Irenaeus of Lyons

Gnosticism* The doctrine of salvation by knowledge. This definition, based on the etymology of the word (gnosis knowledge, gnostikos, good at knowing), is correct as far as it goes, but it gives only one, though perhaps…

But one and the same householder produced both covenants, the Word of God, our Lord Jesus Christ, who spoke with Abraham and Moses, and who has again restored us to liberty and has multiplied that grace that is from hims…

2. Error, indeed, is never set forth in its naked deformity, lest, being thus exposed, it should at once be detected. But it is craftily decked out in an attractive dress, so as, by its outward form, to make it appear to…

To Gnosticism's separation of soul and body, spirit and flesh, pneumatic and animal existence, Christianity opposed the Incarnation of God. The fact that God has become man, indeed flesh, proves that the redemption and r…

St. Paul and St. John had begun the struggle against Gnosticism, which in their time was in its early stages. Even so, it was already showing its pernicious tendencies: promoting its seductive secret knowledge in the Chr…

Esiste un certo pro-Principio regale, pro-privo di intelligibilit', pro-privo di sostanza e pro-dotato di rotondit', che chiamiamo Zucca. Con questa Zucca coesiste una potenza che chiamiamo anche Supervacuit'. Questa zuc…

Irenaeus taught the unity of the testaments in Christ: they were different, because they were different stages in the one divine education of the human race. In contrast to Gnosticism's cold presumption, he proclaimed Go…

Myth is unmasked by the Word of God. It is the outcome of man's desperate arrogance, his refusal to submit to God, his determination to make his own way to Heaven.

Given the fantastic forms of the mythology of the time, it all seems exotically remote. In fact, when we look more closely, we can see that we are dealing with a confrontation which has never ended and is constantly assu…

Error, indeed, is never set forth in its naked deformity, lest, being thus exposed, it should at once be detected. But it is craftily decked out in an attractive dress, so as, by its outward form, to make it appear to th…

And so, for the person willing to follow it in patience, it can lead to the divine destination, to the vision of God the Creator and Redeemer. By contrast, the Gnostic's self-devised ascent is bound to end, like the flig…

Myth and Christianity are opposed on every point. Myth seeks the ascent of man to spirit; the Word of God seeks descent into flesh and blood. Myth wants power; revelation reveals the true power of God in the most extreme…

So-called gnosis' was an enormous temptation in the early Christian Church. By contrast, persecution, even the bloodiest, posed far less of a threat to the Church's continuing purity and further development. Gnosticism h…

As Eve was seduced by the word of an angel and so fled from God after disobeying his word, Mary in her turn was given the good news by the word of an angel, and bore God in obedience to his word. As Eve was seduced into…

For it is not needful, to use a common proverb, that one should drink up the ocean who wishes to learn that its water is salt.

He [Jesus] fought and conquered. On the one hand, he was man who struggled for his fathers and through his obedience cancelled their disobedience. On the other hand, he bound the strong one and freed the weak and bestowe…

He who was the Son of God became the Son of man, that man ... might become the son of God.

Error never shows itself in its naked reality, in order not to be discovered. On the contrary, it dresses elegantly, so that the unwary may be led to believe that it is more truthful than truth itself.

Error, indeed is never set forth in its naked deformity, lest, being thus exposed, it should at once be detected. But it is craftily decked out in an attractive dress, so as, by its outward form, to make it appear to the…

The glory of God is the human person fully alive.