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The Church Fathers
These were the theologians. Their writings were theological in nature. They started
analyzing and systematizing their thoughts.
There are three very distinct groups:
1. The Asiatic Western group:
a. Iraneaus of Lyon 130 – 200AD.
i. These men originate in the East and migrated West. Grew up in Smyrna.
As a boy he had, as he delighted to point out, listened to the sermons of the
great bishop and martyr, Polycarp of Smyrna, who was regarded as a
disciple of the apostles themselves. Here he came to know, „the genuine
unadulterated gospel‟, to which he remained faithful throughout his life.
He later on moved to southern France or Gaul. When Polycarp was
murdered he went back to Smyrna and took over for Polycarp. Irenaeus
was absent from the city when the persecution there reached its zenith. It
seems that he had been sent to Rome by the Gallican churches in order to
confer with the Bishop of Rome, Eleutherus, perhaps as a mediator in the
Montanist disputes. Evidently Irenaeus stayed in Rome for just a short
time, and soon after the end of the persecution we find him again in Lyons
as the successor to Bishop Pothinus (178). When and how he died is
unknown to us. Jerome and others state that he died as a martyr in the
persecution under the Emperor Septimus Severus (202), but there is no
certainty about this tradition.
ii. His main work is titled, “Against Heresies” to counter-act Gnosticism. He
also stated the doctrines of Christianity even more than the apologists did.
Though his doctrine of the atonement was a little different. He called it
“Recapitulation.” Christ traced back the steps of Adam and got it right
where Adam failed.
iii. He laid the groundwork for the Virgin Mary to be prominent in the
Church. Just like Adam had an Eve, so too Mary was the obedient Eve.
iv. He was one of the first to identify the four gospels because of the apostolic
origin.
v. He taught that the authority of faith is established by a direct line going
back to the Apostles. He was the first to emphasize the apostolic
succession. This later came to be abused by the Roman Catholic Church.
vi. He was the first to break the Bible into two covenants. The Old Covenant
and the New Covenant. When his work was translated into Latin from
Greek it was translated Old Testament and New Testament.
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vii. In his book, “The Early Church” Henry Chadwick says of Irenaeus, “By the
manner in which he presents revelation as a gradual process Irenaeus was
able to turn the edge of the Marcionite arguments against the moral
difficulties of the OT. But the followers of Valentinus raised other
difficulties for him. Irenaeus‟ treatment of the Valetinian theology was the
most original and independent part of his work. He had taken the trouble to
make himself acquainted with the actual tenets of the sect, and saw clearly
that the basic question was that of authority. The Valentinians claimed to
be able to supplement the writings of the apostles with secret unwritten
traditions and with several additional gospels beside the familiar four of
Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.
viii. Irenaeus realized that Marcion was right in one thing – that it was necessary
to have a canon or fixed list of authoritative writings of the NT. [Before
this] the dividing line between books accorded the status of being read in
the church lectionary and books that were approved orthodoxy had not been
decisively drawn. Irendaeus drew the line, and is the first writer whose NT
virtually corresponds to the canon that became accepted as traditional. (He
never quotes from 3 John, James, or 2 Peter.) What was original in
Irenaeus was not the acceptance of four gospels or of the Acts, Epistles, and
Apocalypse, but rather the provision of reasoned statements for accepting
these books and not others. The Valentinian appeal to unwritten tradition
Irenaeus answered by appealing to the churches of apostolic foundation. If
the apostles really had taught the strange fantasies of the Valentinian myths,
would they not have told the authoritative teachers to whom they entrusted
the churches they founded? Would not these teachers have passed on these
doctrines to their successors in the episcopal chairs at these places?
Irenaeus explains that he could vindicate orthodoxy by appealing to the
succession of teachers in any church of apostolic foundation. He proceeds
to quote as an especially good example the list for Rome which could look
back to the glorious martyrs Peter and Paul. Since the authentic faith is
identical throughout the world, no church disagrees with any other, and
diversity of doctrine is inconceivable; nevertheless, because of its great
name the Roman succession provides a striking example, and we are
assured that the faithful throughout the world will necessarily be in
agreement with what is taught there. Accordingly, Irenaeus feels himself
justified in citing the list of only one apostolic foundation, and in omitting
Ephesus, Corinth, and the rest, though they would prove his point equally
well.”
ix. Irenaeus emphasized that originality should be the last thing expected from
a theologian.
x. Heresy was born of the itch for something new.
b. Hypolatus 160-235AD.
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i. Probably the most important Roman theologian in the 3rd Century. He
learned the faith from Iraneaus. Served as an elder in the church at Rome
for a time. He taught the logos doctrine. He was passed over for the
position of bishop in the church in Rome and became the first anti-Pope
where he served as a bishop of Rome without being confirmed the Pope.
ii. He taught that the root of every heresy could be traced back to pagan
philosophy. He devoted his book about heresies to the 32 heresies extent at
his time. He classified heresies rather than defined them.
iii. He was the last theologian to write in the Greek language. After that, Latin
became the language. He wrote against Platonism as a philosophy. He
wrote against the charismatics. Also wrote a commentary on the book of
Revelation. He was pre-millennial. He predicted that Christ would return
in AD 500.
c. In Antioch the grammatical-historical view of interpreting the scripture began.
Arius also learned this approach but did not apply it correctly.
2. The Latin African group:
a. Tertullian 160-225AD.
i. Came from Carthage, North Africa. He was of Punic and Berber descent.
His father was a centurion. He was fairly well educated. Converted in his
late 30s. Became a teacher in the church in Carthage. He came to really
hate any speculation in theology. He came to say, “I believe because it is
absurd.” Not because he thought that Christianity was absurd. He was
really taking a jab at the Gnostics. He was quoting it negatively, not
positively.
ii. He joined the Montanists in A.D. 206. Because he thought that the church
was getting lax in its theology and in the way it practiced church. There are
31 works of his that are still in existence.
iii. While Athenagoras was the first to discuss the idea of the trinity, Tertullian
was the first one to coin the phrase “Trinity” or “Trinitas”. He was one of
the first to use the word “persons” to describe the Trinity. The way he
constructed the Trinity was faulty. He also did not get it right by
comparing the Trinity to illustrations. He also dealt with the doctrine of the
person of Christ.
iv. Two phrases that he coined were, “The blood of the martyrs is the seed of
the church.” The other phrase was “See how they love one another.”
v. Some of his most interesting writing is concerned with the proper behavior
for a Christian in a society pervaded by pagan customs. Tertullian
demanded that Christians should keep themselves wholly unspotted from
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the world‟s idolatrous corruption. They must keep away from the cruel
public shows; but that would be self-evident. Tertullian‟s most stringent
demands for purity forbid his fellow Christians to serve in the army, or in
the civil service, or even in schools. A Christian may not even earn his
living in an occupation producing anything that might indirectly minister to
idolatry. Tertullian‟s conception of the Christian life is first and foremost
as a battle with the devil. This led him to oppose the least compromise with
„idolatry,‟ even in what might seem the most innocuous forms of merely
conventional habit, and also to conceive of the intellectual task of the
Christian thinker as a conflict with diabolical forces.
b. Cyprian 195-258AD.
i. Born in Carthage. Parents were wealthy; therefore, he was very well
educated. Elected to be the bishop of Carthage two years after he was
converted. This was the largest church in Africa. Died as a martyr. He
was 63 at the time. He was bishop in Carthage for about ten years.
ii. In 250 AD the new Emperor of the Roman Empire, Decius, ordered a
systematic persecution, requiring that everyone should possess a certificate
that he had sacrificed to the gods before special commissioners. The sands
of Egypt have preserved several of these certificates. They were a
deliberate attempt to catch people, and were the gravest attack thus far
suffered by the church. Especially among property-owners the number of
apostates was immense, and in Africa, if not in the East, the Church treated
as „lapsed‟ not only those who had sacrificed but those who had been able
to buy certificates from friendly commissioners.
iii. Cyprian of Carthage and Dionysius of Alexandria went into hiding and
controlled their flocks by secret correspondence. The bishops of Rome,
Antioch, and Jerusalem were martyred, and the see of Rome had to remain
vacant from January 250 until March 251, when competing factions elected
two rival candidates, Cornelius and Novatian.
iv. He was involved in a number of controversies. The lapsarian controversy.
The church experienced a tremendous period of persecution where some
people were put to death. There were some people who were tortured but
did not give in. They were known as “confessors.” Then there were those
who gave in to persecution. They were known as lapsy. After the
persecution ended they wanted back into the church and realized that they
had done wrong. The confessors wanted to let them back into the church.
Cyprian did not share this opinion and thought that they could only come
back into the church after severe penance.
v. The Novatianist controversy. Focused on the issue of re-baptism. The
problems of the lapsed and of the division in the Church troubled Rome.
There the learned presbyter Novatian was advocate of the traditional view
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that to those guilty of murder, adultery and apostasy the Church had no
power to grant remission but only to intercede for divine mercy at the Last
Judgment. The less austere presbyter Cornelius held the view that the
bishop could remit even grave sins. This split of 251 highlighted the
conflict between the primitive conception of the Church as a society of
saints and the now growing view that it should be a school for sinners. The
immense numbers of the Christians made it inevitable that Cornelius‟
policy should win, and he was elected bishop of Rome by a majority,
Novatian only by a minority.
vi. Cyprian held that baptism given outside the sphere of the Spirit-filled
community was no baptism, and that schismatics could not be recognized at
all: „For how can he who lacks the Spirit confer the Spirit‟s gifts?‟ Cyprian
did not want to let the lapsed back in while the Pope did.
vii. At Rome, however, the new bishop Stephen (254-256), held that by
tradition baptism in water in the name of the Trinity was valid wherever
given, and that those baptized outside the Church should not be rebaptized
but reconciled, like penitents within the Church, by the laying on of hands.
viii. According to Stephen the sacrament is not the church‟s, but Christ‟s, and
depends upon the correctness not of the minister but of the form. The
controversy between Rome and Carthage on this fundamental divergence in
sacramental theology reached white heat, with Stephen denouncing Cyprian
as Antichrist.
ix. When the Pope had to defend his actions he defended them on the basis of
apostolic succession. He argued that the Bishop of Rome had the right to
decide because he was a direct successor of St. Peter. This Bishop,
Stephen, was the first Roman Bishop to use the „thou are Peter‟ argument in
order to affirm his position as Peter‟s successor.
x. Cyprian wrote back that all bishops were equal to each other. He said that
the Church cannot, of its very nature, be divided; for Christ signified that
unity is of its very essence when he first entrusted to Peter alone that power
of the keys which he later entrusted to all the apostles. They were of equal
rank and honor with Peter, but he gave it to Peter first to show that the
Church cannot be other than one. The focus of unity is the bishop. To
forsake him is to forsake the Church, and „he cannot have God for his
Father who has not the Church for his mother.‟ He lost the argument.
3. The Alexandrian (Egypt) group:
a. The catechetical school started in Alexandria. It was intended for pagan converts
who had a background in philosophy. It eventually became a training center for
Christian teachers. It didn‟t contain a set of beliefs so that people could come there
without ascribing a certain belief. Two of the most famous students of this school
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were Plotinas and Origen. It was a very cosmopolitan city. In dealing with
Gnosticism there wasn‟t a mistrust of philosophy; rather, philosophy was a servant
of the gospel. The two philosophies to focus on were Platonism and Stoicism.
b. Clement of Alexandria 155-220AD.
i. Born in Athens to pagan parents. Said that the Law was given to the Jews
to prepare them for Christ and God gave the Greeks philosophy to prepare
them for the Christ. Died in Asia Minor. Wrote several books on theology.
ii. He followed a particular methodology produced by the Jewish philosopher
Philo called “allegory.” The logos doctrine was central to his theology.
The way that he explained this is that the person who truly knows Christ is
a true Gnostic.
iii. He saw that philosophy, so far from giving support to Gnosticism, provided
a rational method for its destruction; the Gnostics talked much of a higher
reason, but did not in fact exercise it.
iv. In a long review of the Christian sex ethic Clement vigorously opposed the
Gnostic thesis that sex is either irrelevant to or incompatible with the higher
spiritual life. While affirming all respect for individual vocations to
celibacy, he dismisses any suggestion that marriage is an inherently inferior
spiritual status. On the same principles he rejected demands that all
Christians ought to be teetotalers or vegetarians; it was for him a matter of
individual conscience, not of universal prohibition.
v. But Clement was very far from a naturalistic hedonism when writing of
delight in the goodness of the created world. The good things of the
material order were, he directed, to be used with gratitude but also with
detachment, on the conditions given by the Creator and with restraint.
c. Origen 185-254AD.
i. He is the greatest Alexandrian and Ante-Nicene Father. He was the oldest
of 7 children born into a Christian family. Was trained at the school in
Alexandria. His parents were martyred. Clement was his teacher. When
his parents died he provided for his siblings by taking a position teaching at
the school in Alexandria. Before long, his classes were the most popular in
the school. He began to write books in Alexandria. Wrote commentaries
on several books of the Bible.
ii. The mother of the Emperor summoned him to come to her. On his way to
see her he passed by Antioch and was ordained as a presbyter. A myth was
perpetuated that he castrated himself to prevent himself from sexual
temptation but when he wrote his commentary on the words of Christ
regarding those who made themselves eunuchs he cautioned against taking
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that passage literally. In 250 he was arrested and tortured and died 4 years
later.
iii. All of his work, as he saw it, was based on scripture. He said that all
scripture had to be interpreted also in the light of Christ. His approach was
allegorical.
iv. He believed that the stars were the bodies of angels.
v. He also says that Christ‟s humanity was completely given in to his divinity
at his ascension and that a similar transformation awaits us at the
resurrection.
vi. He also believed in the eternity and trans-migration of souls. He believed
that the atonement of Christ was efficacious for other intelligent life other
than humans. Probably referring to angels here. He also believed in the
final restoration of all creatures. Everyone and all creatures will be
reconciled to God. He believed in the subordination of the essence of the
Son to the essence of the Father. He even went so far as to call Christ the
“second God.”
vii. For Origen the only source of revelation was the Bible, and he devoted
many hours of each day to prayer and study, strenuously forcing himself to
almost unending toil, and living with little sleep and food. He desired with
all his heart to be a man of the Church, defending its doctrines against all
adversaries, Jewish, heretical, or pagan.
viii. Early in his career Origen discovered from disputations with Jews that it
was essential for Christians to argue with synagogue representatives on the
basis of a Biblical text recognized by both sides. The Church used the
Septuagint translation. There were a lot of divergences in the Septuagint.
For instance, in the Greek OT book of Daniel it included the History of
Susanna, for which the Hebrew had nothing to correspond. The story
showed up the Jewish elders in an unhappy light, so that the synagogue had
an obvious motive for suppressing it. Origen conceded that since the
synagogue, together with a number of churches, did not accept the authority
and canonicity of books such as Susanna, or parts of books which were to
be found only in the Septuagint and not in the Hebrew it was impossible to
use these books in a controversy about doctrine.
ix. Origen regarded the exposition of scripture as his primary task, and the
majority of his voluminous works consists of biblical commentaries and
sermons on particular books; the commentaries were conceived on so vast a
scale that none has been transmitted in complete form.
Irenaeus
Against Heresies (Book I, Chapter 10)
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Unity of the faith of the Church throughout the whole
world.
1. The Church, though dispersed through our 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
Almighty, Maker of heaven, and earth, and the sea, and all things that are in them; and in one
Christ Jesus, the Son of God, who became incarnate for our salvation; 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 in the flesh of the beloved Christ Jesus, our Lord, and His [future] manifestation from
heaven in the glory of the Father to gather all things in one, Ephesians 1:10 and to raise up
anew all flesh of the whole human race, in order that to Christ Jesus, our Lord, and God, and
Saviour, and King, according to the will of the invisible Father, every knee should bow, of things
in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth, and that every tongue should confess
Philippians 2:10-11 to Him, and that He should execute just judgment towards all; that He may
send spiritual wickednesses, Ephesians 6:12 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 from
the beginning [of their Christian course], and others from [the date of] their repentance, and
may surround them with everlasting glory.
2. As I have already observed, the Church, having received this preaching and this faith,
although scattered throughout the whole world, yet, as if occupying but one house, carefully
preserves it. She also believes these points [of doctrine] just as if she had but one soul, and one
and the same heart, and she proclaims them, and teaches them, and hands them down, with
perfect harmony, as if she possessed only one mouth. For, although the languages of the world
are dissimilar, yet the import of the tradition is one and the same. For the Churches which have
been planted in Germany do not believe or hand down anything different, nor do those in Spain,
nor those in Gaul, nor those in the East, nor those in Egypt, nor those in Libya, nor those which
have been established in the central regions of the world. But as the sun, that creature of God, is
one and the same throughout the whole world, so also the preaching of the truth shines
everywhere, and enlightens all men that are willing to come to a knowledge of the truth. Nor will
any one of the rulers in the Churches, however highly gifted he may be in point of eloquence,
teach doctrines different from these (for no one is greater than the Master); nor, on the other
hand, will he who is deficient in power of expression inflict injury on the tradition. For the faith
being ever one and the same, neither does one who is able at great length to discourse regarding
it, make any addition to it, nor does one, who can say but little diminish it.
3. It does not follow because men are endowed with greater and less degrees of intelligence, that
they should therefore change the subject-matter [of the faith] itself, and should conceive of some
other God besides Him who is the Framer, Maker, and Preserver of this universe, (as if He were
not sufficient for them), or of another Christ, or another Only-begotten. But the fact referred to
simply implies this, that one may [more accurately than another] bring out the meaning of those
things which have been spoken in parables, and accommodate them to the general scheme of the
faith; and explain [with special clearness] the operation and dispensation of God connected with
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human salvation; and show that God manifested longsuffering in regard to the apostasy of the
angels who transgressed, as also with respect to the disobedience of men; and set forth why it is
that one and the same God has made some things temporal and some eternal, some heavenly and
others earthly; and understand for what reason God, though invisible, manifested Himself to the
prophets not under one form, but differently to different individuals; and show why it was that
more covenants than one were given to mankind; and teach what was the special character of
each of these covenants; and search out for what reason God Romans 11:32 has concluded
every man in unbelief, that He may have mercy upon all; and gratefully describe on what
account the Word of God became flesh and suffered; and relate why the advent of the Son of God
took place in these last times, that is, in the end, rather than in the beginning [of the world]; and
unfold what is contained in the Scriptures concerning the end [itself], and things to come; and
not be silent as to how it is that God has made the Gentiles, whose salvation was despaired of,
fellow-heirs, and of the same body, and partakers with the saints; and discourse how it is that
this mortal body shall put on immortality, and this corruptible shall put on incorruption;
1 Corinthians 15:54 and proclaim in what sense [God] says, That is a people who was not a
people; and she is beloved who was not beloved; Hosea 2:23; Romans 9:25 and in what sense
He says that more are the children of her that was desolate, than of her who possessed a
husband. Isaiah 54:1; Galatians 4:27 For in reference to these points, and others of a like
nature, the apostle exclaims: Oh! the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of
God; how unsearchable are His judgments, and His ways past finding out! Romans 11:33 But
[the superior skill spoken of] is not found in this, that any one should, beyond the Creator and
Framer [of the world], conceive of the Enthymesis of an erring Æon, their mother and his, and
should thus proceed to such a pitch of blasphemy; nor does it consist in this, that he should
again falsely imagine, as being above this [fancied being], a Pleroma at one time supposed to
contain thirty, and at another time an innumerable tribe of Æons, as these teachers who are
destitute of truly divine wisdom maintain; while the Catholic Church possesses one and the same
faith throughout the whole world, as we have already said.
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Bibliographies
http://www.ntcanon.org/Irenaeus.shtml
http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/0103110.htm
The Apostolic Fathers: Translated by J.B. Lightfoot and J.R. Harmer; Edited and Revised by
Michael W. Holmes
The Emergence of the Catholic Tradition (100-600) Volume 1 (The Christian Tradition. A
History of the Development of Doctrine): Jaroslav Pelikan
The Early Church: Henry Chadwick
Lecture Notes: from Dr. Frank Walker at City Seminary
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