On the Apostolic Preaching (Popular Patristics Series)
Digital Logos Edition
Overview
St. Irenaeus, undisputedly the most important theologian of the second century, laid a firmer foundation for all future Christian thinkers. Both in his work, Against the Heresies and in this present study, Demonstration of the Apostolic Preaching, St. Irenaeus explains that there is but one God, made known to the human race by his one Son, Jesus Christ, through the one Holy Spirit; and this one God brings his creatures made from mud into intimate communion with himself. Writing in an age not unlike our own, among a plethora of religions and diverse gods, he exhorts his readers to hold fast to Scripture, which recounts the deeds that bring them into the covenant established by God. This version of Demonstration of the Apostolic Preaching, translated from Armenian, clearly and simply introduces this crucial work by a church father whose christocentric exegesis produced the key that unlocked scriptural understanding for his contemporaries, and for us.
Top Highlights
“Irenaeus is the first patristic writer to make full use of the apostolic writings as Scripture” (Page 15)
“That is, Irenaeus implies that it is on the basis of Scripture that Scripture should be understood” (Page 24)
“And, if one does not accept His birth from a Virgin, how can he accept His resurrection from the dead?” (Page 64)
“That the apostolic preaching is nothing other than the various predictions made by the prophets, proclaimed as having been realized in Jesus Christ, means that, on the one hand, the apostolic preaching is both the key to understanding the Old Testament and the confirmation of its fulfilment, while, on the other hand, it is the Old Testament which shapes the whole of the Christian revelation itself.” (Page 13)
“For what use is it to know the truth in words, only to defile the body and perform evil deeds? Or what profit indeed can come from holiness of body, if truth is not in the soul?” (Page 40)
