrews and Jude. Irenaeus notes that Heretics do not follow neither Scripture nor tradition. He notes that, “When however, they are confuted from the Scripture, they turn around and accuse these same Scriptures, as if they were not correct, nor of authority, and [assert] that they are ambiguous, and that the truth cannot be extracted from them by those who are ignorant of tradition.”(Irenaeus, 415, 1987 (Reprinted)) Here we see Irenaeus using of both tradition and Scripture as a norm of Christendom. He held up a high view of Scripture and tradition. Walker notes that, “The great weigh of argument, however, was borne by an appeal to the prophetic and apostolic Scriptures, which, he was convinced, would themselves confute heretical teaching directly if attention were paid to their plain sense and if their obscure passage were understood in the light of those whose meaning was obvious.”(Walker 78, 1985)
In dealing with creeds, Irenaeus saw the creed as the Law of Truth. Pelikan saw that “the evolution of Christian creeds is an essential and unavoidable part of the history of early Christian doctrine; almost equally unavoidable is the temptation to document the inclusion of particular articles from the creeds.”(Pelikan 116, 1971) Irenaeus spoke of the faith, which the church had received from the apostles and from their disciples, and preceded to quote a creed. Irenaeus says, “the church, though dispersed throughout the whole world, even to the ends of the earth, has received from the apostles’ and their disciples this faith: [she] believes in one God, the Father…and in one Christ Jesus, the Son of God… and in the Holy Spirit, who proclaimed through the prophets the dispensations of God, and the advents, and the birth from a virgin, and the passion, and the resurrection from the dead, and the ascension into heaven and His [future] manifestation from heaven in the glory of the Father to gather all things in one, and to raise up anew all flesh of the whole human race, in order that to Christ Jesus, our Lord, and God, and Savior, and King, according to the will of the invisible Father, ‘every knee shall bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth, and that every tongue should confess’ to Him, and that he should execute just judgment towards all; that He may send ‘spiritual wickedness, and the angels who transgressed and became apostates, together with the ungodly, and unrighteous, and wicked, and profane among men, into everlasting fire; but may, in the exercise of His grace, confer immortality on the righteous, and holy, and those who have kept His commandments, and have persevered in His love, some form the beginning [of their Christian course], and others form [the date of] their repentance, and may surround them with everlasting glory.”(Irenaeus 330-331, 1987 (Reprinted)) Irenaeus used earlier version of the Apostles’ Creed to encourage the righteous to steadfast, and urged the wicked to come repentance. Later the Creed brought unity and a criterion of apostolic continuity. According to Kelly, “Christians have been accustomed to understand by the word creed a fixed formula summarizing the essential articles of their religion and enjoying the sanction of ecclesiastical authority.”(Kelly, 1, 1972)
References:
Irenaeus. Against Heresies. Grand Rapids, Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1987 (Reprinted).
Kelly, J. N. D. Early Christian Creeds. London, Longmans, Green and Co., 1972
Livingstone, E. A. & F. L. Cross, Editors. The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church. Oxford University Press, 1997.
O' Donovan, Oliver & Joan Lockwood O' Donovan, Editors. From Irenaeus to Grotius: A Sourcebook in Christian Political Thoughts. Grand Rapids, Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1999.
Pelikan, J. The Emergence of the Catholic Tradition (100-600). Chicago and London, The University of Chicago Press, 1971.
Walker, William & Richard A. Norris & David W. Lotz, and Robert T. Handy. (1985) .A History of the Christian Church. New York, Scribner.1985.
It is very important to know and understand how and why Irenaeus insisted on apostolic authority and it tradition. And it is also important to know his background in order to understand his insistence on tradition of church and its teaching based on apostolic teachings. Now, I would like to take a look at life of Irenaeus of Lyons.
Life of Irenaeus
Irenaeus is considered the first catholic theologian, a teacher and a saint in the church. He was born around A. D. 130 in Smyrna near Turkey and died of martyrdom around A. D. 202 (there are still debate about his death). His name means “peaceful or peaceful one”, and a legend notes that while he was young, he listened a sermon of Polycarp, who was a disciple of Apostle John. He moved and went to Rome to study and later became a presbyter of Lyons in France. According to Williston Walker, Irenaeus was a bishop emigrated to the West from Asia Minor. He is first known to history as a presbyter of the church at Lyons.(Walker 78, 1985) With his Eastern background and Western training, he became a bridge between West and East. In dealing with heresy, he was once sympathetic with Montanist movement, a 2-century heretical movement that arose in the region of Phrygia and Mysia. The movement began within the church by Montanus. It was called “the New Prophecy” by the follower of Montanus, who converted to Christianity. A legend notes that Irenaeus even asked Pope Eleutherius to allow Montanist to remain, yet his association with the sect is not evident.(Livingstone 847, 1997) Here we can see Irenaeus’ tolerance and his sympathy of the sect. He wanted to bring a bridge between East and West, for the former church was engulfed in Quartodeciman Controversy. On the other hand, his dealing with Gnostics is rather harsh. Because it was a direct threat to church.
His exposure of Gnosticism is well known and documented. Irenaeus’ writing is different than of apologist, who wrote usually against heretics and gentiles. Instead his writing is addressed to Christians. Evans notes that, “The major work of Irenaeus, bishop of Lugdunum (Lyons) form A. D. 178, is a polemic against Gnostic heresies, elaborated with extensive treatment of orthodox Christian teaching… It is a work of different literary genre from that of the apologists, and expects different kind of readership, i. e. a Christian one.” (O'Donovan 15, 1999) Unlike the other apologist who had much interaction with Gnostics and their writings, Irenaeus did not dealt directly with them. Instead he wrote to the Christians to do away with them. He was more of a pastor/bishop who protected and nurtured the flocks of Christ than deal head on with the heretics.
Irenaeus’ main literary works are Demonstration of the Apostolic Preaching, and An Indictment and Overthrow of the Falsely named ‘Knowledge’. The latter work is commonly called Against Heresies (Adersus omnes Haereses). The work was probably completed around A. D. 185. The Against Heresites survives in fragments, but a Latin translation from about 380 is complete. It is stimulated but not determined by opposition to Gnosticism, a form of theosophy that today attracts interest and sympathy. Now I would like to focus more on contents of Against Heresies.
Against Heresies
In Irenaeus view, the first and most urgent threat was Marcion and the Gnostics that arose out their denial that the true God and the World-Creator are one and the same.
In his reply, Irenaeus insisted that the rule of faith and Scripture alike know only one God, the Creator, who ‘contains all things’ while being himself contained limited by nothing.”(Irenaeus 359-360, 1987 (Reprinted)) Irenaeus saw God as not some remote being or distanced, but He himself is intimately present in His creation. Here we already see that his theology is very pastoral and relational. Unlike the teaching of Gnostics, which taught impersonal god, dualistic views of world as good and evil, and highly alienated understanding of knowledge (gnosis). For many Gnostics, knowledge is not for everyone, but for those few and enlightened ones. In this kind of heretical teachings, Irenaeus had no room for discussion nor being apologectical with them. He was not interested in arguing with Gnostics. Rather, Irenaeus saw himself as above all a preserver and interpreter of tradition, and he was integrating themes from Pauline and Jeannine thought, and weaved into his anti-Gnostic synthesis theme. (Walker 78, 1985)
Irenaeus saw the importance of emphasizing the traditional elements in the church, especially the Episcopate, Scripture and religious and theological tradition. (Livingstone, 847, 1997) He stressed that the continuity in the apostolic tradition was the continuity of the apostles with one another as the faithful messenger of Christ. Thus, it was important for him to acknowledge the apostolic succession. For Irenaeus, “Peter was an apostle of the very same God as Paul was.” (Irenaeus, 436, 1987) They were the pillars of the church and stood the tradition of apostolic. Walker noted that “Peter and Rapul both died at Rome, and the luster of their name was associated with the church there (Rome) from an early date, even though neither was actually its founder”(Walker, 75, 1985).
Marcionism and Montanism brought worldliness and compromised church’s teaching. In order to combat these, Irenaeus stressed the apostolic continuity. Pelikan notes that, “Apostolic foundation and the apostolic succession were another criterion of apostolic continuity” (Pelikan, 118, 1971). Irenaeus notes that, “It is within the power of all, therefore, in every Church, who may wish to see the truth, to contemplate clearly the tradition of the apostles manifested throughout the whole world; and were are in a position to reckon up those who were by the apostle instituted bishops in the Churches and [to demonstrate the succession of these men to our own times; those who neither taught nor knew of anything like what these [heretics] rave about.”(Irenaeus, 415, 1987) Irenaeus clearly supports the perpetual succession of bishops. Stuart G. Hall argues that “By A. D. 180, Irenaeus argued that everywhere bishops were appointed by apostles, and that the pedigree of the bishops of his time could be traced back to the apostolic founders of churches” (Stuart, 34, 1991). The role of the Apostles as the teachers of the Church is now evident throughout Irenaues’ teaching. Now let us look at Irenaeus’ understanding of canonicity of Scripture and Creeds.
In dealing with Gnostics, he saw the importance of authority of Scripture, both the Old and the New Testament and Episcopal ministry based on apostolic tradition. He believed the apostolic teaching and tradition.
Irenaeus emphasized on the canonicity of Scripture. He is the first Catholic theologian to limit to first four gospels in the New Testament: Book of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. He is the first Catholic theologian to incorporate into canon of Scripture as the divinely inspired. Pelikan notes that “ For Irenaeus, Christ is the treasure which was hidden in the field, that is, in the Old Testament Scripture.”(Pelikan 1971) He acknowledged all of the New Testament books except, the epistle of Hebrews and Jude. Irenaeus notes that Heretics do not follow neither Scripture nor tradition. He notes that, “When however, they are confuted from the Scripture, they turn around and accuse these same Scriptures, as if they were not correct, nor of authority, and [assert] that they are ambiguous, and that the truth cannot be extracted from them by those who are ignorant of tradition.”(Irenaeus, 415, 1987 (Reprinted)) Here we see Irenaeus using of both tradition and Scripture as a norm of Christendom. He held up a high view of Scripture and tradition. Walker notes that, “The great weigh of argument, however, was borne by an appeal to the prophetic and apostolic Scriptures, which, he was convinced, would themselves confute heretical teaching directly if attention were paid to their plain sense and if their obscure passage were understood in the light of those whose meaning was obvious.”(Walker 78, 1985)
In dealing with creeds, Irenaeus saw the creed as the Law of Truth. Pelikan saw that “the evolution of Christian creeds is an essential and unavoidable part of the history of early Christian doctrine; almost equally unavoidable is the temptation to document the inclusion of particular articles from the creeds.”(Pelikan 116, 1971) Irenaeus spoke of the faith, which the church had received from the apostles and from their disciples, and preceded to quote a creed. Irenaeus says, “the church, though dispersed throughout the whole world, even to the ends of the earth, has received from the apostles’ and their disciples this faith: [she] believes in one God, the Father…and in one Christ Jesus, the Son of God… and in the Holy Spirit, who proclaimed through the prophets the dispensations of God, and the advents, and the birth from a virgin, and the passion, and the resurrection from the dead, and the ascension into heaven and His [future] manifestation from heaven in the glory of the Father to gather all things in one, and to raise up anew all flesh of the whole human race, in order that to Christ Jesus, our Lord, and God, and Savior, and King, according to the will of the invisible Father, ‘every knee shall bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth, and that every tongue should confess’ to Him, and that he should execute just judgment towards all; that He may send ‘spiritual wickedness, and the angels who transgressed and became apostates, together with the ungodly, and unrighteous, and wicked, and profane among men, into everlasting fire; but may, in the exercise of His grace, confer immortality on the righteous, and holy, and those who have kept His commandments, and have persevered in His love, some form the beginning [of their Christian course], and others form [the date of] their repentance, and may surround them with everlasting glory.”(Irenaeus 330-331, 1987 (Reprinted)) Irenaeus used earlier version of the Apostles’ Creed to encourage the righteous to steadfast, and urged the wicked to come repentance. Later the Creed brought unity and a criterion of apostolic continuity. According to Kelly, “Christians have been accustomed to understand by the word creed a fixed formula summarizing the essential articles of their religion and enjoying the sanction of ecclesiastical authority.”(Kelly, 1, 1972)
References:
Irenaeus. Against Heresies. Grand Rapids, Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1987 (Reprinted).
Kelly, J. N. D. Early Christian Creeds. London, Longmans, Green and Co., 1972
Livingstone, E. A. & F. L. Cross, Editors. The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church. Oxford University Press, 1997.
O' Donovan, Oliver & Joan Lockwood O' Donovan, Editors. From Irenaeus to Grotius: A Sourcebook in Christian Political Thoughts. Grand Rapids, Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1999.
Pelikan, J. The Emergence of the Catholic Tradition (100-600). Chicago and London, The University of Chicago Press, 1971.
Walker, William & Richard A. Norris & David W. Lotz, and Robert T. Handy. (1985) .A History of the Christian Church. New York, Scribner.1985.