Category Archives: Irenaeus

Readers of this blog will no doubt want to know what St Irenaeus thought about the Final Judgment. Here is a key passage: And to as many as continue in their love towards God, does He grant communion with Him. … Continue reading →

One might reasonably ask, if Adam and Eve were but children, emotionally and intellectually, how can they be blamed for their failure to see through the deceptions of the Deceiver? Why did the Father abandon them to Satan before they … Continue reading →

St Irenaeus is well known for his proposal that Adam fell from grace because of his immaturity. Like an innocent child, he was unprepared to deal with the seduction and lies of Satan. Though God had prepared for Adam a … Continue reading →

One has to be impressed—at least I am—by St Irenaeus’s invocation of the Eucharist to support the catholic view of the Incarnation: But vain in every respect are they who despise the entire dispensation of God, and disallow the salvation … Continue reading →

One of the false teachings that St Irenaeus was apparently compelled to refute was a denigration of the material dimension of human existence: Among the other [truths] proclaimed by the apostle, there is also this one, “That flesh and blood … Continue reading →

To see God is to know God, and to know God is to enter into the salvation that is the life of God: Now this is His Word, our Lord Jesus Christ, who in the last times was made a … Continue reading →

Apparently Christians in the second century debated whether Adam had been saved by the death and resurrection of Christ. Read through this passage: Wherefore also He drove him out of Paradise, and removed him far from the tree of life, … Continue reading →

In Irenaeus we find a clear affirmation of the freedom of the human being, so characteristic of the Eastern tradition. Clearly he is responding to gnostic teachings that he believes compromise or deny this God-given freedom, but I long ago … Continue reading →