SOURCE: “Conclusion,” in Irenaeus on the Salvation of the Unevangelized, ATLA Monograph Series, No. 31, The Scarecrow Press, Inc., 1993, pp. 250-82.

In the essay below, Tiessen investigates Irenaeus's doctrine of divine revelation as it pertains to the “non-Christian” and compares this doctrine with the modern notion of “anonymous Christianity.”

It is possible now to draw together the results of the investigation that has been made of the salvation of the unevangelized, in the theology of Irenaeus. The question of the state of the non-Christian, particularly of the individual who has not had opportunity to learn of God as revealed in Christ, is of great importance. In the face of the apparent failure of Christian missions to reach larger groups of people with the Gospel, various theories have been developed to describe the situation of the non-Christian in relationship to divine revelation, and to divine grace in general. In the...