Irenaeus, Tertullian, Clement, Origen_the teachers of the Church

Irenaeus, Tertullian, Clement, Origen_the teachers of the Church

 

 

* Irenaeus of Lyons

1) Born in Asian Minor (about A.D. 135), and later became the bishop of Lion;

died in 202 during the great persecution in Lyon.

2) Key concept of Irenaeus theology: understanding God's salvation history

3) God of our salvation is the same God of our creation.

4) God has created and rules this world by means of "Tow Hands": The Son and the Spirit.

5) Human being was created according to God's image. It was not the perfect image; it requires

a process of growth. It was the beginning of creation, part of the continuing creation of God.

The goal of this process is what he calls "divinization."

6) Through the fall (not the loss of certain perfection), our growth has been interrupted,

and so now we are held by two powers of Satan: Sin and death.

7) Salvation based on the continuity of creation and redemption: "Recapitulation" in Christ.

Christ's recapitulation is a new beginning; and Christ's victory over Satan

(Explanation with his parallelism of Adam and Christ)

8) God's incarnation in Christ is the beginning of victory, a part of recapitulation,

which now continues until the final consummation. (Progressive)

9) The church has an important role in the work of recapitulation, as the united body of Christ.

For this reason, it must teach the correct doctrine (Reason of his zeal in attacking the heresies)

 

 

 

* Tertullian of Carthage

1) Born in Carthage(A.D. 150); Lived in Rome in several years, became a Christian in there.

Returned in Carthage, and served the church.

2) His two theological background: Christian tradition (Greek apologists); his own legal knowledge.

3) The practical purpose of most of his writings was to criticize the heretics

Here, he uses a legal term, Praescriptio (impossibility to process of the court itself)

because the heretics were not out of the bible but out of mere philosophy.

The appearance of the heretics are already foretold in the NT to strengthen Christians' faith.

4) Emphasis of the apostolic Church and its succession of the Scripture and the truth.

Yet, he himself departed from the apostolic church and became a Montanist.

5) He explained this doctrine of Trinity with using two notion: "substance" and "person."

Three "Persons" in one "Substance." (Unity of the F,S,H without denying the distinction)

The most important contribution is his use of specific theological terms:

6) God's substance is in "organic monotheism" (The relationship is Divine substance and economy)

Yet, he has accused of subordinationsim: the Father is "entire substance" but the Son is

a derivation and portion of the whole.

7) Doctrine of "Traducianism" of the Original Sin which became an inheritance from our parents.

This became the essence of Western theological tradition through Augustine until today.

20

 

* The characteristic of the city, Alexandria, which was the academic center of the days, has more

importance than that of Rome. Clement and Origen had to meet with various thinkers (both

persecutors and heretics). On the other hand, they themselves had deeper theological

understandings. Here are both value and danger in their theology.

 

 

 

* Clement of Alexandria

1) Born in Athens as a pagan. Converted and ministered in Alexandria.

2) He tried to conceive the relationship between Christian truth and Greek philosophy.

He even affirms that the divine origin of the truth which the philosophers had.

3) It is important to determine the manner in which God does speak in Scripture.

Thus he believes that the allegorical interpretation is the main instrument of hermeneutics,

although he tries not to abandon the historical sense of the Scripture.

4) He developed various sense of the scripture according to the different level of the readers:

"First meaning" (literal sense) and "Further meaning" (Spiritual senses)

5) Understanding particular texts based on the rest of the Scripture. (Typological interpretation)

6) He speaks about God in negative terms based on Neoplatonic doctrines.

God is Trinune. Next to the Father, and throughout all eternity, stands the Word

which is the source of all knowledge in the tradition of the Fourth Gospel.

7) Close to Irenaeus, he explains that humankind was created with childish innocence and

was to achieve the purpose of further growth.

Different with Irenius, Adam was not the head of humankind but a symbol of each individual.

9) Faith is the beginning of the new life and is to lead to a "true gnosis" (divinization)

In this process, the church has an important role as the mother of believers.

 

 

 

* Origen of Alexandria

1) Born in Christian family.

2) Devoted to intensive studies and austere and acetic life. (Voluntarily became an enuch)

3) Began his ministry in his eighteen in Alexandria as a lay leader.

Later ordained and ministered in Caesarea establishing his school. Influenced to many students.

Remained enormous amount of writings, including Hexapla, Scholia, Homilies, Comemtaries,

and systematic works such as On First Principle.

Died in Tyre in his age seventy after the severe torture.

4) Every words of the Scripture was inspired by God and has a "spiritual" meaning.

(The reason Origen tried to restore the original text)

5) Allegorical and typological interpretation.

A hermeneutical principle for finding hidden meaning in many biblical terms and numbers

Moral exegesis for Christian life and ethics. (Well represented in his Homilies)

6) God is One and Trinune. The three persons of Trinity have different functions and fields

of action in their relationship with creatures.

7) Son of God is not only coeternal with the Father, but also divine "according to the essence"

Yet, the Son is less divine and inferior than the Father.

In Christ divinity and humanity are united in a way of "communication of properties."

Christ is to show us the way of salvation both as Savior and as an example and illuminator.

8) God's dual creation of the world (influenced from the Platonic idealism):

The First was not visible world but one composed of pure intellectual. (Gen. chapter 1)

The second is the visible world (chapter 2)

9) Salvation is to return to the unity and harmony of all intellectual beings.

The divine purpose of restoring the original unity includes all rational being even the devils.

10) He has a purely spiritualistic eschatology, in which all intellects will return to

their original state of harmony and communication with God.

11) The role of church and sacraments is important in the plan of salvation.

He argues that apart from the church, no one can be saved.

12) The greatest theologian of Pre-Nicean era in his wide scopes and in his depth of theology.

His theology succeeded to the two wings: Right wings and Left Wings of Origen school,

which became the opposites in the Arian controversy.