Irenaeus of Lyons and the Theology of the Holy Spirit


Book Description

A close study of aspects of Irenaeus' pneumatology that demonstrates how Irenaeus combined Second Temple Jewish traditions of the spirit with New Testament theology to produce the most complex Jewish-Christian pneumatology of the early church.




Miracles and Manifestations of the Holy Spirit in the History of the Church


Book Description

GOD HAS ALWAYS DONE MIRACLES IN HIS CHURCH ~ AND STILL DOES! The Holy Spirit has never left the Church and neither have His supernatural gifts and manifestations. They have been available in every century ~ from the days of the Apostolic Fathers, to the desert monks of Egypt and Syria, to the missionary outreaches of the Middle Ages, to the Reformation era and the awakenings and revivals that followed, to the Pentecostal explosion of the Twentieth Century and the increase of signs and wonders in the Twenty-first. Miracles, healings, deliverances, prophecies, dreams, visions ~ even raising the dead! ~ have all been in operation throughout the history of the Church. Anglicans, Baptists, Catholics, Congregationalists, Lutherans, Methodists, Moravians, Presbyterians, Quakers and many others have experienced the supernatural gifts and workings of the Spirit over the centuries. Miracles and Manifestations of the Holy Spirit in the History of the Church gathers up numerous accounts from a variety of historical sources and provides a handy reference for those who want to know more about: • How the Church has understood and operated in the gifts and manifestations of the Holy Spirit at various times in history. • Why the gifts and miracles were more frequently in manifestation in some eras than in others. • The many ways the Church has ministered in healing and deliverance. • How the Holy Spirit manifested in great revivals. • How the river of gifts and miracles continues to flow today.




On the Apostolic Preaching


Book Description

St Irenaeus is the most important theologian of the second century, laying the foundation for all future Christian thinkers. Irenaeus tells us that he had known Polycarp, who had himself known the apostles and been appointed by them as the bishop of the church of Smyrna. This direct contact with the immediate successors of the apostles was of importance for Irenaeus in his later defense of Christian practice and teaching. In this work Against the Heresies, he was the first to utilize the full range of apostolic writings in his controversy with the Gnostics and others. Uniting, for the first time, the whole history of God's activity in one all-encompassing divine economy, Irenaeus demonstrates that there is but one God, who has made Himself known through His one Son, Jesus Christ, by the one Holy Spirit, to the one human race, bringing His creatures made from mud into the intimacy of communion with Himself.




Irenaeus of Lyons and the Theology of the Holy Spirit


Book Description

Irenaeus' theology of the Holy Spirit is often highly regarded amongst theologians today, but that regard is not universal, nor has an adequate volume of literature supported it. This study provides a detailed examination of certain principal, often distinctive, aspects of Irenaeus' pneumatology. In contrast to those who have suggested Irenaeus held a weak conception of the person and work of the Holy Spirit, Anthony Briggman demonstrates that Irenaeus combined Second Temple Jewish traditions of the spirit with New Testament theology to produce the most complex Jewish-Christian pneumatology of the early church. In so doing, Irenaeus moved beyond his contemporaries by being the first author, following the New Testament writings, to construct a theological account in which binitarian logic did not diminish either the identity or activity of the Holy Spirit. That is to say, he was the first to support his Trinitarian convictions by means of Trinitarian logic. Briggman advances the narrative that locates early Christian pneumatologies in the context of Jewish traditions regarding the spirit. In particular, he argues that the appropriation and repudiation of Second Temple Jewish forms of thought explain three moments in the development of Christian theology. First, the existence of a rudimentary pneumatology correlating to the earliest stage of Trinitarian theology in which a Trinitarian confession is accompanied by binitarian orientation/logic, such as in the thought of Justin Martyr. Second, the development of a sophisticated pneumatology correlating to a mature second century Trinitarian theology in which a Trinitarian confession is accompanied by Trinitarian logic. This second moment is visible in Irenaeus' thought, which eschewed Jewish traditions that often hindered theological accounts of his near contemporaries, such as Justin, while adopting and adapting Jewish traditions that enabled him to strengthen and clarify his own understanding of the Holy Spirit. Third, the return to a rudimentary account of the Spirit at the turn of the third century when theologians such as Tertullian, Origen, and Novatian repudiated Jewish traditions integral to Irenaeus' account of the Holy Spirit.




Pilgrim Theology


Book Description

Pilgrim Theology is a map for Christians seeking to better understand the core beliefs of their faith. Even though it's the study of God, theology has a reputation for being dry, abstract, and irrelevant for daily living. But theology is a matter of life and death. It affects the way you think, the decisions you make, the way you relate to God and the world. Reformed theologian and professor Michael Horton wrote Pilgrim Theology as a more accessible companion to his award-winning systematic theology The Christian Faith: widely praised for its thorough treatment of the biblical and historical foundations of Christian doctrine. In Pilgrim Theology, his focus is in putting the study of theology into the daily drama of discipleship. Each chapter will orient you toward a clear understanding about: Who God is. What our relationship is to him. And what our faith in Jesus Christ means in our daily walk as well as in the context of the narrative of Scripture and the community of the church. Through accessible chapters on individual doctrines, as well as frequent "Key Distinction" boxes that succinctly explain the differences between important themes, you'll gain an understanding of doctrines that may have sounded like technical seminary terms to you before: justification, sanctification, glorification, union with Christ, and others. You have a working theology already—an existing understanding of God. It's the goal of Pilgrim Theology to help you examine that understanding more closely and have it challenged and strengthened.




St. Irenaeus


Book Description




Irenaeus on the Trinity


Book Description

In Irenaeus on the Trinity, Jackson Lashier provides a fresh reading of Irenaeus' understanding of God, in dialogue with his opponents and sources, which reveals a more developed Trinitarian theology than traditionally thought. Key Trinitarian themes that emerge are the Fatherhood of God, the mutual indwelling relations of Father, Son, and Spirit, and the cooperative divine work of all three in the economy. The study finds Irenaeus' thought to depart in these areas from standard second century trajectories--Apologists and Gnostics--moving Trinitarian theology in the direction of more developed Trinitarian thought of later centuries. This monograph offers not only a better understanding of Irenaeus' thought, but also a fuller picture of the development of Trinitarian thought in early Christianity.




Irenaeus of Lyons


Book Description

A full, contextual study of Irenaeus of Lyons, the first great theologian of the Christian tradition. John Behr sets Irenaeus both within his own context of the second century and our own contemporary context.




Irenaeus on the Christian Faith


Book Description

Irenaeus of Lyons (c. 130-202) was the greatest theologian of the early post-apostolic church. In his writings we have access to the Christian teaching of a spiritual grandson of the apostle John, for Irenaeus' instructor in the faith was himself taught by the apostle. Irenaeus stresses the importance of apostolic teaching and faithfully handing on the apostolic tradition. His presentation of the Christian faith deserves careful attention, since he knew exactly what he was talking about. There is no better avenue to the apostolic tradition in the early church than his writings. Irenaeus' massive Against Heresies offers a winsome and compelling presentation of the Christian faith, but few have read this magnum opus since the first two of its five books focus on exposing and answering Gnostic heresies, and the only complete English version is difficult to read. This volume eliminates both these obstacles. James Payton has condensed Against Heresies by cutting out most of the interaction with the Gnostics, allowing Irenaeus' rich presentation on the Christian faith to shine through. Furthermore, the author has refurbished the English prose to make it accessible to contemporary readers. With this distillation readers now have access to Irenaeus' rich presentation of the Christian faith, saturated in a thorough knowledge of Scripture and steadfastly rooted in the apostolic tradition of the early church. Anyone who wants to know what the early Christian church had received and passed on from the apostles can do no better than to begin with this book.




God and Christ in Irenaeus


Book Description

For too long certain scholars have been content to portray Irenaeus of Lyons as a well-meaning churchman but incompetent theologian. By offering a careful reading of Irenaeus' polemical and constructive arguments, God and Christ in Irenaeus contradicts these claims by showing that he was highly educated, trained in the rhetorical arts, aware of general philosophical positions, and able to use both rhetorical and philosophical theories and methods in his argumentation. Moreover, the theological account laid down by his pen was original and sophisticated, supremely so for one of the second century. In contrast to readings that minimize the metaphysical dimension of Irenaeus' theology, Anthony Briggman establishes as pillars of Irenaeus' polemical argumentation and constructive theology his conception of the divine being as infinite and simple, the reciprocal immanence of the Word-Son and God the Father, divine generation, the union of the divine Word-Son and human nature in the person of Christ, and the revelatory activity of the infinite and incomprehensible Word-Son, amongst other features of his theology. Briggman offers a fundamentally new understanding of Irenaeus and his thought.