IRENAEUS (c. 130–c. 200) was a bishop of Lyons (177/78–c. 200), theologian, and antiheretical writer. Claimed by both Roman Catholics and Protestants as their progenitor, Irenaeus framed the catholic concept of authority that helped to pull diverse churches together in a period of identity crisis created by gnosticism, Marcionism, and other movements. Opposing the radical accommodation of Christian thought to Hellenistic culture, he pointed to canon and creed as interpreted by bishops in churches of apostolic foundation. Until the discovery of a gnostic library at Nag Hammadi (modern-day Chenoboskion, Egypt) in 1945, Irenaeus's treatise Against Heresies also supplied the main and most reliable information on gnostic thought.

Life

Nothing is known of Irenaeus's ancestry or of the date or place of his birth. He grew up, however, in Smyrna, where he sat at the feet of Polycarp, the distinguished bishop martyred about 155, who, according to Irenaeus, had known the apostles, specifically...