Irenaeus of Lyon

Lived

c. 130–c. 202

Era

The fathers

Where

Lyon, Gaul

Tradition

The apostolic communities

Against Heresies, and the case for a single scripture

A Greek from Smyrna who became bishop of Lyon, and who wrote a long refutation of the Gnostic systems then competing with the churches. He had heard Polycarp as a boy.

Why it matters

Answering teachers who claimed a secret tradition, he argued that the churches founded by apostles had taught the same thing publicly and continuously, and that the God of Israel and the Father of Jesus are one — against the Gnostic claim that the creator was a lesser and hostile being. He is the first to treat four gospels and no others as settled, and his account of salvation as the whole human story gathered up in Christ remains a live option in theology.

All the figures, from the apostolic age to the present, or the timeline they stand in.