History of Dogma

Chapter 7.

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1. _The theological position of Irenaeus and the later contemporary Church teachers_.

Gnosticism and the Marcionite Church had compelled orthodox Christianity to make a selection from tradition and to make this binding on Christians as an apostolical law. Everything that laid claim to validity had henceforth to be legitimised by the faith, i.e., the baptismal confession and the New Testament canon of Scripture (see above, chap. 2, under A and B). However, mere "prescriptions" could no longer suffice here. But the baptismal confession was no "doctrine;" if it was to be transformed into such it required an interpretation. We have shown above that the _interpreted_ baptismal confession was inst.i.tuted as the guide for the faith. This interpretation took its _matter_ from the sacred books of _both_ Testaments. It owed its guiding lines, however, on the one hand to philosophical theology, as set forth by the Apologists, and on the other to the earnest endeavour to maintain and defend against all attacks the traditional convictions and hopes of believers, as professed in the past generation by the enthusiastic forefathers of the Church. In addition to this, certain interests, which had found expression in the speculations of the so-called Gnostics, were adopted in an increasing degree among all thinking Christians, and also could not but influence the ecclesiastical teachers.[461] The theological labours, thus initiated, accordingly bear the impress of great uniqueness and complexity. In the first place, the old Catholic Fathers, Melito,[462]

Rhodon,[463] Irenaeus, Hippolytus, and Tertullian were in every case convinced that all their expositions contained the universal Church faith itself and nothing else. Though the faith is identical with the baptismal confession, yet every interpretation of it derived from the New Testament is no less certain than the shortest formula.[464] The creation of the New Testament furnished all at once a quite unlimited mult.i.tude of conceptions, the whole of which appeared as "doctrines" and offered themselves for incorporation with the "faith."[465] The limits of the latter therefore seem to be indefinitely extended, whilst on the other hand tradition, and polemics too in many cases, demanded an adherence to the shortest formula. The oscillation between this brief formula, the contents of which, as a rule, did not suffice, and that fulness, which admitted of no bounds at all, is characteristic of the old Catholic Fathers we have mentioned. In the second place, these fathers felt quite as much need of a rational proof in their arguments with their christian opponents, as they did while contending with the heathen;[466] and, being themselves children of their time, they required this proof for their own a.s.surance and that of their fellow-believers. The epoch in which men appealed to charisms, and "knowledge" counted as much as prophecy and vision, because it was still of them same nature, was in the main a thing of the past.[467] Tradition and reason had taken the place of charisms as courts of appeal. But this change had neither come to be clearly recognized,[468] nor was the right and scope of rational theology alongside of tradition felt to be a problem. We can indeed trace the consciousness of the danger in attempting to introduce new _termini_ and regulations not prescribed by the Holy Scriptures.[469] The bishops themselves in fact encouraged this apprehension in order to warn people against the Gnostics,[470] and after the deluge of heresy, representatives of Church orthodoxy looked with distrust on every philosophic-theological formula.[471] Such propositions of rationalistic theology as were absolutely required, were, however, placed by Irenaeus and Tertullian on the same level as the hallowed doctrines of tradition, and were not viewed by them as something of a different nature. Irenaeus uttered most urgent warnings against subtle speculations;[472] but yet, in the naivest way, a.s.sociated with the faithfully preserved traditional doctrines and fancies of the faith theories which he likewise regarded as tradition and which, in point of form, did not differ from those of the Apologists or Gnostics.[473] The Holy Scriptures of the New Testament were the basis on which Irenaeus set forth the most important doctrines of Christianity. Some of these he stated as they had been conceived by the oldest tradition (see the eschatology), others he adapted to the new necessities. The qualitative distinction between the _fides credenda_ and theology was noticed neither by Irenaeus nor by Hippolytus and Tertullian. According to Irenaeus I. 10. 3 this distinction is merely quant.i.tative. Here faith and theological knowledge are still completely intermixed. Whilst stating and establishing the doctrines of tradition with the help of the New Testament, and revising and fixing them by means of intelligent deduction, the Fathers think they are setting forth the faith itself and nothing else. Anything more than this is only curiosity not unattended with danger to Christians. Theology is interpreted faith.[474]

Corresponding to the baptismal confession there thus arose at the first a loose system of dogmas which were necessarily devoid of strict style, definite principle, or fixed and harmonious aim. In this form we find them with special plainness in Tertullian.[475] This writer was still completely incapable of inwardly connecting his rational (Stoic) theology, as developed by him for apologetic purposes, with the Christological doctrines of the _regula fidei_, which, after the example of Irenaeus, he constructed and defended from Scripture and tradition in opposition to heresy. Whenever he attempts in any place to prove the _intrinsic_ necessity of these dogmas, he seldom gets beyond rhetorical statements, holy paradoxes, or juristic forms. As a systematic thinker, a cosmologist, moralist, and jurist rather than a theosophist, as a churchman, a masterly defender of tradition, as a Christian exclusively guided in practical life by the strict precepts and hopes of the Gospel, his theology, if by that we understand his collective theological disquisitions, is completely devoid of unity, and can only be termed a mixture of dissimilar and, not unfrequently, contradictory propositions, which admit of no comparison with the older theology of Valentinus or the later system of Origen.[476] To Tertullian everything lies side by side; problems which chance to turn up are just as quickly solved. The specific faith of Christians is indeed no longer, as it sometimes seems to be in Justin"s case, a great apparatus of proof for the doctrines of the only true philosophy; it rather stands, in its own independent value, side by side with these, partly in a crude, partly in a developed form; but inner principles and aims are nearly everywhere sought for in vain.[477] In spite of this he possesses inestimable importance in the history of dogma; for he developed and created, in a disconnected form and partly in the shape of legal propositions, a series of the most important dogmatic formulae, which Cyprian, Novatian, Hosius, and the Roman bishops of the fourth century, Ambrosius and Leo I., introduced into the general dogmatic system of the Catholic Church. He founded the terminology both of the trinitarian and of the Christological dogma; and in addition to this was the first to give currency to a series of dogmatic concepts (_satisfacere_, _meritum_, _sacramentum_, _vitium originis_ etc., etc._). Finally it was he who at the very outset imparted to the type of dogmatic that arose in the West its momentous bias in the direction of _auctoritas et ratio_, and its corresponding tendency to a.s.sume a legal character (_lex_, formal and material), peculiarities which were to become more and more clearly marked as time went on.[478] But, great as is his importance in this respect, it has no connection at all with the fundamental conception of Christianity peculiar to himself, for, as a matter of fact, this was already out of date at the time when he lived. What influenced the history of dogma was not his Christianity, but his masterly power of framing formulae.

It is different with Irenaeus. The Christianity of this man proved a decisive factor in the history of dogma in respect of its content. If Tertullian supplied the future Catholic dogmatic with the most important part of its formulae, Irenaeus clearly sketched for it its fundamental idea, by combining the ancient notion of salvation with New Testament (Pauline) thoughts.[479] Accordingly, as far as the essence of the matter is concerned, the great work of Irenaeus is far superior to the theological writings of Tertullian. This appears already in the task, voluntarily undertaken by Irenaeus, of giving a relatively complete exposition of the doctrines of ecclesiastical Christianity on the basis of the New Testament, in opposition to heresy. Tertullian nowhere betrayed a similar systematic necessity, which indeed, in the case of the Gallic bishop too, only made its appearance as the result of polemical motives. But Irenaeus to a certain degree succeeded in amalgamating philosophic theology and the statements of ecclesiastical tradition viewed as doctrines. This result followed (1) because he never lost sight of a fundamental idea to which he tried to refer everything, and (2) because he was directed by a confident view of Christianity as a religion, that is, a theory of its purpose. The first fundamental idea, in its all-dominating importance, was suggested to Irenaeus by his opposition to Gnosticism. It is the conviction that the Creator of the world and the supreme G.o.d are one and the same.[480] The other theory as to the aim of Christianity, however, is shared by Irenaeus with Paul, Valentinus, and Marcion. It is the conviction that Christianity is real redemption, and that this redemption was only effected by the appearance of Christ. The working out of these two ideas is the most important feature in Irenaeus" book. As yet, indeed, he by no means really succeeded in completely adapting to these two fundamental thoughts all the materials to be taken from Holy Scripture and found in the rule of faith; he only thought with systematic clearness within the scheme of the Apologists. His archaic eschatological disquisitions are of a heterogeneous nature, and a great deal of his material, as, for instance, Pauline formulae and thoughts, he completely emptied of its content, inasmuch as he merely contrived to turn it into a testimony of the oneness and absolute causality of G.o.d the Creator; but the repet.i.tion of the same main thoughts to an extent that is wearisome to us, and the attempt to refer everything to these, unmistakably const.i.tute the success of his work.[481] G.o.d the Creator and the one Jesus Christ are really the middle points of his theological system, and in this way he tried to a.s.sign an intrinsic significance to the several historical statements of the baptismal confession. Looked at from this point of view, his speculations were almost of an identical nature with the Gnostic.[482] But, while he conceives Christianity as an explanation of the world and as redemption, his Christocentric teaching was opposed to that of the Gnostics. Since the latter started with the conception of an original dualism they saw in the empiric world a faulty combination of opposing elements,[483] and therefore recognised in the redemption by Christ the separation of what was unnaturally united. Irenaeus, on the contrary, who began with the idea of the absolute causality of G.o.d the Creator, saw in the empiric world faulty estrangements and separations, and therefore viewed the redemption by Christ as the reunion of things unnaturally separated--the "recapitulatio" ([Greek: anakephalaiosis]).[484] This speculative thought, which involved the highest imaginable optimism in contrast to Gnostic pessimism, brought Irenaeus into touch with certain Pauline trains of thought,[485] and enabled him to adhere to the theology of the Apologists. At the same time it opened up a view of the person of Christ, which supplemented the great defect of that theology,[486] surpa.s.sed the Christology of the Gnostics,[487] and made it possible to utilise the Christological statements contained in certain books of the New Testament.[488]

So far as we know at least, Irenaeus is the first ecclesiastical theologian after the time of the Apologists (see Ignatius before that) who a.s.signed a quite specific significance to the person of Christ and in fact regarded it as the vital factor.[489] That was possible for him because of his realistic view of redemption. Here, however, he did not fall into the abyss of Gnosticism, because, as a disciple of the "elders", he adhered to the early-Christian eschatology, and because, as a follower of the Apologists, he held, along with the realistic conception of salvation, the other dissimilar theory that Christ, as the teacher, imparts to men, who are free and naturally const.i.tuted for fellowship with G.o.d, the knowledge which enables them to imitate G.o.d, and thus by their own act to attain communion with him. Nevertheless to Irenaeus the pith of the matter is already found in the idea that Christianity is real redemption, i.e., that the highest blessing bestowed in Christianity is the deification of human nature through the gift of immortality, and that this deification includes the full knowledge and enjoying of G.o.d (visio dei). This conception suggested to him the question as to the cause of the incarnation as well as the answer to the same. The question "cur deus--h.o.m.o", which was by no means clearly formulated in the apologetic writings, in so far as in these "h.o.m.o" only meant _appearance_ among men, and the "why" was answered by referring to prophecy and the necessity of divine teaching, was by Irenaeus made the central point. The reasons why the answer he gave was so highly satisfactory may be stated as follows: (1) It proved that the Christian blessing of salvation was of a specific kind. (2) It was similar in point of form to the so-called Gnostic conception of Christianity, and even surpa.s.sed it as regards the promised extent of the sphere included in the deification. (3) It harmonised with the eschatological tendency of Christendom, and at the same time was fitted to replace the material eschatological expectations that were fading away. (4) It was in keeping with the mystic and Neoplatonic current of the time, and afforded it the highest imaginable satisfaction. (5) For the vanishing trust in the possibility of attaining the highest knowledge by the aid of reason it subst.i.tuted the sure hope of a supernatural transformation of human nature which would even enable it to appropriate that which is above reason. (6) Lastly, it provided the traditional historical utterances respecting Christ, as well as the whole preceding course of history, with a firm foundation and a definite aim, and made it possible to conceive a history of salvation unfolding itself by degrees [Greek: oikonomia Theou]. According to this conception the central point of history was no longer the Logos as such, but Christ as the _incarnate G.o.d_, while at the same time the moralistic interest was balanced by a really religious one. An approach was thus made to the Pauline theology, though indeed in a very peculiar way and to some extent only in appearance. A more exact representation of salvation through Christ has, however, been given by Irenaeus as follows: Incorruptibility is a _habitus_ which is the opposite of our present one and indeed of man"s natural condition. For immortality is at once G.o.d"s manner of existence and his attribute; as a created being man is only "capable of incorruption and immortality" ("_capax incorruptionis et immortalitatis_");[490] thanks to the divine goodness, however, he is intended for the same, and yet is empirically "subjected to the power of death" ("sub condicione mortis"). Now the sole way in which immortality as a physical condition can be obtained is by its possessor uniting himself _realiter_ with human nature, in order to deify it "by adoption"

("_per adoptionem_"), such is the technical term of Irenaeus. The deity must become what we are in order that we may become what he is.

Accordingly, if Christ is to be the Redeemer, he must himself be G.o.d, and all the stress must fall upon his birth as man. "By his birth as man the eternal Word of G.o.d guarantees the inheritance of life to those who in their natural birth have inherited death."[491] But this work of Christ can be conceived as _recapitulatio_ because G.o.d the Redeemer is identical with G.o.d the Creator; and Christ consequently brings about a final condition which existed from the beginning in G.o.d"s plan, but could not be immediately realised in consequence of the entrance of sin.

It is perhaps Irenaeus" highest merit, from a historical and ecclesiastical point of view, to have worked out this thought in pregnant fashion and with the simplest means, i.e., without the apparatus of the Gnostics, but rather by the aid of simple and essentially Biblical ideas. Moreover, a few decades later, he and Melito, an author unfortunately so little known to us, were already credited with this merit. For the author of the so-called "Little Labyrinth" (Euseb., H. E. V. 28. 5) can indeed boast with regard to the works of Justin, Miltiades, Tatian, Clement, etc., that they declared Christ to be G.o.d, but then continues: [Greek: Ta Eirenaiou te kai Melitonos kai ton loipon tis agnoei biblia, theon kai anthropon katangellonta ton Christon] ("Who is ignorant of the books of Irenaeus, Melito, and the rest, which proclaim Christ to be G.o.d and man"). The progress in theological views is very precisely and appropriately expressed in these words. The Apologists also professed their belief in the full revelation of G.o.d upon earth, that is, in revelation as the teaching which necessarily leads to immortality;[492] but Irenaeus is the first to whom Jesus Christ, G.o.d and man, is the centre of history and faith.[493] Following the method of Valentinus, he succeeded in sketching a history of salvation, the gradual realising of the [Greek: oikonomia Theou] culminating in the deification of believing humanity, but here he always managed to keep his language essentially within the limits of the Biblical. The various acting aeons of the Gnostics became to him different stages in the saving work of the one Creator and his Logos. His system seemed to have absorbed the rationalism of the Apologists and the intelligible simplicity of their moral theology, just as much as it did the Gnostic dualism with its particoloured mythology.

Revelation had become history, the history of salvation; and dogmatics had in a certain fashion become a way of looking at history, the knowledge of G.o.d"s ways of salvation that lead historically to an appointed goal.[494]

But, as this realistic, quasi-historical view of the subject was by no means completely worked out by Irenaeus himself, since the theory of human freedom did not admit of its logical development, and since the New Testament also pointed in other directions, it did not yet become the predominating one even in the third century, nor was it consistently carried out by any one teacher. The two conceptions opposed to it, that of the early Christian eschatology and the rationalistic one, were still in vogue. The two latter were closely connected in the third century, especially in the West, whilst the mystic and realistic view was almost completely lacking there. In this respect Tertullian adopted but little from Irenaeus. Hippolytus also lagged behind him. Teachers like Commodian, Arn.o.bius, and Lactantius, however, wrote as if there had been no Gnostic movement at all, and as if no Antignostic Church theology existed. The immediate result of the work carried on by Irenaeus and the Antignostic teachers in the Church consisted in the fixing of tradition and in the intelligent treatment of individual doctrines, which gradually became established. The most important will be set forth in what follows. On the most vital point, the introduction of the philosophical Christology into the Church"s rule of faith, see Chapter 7.

The manner in which Irenaeus undertook his great task of expounding and defending orthodox Christianity in opposition to the Gnostic form was already a prediction of the future. The oldest Christian motives and hopes; the letter of both Testaments, including even Pauline thoughts; moralistic and philosophical elements, the result of the Apologists"

labours; and realistic and mystical features balance each other in his treatment. He glides over from the one to the other; limits the one by the other; plays off Scripture against reason, tradition against the obscurity of the Scriptures; and combats fantastic speculation by an appeal sometimes to reason, sometimes to the limits of human knowledge.

Behind all this and dominating everything, we find his firm belief in the bestowal of divine incorruptibility on believers through the work of the G.o.d-man. This eclectic method did not arise from shrewd calculation.

It was equally the result of a rare capacity for appropriating the feelings and ideas of others, combined with the conservative instincts that guided the great teacher, and the consequence of a happy blindness to the gulf which lay between the Christian tradition and the world of ideas prevailing at that time. Still unconscious of the greatest problem, Irenaeus with inward sincerity sketched out that future dogmatic method according to which the theology compiled by an eclectic process is to be nothing else than the simple faith itself, this being merely ill.u.s.trated and explained, developed and by that very process established, as far as "stands in the Holy Scripture," and--let us add--as far as reason requires. But Irenaeus was already obliged to decline answering the question as to how far unexplained faith can be sufficient for most Christians, though nothing but this explanation can solve the great problems, "why more covenants than one were given to mankind, what was the character of each covenant, why G.o.d shut up every man unto unbelief, why the Word became flesh and suffered, why the advent of the Son of G.o.d only took place in the last times etc." (I. 10.

3). The relation of faith and theological Gnosis was fixed by Irenaeus to the effect that the latter is simply a continuation of the former.[495]

At the same time, however, he did not clearly show how the collection of historical statements found in the confession can of itself guarantee a sufficient and tenable knowledge of Christianity. Here the speculative theories are as a matter of fact quite imbedded in the historical propositions of tradition. Will these obscurities remain when once the Church is forced to compete in its theological system with the whole philosophical science of the Greeks, or may it be expected that, instead of this system of eclecticism and compromise, a method will find acceptance which, distinguishing between faith and theology, will interpret in a new and speculative sense the whole complex of tradition?

Irenaeus" process has at least this one advantage over the other method: according to it everything can be reckoned part of the faith, providing it bears the stamp of truth, without the faith seeming to alter its nature. It is incorporated in the theology of facts which the faith here appears to be.[496] The latter, however, imperceptibly becomes a revealed system of doctrine and history; and though Irenaeus himself always seeks to refer everything again to the "simple faith" ([Greek: phile pistis]), and to believing simplicity, that is, to the belief in the Creator and the Son of G.o.d who became man, yet it was not in his power to stop the development destined to transform the faith into knowledge of a theological system. The p.r.o.nounced h.e.l.lenising of the Gospel, brought about by the Gnostic systems, was averted by Irenaeus and the later ecclesiastical teachers by preserving a great portion of the early Christian tradition, partly as regards its letter, partly as regards its spirit, and thus rescuing it for the future. But the price of this preservation was the adoption of a series of "Gnostic" formulae.

Churchmen, though with hesitation, adopted the adversary"s way of looking at things, and necessarily did so, because as they became ever further and further removed from the early-Christian feelings and thoughts, they had always more and more lost every other point of view.

The old Catholic Fathers permanently settled a great part of early tradition for Christendom, but at the same time promoted the gradual h.e.l.lenising of Christianity.

2. _The Doctrines of the Church._

In the following section we do not intend to give a presentation of the theology of Irenaeus and the other Antignostic Church teachers, but merely to set forth those points of doctrine to which the teachings of these men gave currency in succeeding times.

Against the Gnostic theses[497] Irenaeus and his successors, apart from the proof from prescription, adduced the following intrinsic considerations: (1) In the case of the Gnostics and Marcion the Deity lacks absoluteness, because he does not embrace everything, that is, he is bounded by the _kenoma_ or by the sphere of a second G.o.d; and also because his omnipresence, omniscience, and omnipotence have a corresponding limitation.[498] (2) The a.s.sumption of divine emanations and of a differentiated divine _pleroma_ represents the Deity as a composite, i.e.,[499] finite being; and, moreover, the personification of the divine qualities is a mythological freak, the folly of which is evident as soon as one also makes the attempt to personify the affections and qualities of man in a similar way.[500] (3) The attempt to make out conditions existing within the G.o.dhead is in itself absurd and audacious.[501] (4) The theory of the pa.s.sion and ignorance of Sophia introduces sin into the pleroma itself, i.e., into the G.o.dhead.[502] With this the weightiest argument against the Gnostic cosmogony is already mentioned. A further argument against the system is that the world and mankind would have been incapable of improvement, if they had owed their origin to ignorance and sin.[503] Irenaeus and Tertullian employ lengthy arguments to show that a G.o.d who has created nothing is inconceivable, and that a Demiurge occupying a position alongside of or below the Supreme Being is self-contradictory, inasmuch as he sometimes appears higher than this Supreme Being, and sometimes so weak and limited that one can no longer look on him as a G.o.d.[504] The Fathers everywhere argue on behalf of the Gnostic Demiurge and against the Gnostic supreme G.o.d. It never occurs to them to proceed in the opposite way and prove that the supreme G.o.d may be the Creator. All their efforts are rather directed to show that the Creator of the world is the only and supreme G.o.d, and that there can be no other above this one. This att.i.tude of the Fathers is characteristic; for it proves that the apologetico-philosophical theology was their fundamental a.s.sumption.

The Gnostic (Marcionite) supreme G.o.d is the G.o.d of religion, the G.o.d of redemption; the Demiurge is the being required to explain the world. The intervention of the Fathers on his behalf, that is, their a.s.suming him as the basis of their arguments, reveals what was fundamental and what was accidental in their religious teaching. At the same time, however, it shows plainly that they did not understand or did not feel the fundamental problem that troubled and perplexed the Gnostics and Marcion, viz., the qualitative distinction between the spheres of creation and redemption. They think they have sufficiently explained this distinction by the doctrine of human freedom and its consequences.

Accordingly their whole mode of argument against the Gnostics and Marcion is, in point of content, of an abstract, philosophico-rational kind.[505] As a rule they do not here carry on their controversy with the aid of reasons taken from the deeper views of religion. As soon as the rational argument fails, however, there is really an entire end to the refutation from inner grounds, at least in the case of Tertullian; and the contest is shifted into the sphere of the rule of faith and the Holy Scriptures. Hence, for example, they have not succeeded in making much impression on the heretical Christology from dogmatic considerations, though in this respect Irenaeus was still very much more successful than Tertullian.[506] Besides, in adv. Marc. II. 27, the latter betrayed what interest he took in the preexistent Christ as distinguished from G.o.d the Father. It is not expedient to separate the arguments advanced by the Fathers against the Gnostics from their own positive teachings, for these are throughout dependent on their peculiar att.i.tude within the sphere of Scripture and tradition.

Irenaeus and Hippolytus have been rightly named Scripture theologians; but it is a strange infatuation to think that this designation characterises them as evangelical. If indeed we here understand "evangelical" in the vulgar sense, the term may be correct, only in this case it means exactly the same as "Catholic." But if "evangelical"

signifies "early-Christian," then it must be said that Scripture theology was not the primary means of preserving the ideas of primitive Christianity; for, as the New Testament Scriptures were also regarded as _inspired_ doc.u.ments and were to be interpreted according to the _regula_, their content was just for that reason apt to be obscured.

Both Marcion and the chiefs of the Valentinian school had also been Scripture theologians. Irenaeus and Hippolytus merely followed them. Now it is true that they very decidedly argued against the arbitrary method of interpreting the Scriptures adopted by Valentinus, and compared it to the process of forming the mosaic picture of a king into the mosaic picture of a fox, and the poems of Homer into any others one might choose;[507] but they just as decidedly protested against the rejection by Apelles and Marcion of the allegorical method of interpretation,[508]

and therefore were not able to set up a canon really capable of distinguishing their own interpretation from that of the Gnostics.[509]

The Scripture theology of the old Catholic Fathers has a twofold aspect.

The religion of the Scripture is no longer the original form; it is the mediated, scientific one to be constructed by a learned process; it is, on its part, the strongest symptom of the secularisation that has begun.

In a word, it is the religion of the school, first the Gnostic then the ecclesiastical. But it may, on the other hand, be a wholesome reaction against enthusiastic excess and moralistic frigidity; and the correct sense of the letter will from the first obtain imperceptible recognition in opposition to the "spirit" arbitrarily read into it, and at length banish this "spirit" completely. Irenaeus certainly tried to mark off the Church use of the Scriptures as distinguished from the Gnostic practice.

He rejects the accommodation theory of which some Gnostics availed themselves;[510] he emphasises more strongly than these the absolute sufficiency of the Scriptures by repudiating all esoteric doctrines;[511] he rejects all distinction between different kinds of inspiration in the sacred books;[512] he lays down the maxim that the obscure pa.s.sages are to be interpreted from the clear ones, not vice versa;[513] but this principle being in itself ambiguous, it is rendered quite unequivocal by the injunction to interpret everything according to the rule of faith[514] and, in the case of all objectionable pa.s.sages, to seek the type.[515] Not only did Irenaeus explain the Old Testament allegorically, in accordance with traditional usage;[516] but according to the principle: "with G.o.d there is nothing without purpose or due signification" ("nihil vacuum neque sine signo apud deum") (IV. 21. 3), he was also the first to apply the scientific and mystical explanation to the New Testament, and was consequently obliged to adopt the Gnostic exegesis, which was imperative as soon as the apostolic writings were viewed as a New Testament. He regards the fact of Jesus handing round food to those _lying_ at table as signifying that Christ also bestows life on the long dead generations;[517] and, in the parable of the Samaritan, he interprets the host as the Spirit and the two denarii as the Father and Son.[518] To Irenaeus and also to Tertullian and Hippolytus all numbers, incidental circ.u.mstances, etc., in the Holy Scriptures are virtually as significant as they are to the Gnostics, and hence the only question is what hidden meaning we are to give to them.

"Gnosticism" is therefore here adopted by the ecclesiastical teachers in its full extent, proving that this "Gnosticism" is nothing else than the learned construction of religion with the scientific means of those days. As soon as Churchmen were forced to bring forward their proofs and proceed to put the same questions as the "Gnostics," they were obliged to work by their method. Allegory, however, was required in order to establish the continuity of the tradition from Adam down to the present time--not merely down to Christ--against the attacks of the Gnostics and Marcion. By establishing this continuity a historical truth was really also preserved. For the rest, the disquisitions of Irenaeus, Tertullian, and Hippolytus were to such an extent borrowed from their opponents that there is scarcely a problem that they propounded and discussed as the result of their own thirst for knowledge. This fact not only preserved to their works an early-Christian character as compared with those of the Alexandrians, but also explains why they frequently stop in their positive teachings, when they believe they have confuted their adversaries. Thus we find neither in Irenaeus nor Tertullian a discussion of the relation of the Scriptures to the rule of faith. From the way in which they appeal to both we can deduce a series of important problems, which, however, the Fathers themselves did not formulate and consequently did not answer.[519]

_The doctrine of G.o.d_ was fixed by the old Catholic Fathers for the Christendom of succeeding centuries, and in fact both the methodic directions for forming the idea of G.o.d and their results remained unchanged. With respect to the former they occupy a middle position between the renunciation of all knowledge--for G.o.d is not abyss and silence--and the attempt to fathom the depths of the G.o.dhead.[520]

Tertullian, influenced by the Stoics, strongly emphasised the possibility of attaining a knowledge of G.o.d. Irenaeus, following out an idea which seems to antic.i.p.ate the mysticism of later theologians, made love a preliminary condition of knowledge and plainly acknowledged it as the principle of knowledge.[521] G.o.d can be known from revelation,[522]

because he has really revealed himself, that is, both by the creation and the word of revelation. Irenaeus also taught that a sufficient knowledge of G.o.d, as the creator and guide, can be obtained from the creation, and indeed this knowledge always continues, so that all men are without excuse.[523] In this case the prophets, the Lord himself, the Apostles, and the Church teach no more and nothing else than what must be already plain to the natural consciousness. Irenaeus certainly did not succeed in reconciling this proposition with his former a.s.sertion that the knowledge of G.o.d springs from love resting on revelation. Irenaeus also starts, as Apologist and Antignostic, with the G.o.d who is the First Cause. Every G.o.d who is not that is a phantom;[524]

and every sublime religious state of mind which does not include the feeling of dependence upon G.o.d as the Creator is a deception. It is the extremest blasphemy to degrade G.o.d the Creator, and it is the most frightful machination of the devil that has produced the _blasphemia creatoris_.[525] Like the Apologists, the early Catholic Fathers confess that the doctrine of G.o.d the Creator is the first and most important of the main articles of Christian faith;[526] the belief in his oneness as well as his absoluteness is the main point.[527] G.o.d is all light, all understanding, all Logos, all active spirit;[528] everything anthropopathic and anthropomorphic is to be conceived as incompatible with his nature.[529] The early-Catholic doctrine of G.o.d shows an advance beyond that of the Apologists, in so far as G.o.d"s attributes of goodness and righteousness are expressly discussed, and it is proved in opposition to Marcion that they are not mutually exclusive, but necessarily involve each other.[530]

In the case of the _Logos doctrine_ also, Tertullian and Hippolytus simply adopted and developed that of the Apologists, whilst Irenaeus struck out a path of his own. In the _Apologetic.u.m_ (c. 21) Tertullian set forth the Logos doctrine as laid down by Tatian, the only noteworthy difference between him and his predecessor consisting in the fact that the appearance of the Logos in Jesus Christ was the uniform aim of his presentation.[531] He fully explained his Logos doctrine in his work against the Monarchian Praxeas.[532] Here he created the formulae of succeeding orthodoxy by introducing the ideas "substance" and "person"

and by framing, despite of the most p.r.o.nounced subordinationism and a purely economical conception of the Trinity, definitions of the relations between the persons which could be fully adopted in the Nicene creed.[533] Here also the philosophical and cosmological interest prevails; the history of salvation appears only to be the continuation of that of the cosmos. This system is distinguished from Gnosticism by the history of redemption appearing as the natural continuation of the history of creation and not simply as its correction. The thought that the unity of the G.o.dhead is shown in the _una substantia_ and the _una dominatio_ was worked out by Tertullian with admirable clearness.

According to him the unfolding of this one substance into several heavenly embodiments, or the administration of the divine sovereignty by emanated _persons_ cannot endanger the unity; the "arrangement of the unity when the unity evolves the trinity from itself" ("dispositio unitatis, quando unitas ex semetipsa [trinitatem] derivat") does not abolish the unity, and, moreover, the Son will some day subject himself to the Father, so that G.o.d will be all in all.[534] Here then the Gnostic doctrine of aeons is adopted in its complete form, and in fact Hippolytus, who in this respect agrees with Tertullian, has certified that the Valentinians "acknowledge that the one is the originator of all" ("[Greek: ton hena h.o.m.ologousin aition ton panton]"), because with them also, "the whole goes back to one" ("[Greek: to pan eis hena anatrechei]").[535] The only difference is that Tertullian and Hippolytus limit the "economy of G.o.d" ([Greek: oikonomia tou Theou]) to Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, while the Gnostics exceed this number.[536]

According to Tertullian "a rational conception of the Trinity const.i.tutes truth, an irrational idea of the unity makes heresy"

("trinitas rationaliter expensa veritatem const.i.tuit, unitas irrationaliter collecta haeresim facit") is already the watchword of the Christian dogmatic. Now what he considers a rational conception is keeping in view the different stages of G.o.d"s economy, and distinguishing between _dispositio_, _distinctio_, _numerus_ on the one hand and _divisio_ on the other. At the beginning G.o.d was alone, but _ratio_ and _sermo_ existed within him. In a certain sense then, he was never alone, for he thought and spoke inwardly. If even men can carry on conversations with themselves and make themselves objects of reflection, how much more is this possible with G.o.d.[537] But as yet he was the only _person_.[538] The moment, however, that he chose to reveal himself and sent forth from himself the word of creation, the Logos came into existence as a real being, before the world and for the sake of the world. For "that which proceeds from such a great substance and has created such substances cannot itself be devoid of substance." He is therefore to be conceived as permanently separate from G.o.d "secundus a deo consit.i.tutus, perseverans in sua forma"; but as unity of substance is to be preserved ("_alius pater, alius filius, alius non aliud_"--"_ego et pater unum sumus ad substantiae unitatem, non ad numeri singularitatem dictum est_"--"_tres unum sunt, non unus_"--"the Father is one person and the Son is another, different persons not different things", "_I and the Father are one_ refers to unity of substance, not to singleness in number"--"the three are one thing not one person"), the Logos must be related to the Father as the ray to the sun, as the stream to the source, as the stem to the root (see also Hippolytus, c. Noetum 10).[539] For that very reason "Son" is the most suitable expression for the Logos that has emanated in this way ([Greek: kata merismon]).

Moreover, since he (as well as the Spirit) has the same substance as the Father ("unius substantia" = [Greek: h.o.m.oousios]) he has also the same _power_[540] as regards the world. He has all might in heaven and earth, and he has had it _ab initio_, from the very beginning of time.[541] On the other hand this same Son is only a part and offshoot; the Father is the whole; and in this the mystery of the economy consists. What the Son possesses has been given him by the Father; the Father is therefore greater than the Son; the Son is subordinate to the Father.[542] "Pater tota substantia est, filius vero derivatio totius et portio".[543] This paradox is ultimately based on a philosophical axiom of Tertullian: the whole fulness of the G.o.dhead, i.e., the Father, is incapable of entering into the finite, whence also he must always remain invisible, unapproachable, and incomprehensible. The Divine Being that appears and works on earth can never be anything but a part of the transcendent Deity. This Being must be a derived existence, which has already in some fashion a finite element in itself, because it is the hypostatised Word of creation, which has an origin.[544] We would a.s.sert too much, were we to say that Tertullian meant that the Son was simply the world-thought itself; his insistance on the "unius substantiae" disproves this. But no doubt he regards the Son as the Deity depotentiated for the sake of self-communication; the Deity adapted to the world, whose sphere coincides with the world-thought, and whose power is identical with that necessary for the world. From the standpoint of humanity this Deity is G.o.d himself, i.e., a G.o.d whom men can apprehend and who can apprehend them; but from G.o.d"s standpoint, which speculation can fix but not fathom, this Deity is a subordinate, nay, even a temporary one.

Tertullian and Hippolytus know as little of an immanent Trinity as the Apologists; the Trinity only _appears_ such, because the unity of the substance is very vigorously emphasised; but in truth the Trinitarian process as in the case of the Gnostics, is simply the background of the process that produces the history of the world and of salvation. This is first of all shown by the fact that in course of the process of the world and of salvation the Son grows in his sonship, that is, goes through a finite process;[545] and secondly by the fact that the Son himself will one day restore the monarchy to the Father.[546] These words no doubt are again spoken not from the standpoint of man, but from that of G.o.d; for so long as history lasts "the Son continues in his form." In its point of departure, its plan, and its details this whole exposition is not distinguished from the teachings of contemporaneous and subsequent Greek philosophers,[547] but merely differs in its aim.

In itself absolutely unfitted to preserve the primitive Christian belief in G.o.d the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, its importance consists in its identification of the historical Jesus with this Logos. By its aid Tertullian united the scientific, idealistic cosmology with the utterances of early Christian tradition about Jesus in such a way as to make the two, as it were, appear the totally dissimilar wings of one and the same building,[548] With peculiar versatility he contrived to make himself at home in both wings.

It is essentially otherwise with the Logos doctrine of Irenaeus.[549]

Whereas Tertullian and Hippolytus developed their Logos doctrine without reference to the historical Jesus, the truth rather being that they simply add the incarnation to the already existing theory of the subject, there is no doubt that Irenaeus, as a rule, made Jesus Christ, whom he views as G.o.d and man, the _starting-point_ of his speculation.

Here he followed the Fourth Gospel and Ignatius. It is of Jesus that Irenaeus almost always thinks when he speaks of the Logos or of the Son of G.o.d; and therefore he does not identify the divine element in Christ or Christ himself with the world idea or the creating Word or the Reason of G.o.d.[550] That he nevertheless makes Logos ([Greek: monogenes, prototokos], "only begotten," "first born") the regular designation of Christ as the preexistent One can only be explained from the apologetic tradition which in his time was already recognised as authoritative by Christian scholars, and moreover appeared justified and required by John I. 1. Since both Irenaeus and Valentinus consider redemption to be the special work of Christ, the cosmological interest in the doctrine of the second G.o.d becomes subordinate to the soteriological. As, however, in Irenaeus" system (in opposition to Valentinus) this real redemption is to be imagined as _recapitulatio_ of the creation, redemption and creation are not opposed to each other as ant.i.theses; and therefore the Redeemer has also his place in the history of creation. In a certain sense then the Christology of Irenaeus occupies a middle position between the Christology of the Valentinians and Marcion on the one hand and the Logos doctrine of the Apologists on the other. The Apologists have a cosmological interest, Marcion only a soteriological, whereas Irenaeus has both; the Apologists base their speculations on the Old Testament, Marcion on a New Testament, Irenaeus on both Old and New.

Irenaeus expressly refused to investigate what the divine element in Christ is, and why another deity stands alongside of the G.o.dhead of the Father. He confesses that he here simply keeps to the rule of faith and the Holy Scriptures, and declines speculative disquisitions on principle. He does not admit the distinction of a Word existing in G.o.d and one coming forth from him, and opposes not only ideas of emanation in general, but also the opinion that the Logos issued forth at a definite point of time. Nor will Irenaeus allow the designation "Logos"

to be interpreted in the sense of the Logos being the inward Reason or the spoken Word of G.o.d. G.o.d is a simple essence and always remains in the same state; besides we ought not to hypostatise qualities.[551]

Nevertheless Irenaeus, too, calls the preexistent Christ the Son of G.o.d, and strictly maintains the personal distinction between Father and Son.

What makes the opposite appear to be the case is the fact that he does not utilise the distinction in the interest of cosmology.[552] In Irenaeus" sense we shall have to say: The Logos is the revelation hypostasis of the Father, "the self-revelation of the self-conscious G.o.d," and indeed the eternal self-revelation. For according to him the Son _always_ existed with G.o.d, _always_ revealed the Father, and it was always the _full_ G.o.dhead that he revealed in himself. In other words, he is G.o.d in his specific nature, _truly_ G.o.d, and there is no distinction of essence between him and G.o.d.[553] Now we might conclude from the strong emphasis laid on "always" that Irenaeus conceived a relationship of Father and Son in the G.o.dhead, conditioned by the essence of G.o.d himself and existing independently of revelation. But the second hypostasis is viewed by him as existing from all eternity, just as much in the quality of Logos as in that of Son, and his very statement that the Logos has revealed the Father from the beginning shows that this relationship is always within the sphere of revelation.

The Son then exists because he gives a revelation. Little interested as Irenaeus is in saying anything about the Son, apart from his historical mission, navely as he extols the Father as the direct Creator of the universe, and anxious as he is to repress all speculations that lead beyond the Holy Scriptures, he could not altogether avoid reflecting on the problems: why there is a second deity alongside of G.o.d, and how the two are related to one another. His incidental answers are not essentially different from those of the Apologists and Tertullian; the only distinction is this incidental character. Irenaeus too looked on the Son as "the hand of G.o.d," the mediator of creation; he also seems in one pa.s.sage to distinguish Father and Son as the naturally invisible and visible elements of G.o.d; he too views the Father as the one who dominates all, the head of Christ, i.e., he who bears the creation and _his_ Logos.[554] Irenaeus had no opportunity of writing against the Monarchians, and unfortunately we possess no apologetic writings of his.

It cannot therefore he determined how he would have written, if he had had less occasion to avoid the danger of being himself led into Gnostic speculations about aeons. It has been correctly remarked that with Irenaeus the G.o.dhead and the divine personality of Christ merely exist beside each other. He did not want to weigh the different problems, because, influenced as he was by the lingering effects of an early-Christian, anti-theological interest, he regarded the results of this reflection as dangerous; but, as a matter of fact, he did not really correct the premises of the problems by rejecting the conclusions. We may evidently a.s.sume (with Zahn) that, according to Irenaeus, "G.o.d placed himself in the relationship of Father to Son, in order to create after his image and in his likeness the man who was to become his Son;"[555] but we ought not to ask if Irenaeus understood the incarnation as a definite purpose necessarily involved in the Sonship, as this question falls outside the sphere of Patristic thinking. No doubt the incarnation constantly formed the preeminent interest of Irenaeus, and owing to this interest he was able to put aside or throw a veil over the mythological speculations of the Apologists regarding the Logos, and to proceed at once to the soteriological question.[556]

Nothing is more instructive than an examination of Irenaeus" views with regard to the _destination of man_, the _original state_, the _fall_, and _sin_; because the heterogeneous elements of his "theology," the apologetic and moralistic the realistic, and the Biblical (Pauline), are specially apparent here, and the inconsistencies into which he was led are very plain. But these very contradictions were never eliminated from the Church doctrinal system of succeeding centuries and did not admit of being removed; hence his att.i.tude on these points is typical.[557] The apologetic and moralistic train of thought is alone developed with systematic clearness. Everything created is imperfect, just from the very fact of its having had a beginning; therefore man also. The Deity is indeed capable of bestowing perfection on man from the beginning, but the latter was incapable of grasping or retaining it from the first.

Hence perfection, i.e., incorruptibility, which consists in the contemplation of G.o.d and is conditional on voluntary obedience, could only be the _destination_ of man, and he must accordingly have been made _capable_ of it.[558] That destination is realised through the guidance of G.o.d and the free decision of man, for goodness not arising from free choice has no value. The capacity in question is on the one hand involved in man"s possession of the divine image, which, however, is only realised in the body and is therefore at bottom a matter of indifference; and, on the other, in his likeness to G.o.d, which consists in the union of the soul with G.o.d"s Spirit, but only comes about when man is obedient to him. Along with this Irenaeus has also the idea that man"s likeness consists in freedom. Now, as man became disobedient immediately after the creation, this likeness to G.o.d did not become perfect.[559] Through the fall he lost the fellowship with G.o.d to which he was destined, i.e., he is forfeit to death. This death was transmitted to Adam"s whole posterity.[560] Here Irenaeus followed sayings of Paul, but adopted the words rather than the sense; for, in the first place, like the Apologists, he very strongly emphasises the elements that palliate man"s fall[561] and, secondly, he contemplates the fall as having a teleological significance. It is the fall itself and not, as in Paul"s case, the consequences of the fall, that he thus views; for he says that disobedience was conducive to man"s development.

Man had to learn by experience that disobedience entails death, in order that he might acquire wisdom and choose freely to fulfil the commandments of G.o.d. Further, man was obliged to learn through the fall that goodness and life do not belong to him by nature as they do to G.o.d.[562] Here life and death are always the ultimate question to Irenaeus. It is only when he quotes sayings of Paul that he remembers sin in connection with redemption; and ethical consequences of the fall are not mentioned in this connection. "The original destination of man was not abrogated by the fall, the truth rather being that the fall was intended as a means of leading men to attain this perfection to which they were destined."[563] Moreover, the goodness of G.o.d immediately showed itself both in the removal of the tree of life and in the sentence of temporal death.[564] What significance belongs to Jesus Christ within this conception is clear: he is the man who first realised in his person the destination of humanity; the Spirit of G.o.d became united with his soul and accustomed itself to dwell in men. But he is also the teacher who reforms mankind by his preaching, calls upon them to direct their still existing freedom to obedience to the divine commandments, thereby restoring, i.e., strengthening, freedom, so that humanity is thus rendered capable of receiving incorruptibility.[565]

One can plainly see that this is the idea of Tatian and Theophilus, with which Irenaeus has incorporated utterances of Paul. Tertullian and Hippolytus taught essentially the same doctrine;[566] only Tertullian beheld the image and likeness of G.o.d expressly and exclusively in the fact that man"s will and capacity are free, and based on this freedom an argument in justification of G.o.d"s ways.[567]

But, in addition to this, Irenaeus developed a second train of thought.

This was the outcome of his Gnostic and realistic doctrine of recapitulation, and evinces clear traces of the influence of Pauline theology. It is, however, inconsistent with the moralistic teachings unfolded above, and could only be united with them at a few points. To the Apologists the proposition: "it is impossible to learn to know G.o.d without the help of G.o.d" ("impossibile est sine deo discere deum") was a conviction which, with the exception of Justin, they subordinated to their moralism and to which they did not give a specifically Christological signification. Irenaeus understood this proposition in a Christological sense,[568] and at the same time conceived the blessing of salvation imparted by Christ not only as the incorruptibility consisting in the beholding of G.o.d bestowed on obedience IV. 20. 5-7: IV. 38, but also as the divine sonship which has been won for us by Christ and which is realised in constant fellowship with G.o.d and dependence on him.[569] No doubt he also viewed this divine sonship as consisting in the transformation of human nature; but the point of immediate importance here is that it is no longer human freedom but Christ that he contemplated in this connection. Corresponding to this he has now also a different idea of the original destination of man, of Adam, and of the results of the fall. Here comes in the mystical Adam-Christ speculation, in accordance with the Epistles to the Ephesians and Corinthians. Everything, that is, the "longa hominum expositio," was recapitulated by Christ in himself; in other words he restored humanity _to what it originally was_ and again included under one head what was divided.[570] If humanity is restored, then it must have lost something before and been originally in good condition. In complete contradiction to the other teachings quoted above, Irenaeus now says: "What we had lost in Adam, namely, our possession of the image and likeness of G.o.d, we recover in Christ."[571] Adam, however, is humanity; in other words, as all humanity is united and renewed through Christ so also it was already summarised in Adam. Accordingly "the sin of disobedience and the loss of salvation which Adam consequently suffered may now be viewed as belonging to all mankind summed up in him, in like manner as Christ"s obedience and possession of salvation are the property of all mankind united under him as their head."[572] In the first Adam we offended G.o.d by not fulfilling his commandments; in Adam humanity became disobedient, wounded, sinful, bereft of life; through Eve mankind became forfeit to death; through its victory over the first man death descended upon us all, and the devil carried us all away captive etc.[573] Here Irenaeus always means that in Adam, who represents all mankind as their head, the latter became doomed to death. In this instance he did not think of a hereditary transmission, but of a mystic unity[574] as in the case of Christ, viewed as the second Adam. The teachings in III. 21. 10-23[575] show what an almost naturalistic shape the religious quasi-historical idea a.s.sumed in Irenaeus" mind. This is, however, more especially evident from the a.s.sertion, in opposition to Tatian, that unless Adam himself had been saved by Christ, G.o.d would have been overcome by the devil.[576] It was merely his moralistic train of thought that saved him from the conclusion that there is a restoration of _all_ individual men.

This conception of Adam as the representative of humanity corresponds to Irenaeus" doctrine of the G.o.d-man. The historical importance of this author lies in the development of the Christology. At the present day, ecclesiastical Christianity, so far as it seriously believes in the unity of the divine and human in Jesus Christ and deduces the divine manhood from the work of Christ as his deification, still occupies the same standpoint as Irenaeus did. Tertullian by no means matched him here; he too has the formula in a few pa.s.sages, but he cannot, like Irenaeus, account for its content. On the other hand we owe to him the idea of the "two natures," which remain in their integrity--that formula which owes its adoption to the influence of Leo I. and at bottom contradicts Irenaeus" thought "the Son of G.o.d became the Son of man," ("filius dei factus filius hominis"). Finally, the manner in which Irenaeus tried to interpret the historical utterances about Jesus Christ from the standpoint of the Divine manhood idea, and to give them a significance in regard to salvation is also an epoch-making fact.

"Filius dei filius hominis factus," "it is one and the same Jesus Christ, not a Jesus and a Christ, nor a mere temporary union of an aeon and a man, but one and the same person, who created the world, was born, suffered, and ascended"--this along with the dogma of G.o.d the Creator is the cardinal doctrine of Irenaeus:[577] "Jesus Christ truly man and truly G.o.d" ("Jesus Christus, vere h.o.m.o, vere deus").[578] It is only the Church that adheres to this doctrine, for "none of the heretics hold the opinion that the Word of G.o.d became flesh" ("secundum nullam sententiam haereticorum verb.u.m dei caro factum est").[579] What therefore has to be shown is (1) that Jesus Christ is really the Word of G.o.d, i.e., is G.o.d, (2) that this Word really became man and (3) that the incarnate Word is an inseparable unity. Irenaeus maintains the first statement as well against the "Ebionites" as against the Valentinians who thought that Christ"s advent was the descent of one of the many aeons. In opposition to the Ebionites he emphasises the distinction between natural and adopted Sonship, appeals to the Old Testament testimony in favour of the divinity of Christ,[580] and moreover argues that we would still be in the bondage of the old disobedience, if Jesus Christ had only been a man.[581] In this connection he also discussed the birth from the virgin.[582] He not only proved it from prophecy, but his recapitulation theory also suggested to him a parallel between Adam and Eve on the one hand and Christ and Mary on the other, which included the birth from the virgin.[583] He argues in opposition to the Valentinians that it was really the eternal Word of G.o.d himself, who was always with G.o.d and always present to the human race, that descended.[584] He who became man was not a being foreign to the world--this is said in opposition to Marcion--but the Lord of the world and humanity, the Son of G.o.d, and none other. The reality of the body of Christ, i.e., the essential ident.i.ty of the humanity of Christ with our own, was continually emphasised by Irenaeus, and he views the whole work of salvation as dependent on this ident.i.ty.[585] In the latter he also includes the fact that Jesus must have pa.s.sed through and been subjected to all the conditions of a complete human life from birth to old age and death.[586] Jesus Christ is therefore the Son of G.o.d who has really become the Son of man; and these are not two Christs but one, in whom the Logos is permanently united with humanity.[587] Irenaeus called this union "union of the Word of G.o.d with the creature" ("adunitio verbi dei ad plasma")[588] and "blending and communion of G.o.d and man" ("commixtio et communio dei et hominis")[589] without thereby describing it any more clearly.[590] He views it as perfect, for, _as a rule_, he will not listen to any separation of what was done by the man Jesus and by G.o.d the Word.[591] The explicit formula of two substances or natures in Christ is not found in Irenaeus; but Tertullian already used it. It never occurred to the former, just because he was not here speaking as a theologian, but expressing his belief.[592] In his utterances about the G.o.d-man Tertullian closely imitates Irenaeus. Like the latter he uses the expression "man united with G.o.d" ("h.o.m.o deo mixtus")[593] and like him he applies the predicates of the man to the Son of G.o.d.[594] But he goes further, or rather, in the interest of formal clearness, he expresses the mystery in a manner which shows that he did not fully realise the religious significance of the proposition, "the Son of G.o.d made Son of man" ("filius dei filius hominis factus"). He speaks of a "corporal and spiritual, i.e., divine, substance of the Lord", ("corporalis et spiritalis (i.e., divina) substantia domini")[595] of "either substance of the flesh and spirit of Christ" ("utraque substantia et carnis et spiritus Christi"), of the "creation of two substances which Christ himself also possesses," ("conditio duarum substantiarum, quas Christus et ipse gestat")[596] and of the "twofold condition not blended but united in one person--G.o.d and man" ("duplex status _non confusus sed conjunctus_ in una persona--deus et h.o.m.o".)[597] Here we already have in a complete form the later Chalcedonian formula of the two substances in one person.[598] At the same time, however, we can clearly see that Tertullian went beyond Irenaeus in his exposition.[599] He was, moreover, impelled to combat an antagonistic principle. Irenaeus had as yet no occasion to explain in detail that the proposition "the Word became flesh" ("verb.u.m caro factum") denoted no transformation. That he excludes the idea of change, and that he puts stress on the Logos"

a.s.sumption of flesh from the Virgin is shown by many pa.s.sages.[600]

Tertullian, on the other hand, was in the first place confronted by (Gnostic) opponents who understood John"s statement in the sense of the Word"s transforming himself into flesh, and therefore argued against the "a.s.sumption of flesh from the Virgin" ("a.s.sumptio carnis ex virgine");[601] and, in the second place, he had to do with Catholic Christians who indee

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