Phronema Volume 34:2, 2019

Abstract: When St Irenaeus expounded, for the first time in history, the contours of the Orthodox faith, appealing to the canon of truth, the tradition of the apostles, apostolic succession, and using, for the first time, all the books of the New Testament as Scripture, in giving, again for the first time, an account of the whole economy of God, with his Hands, the Son and the Spirit, bringing the creature formed from mud to share in his life and glory, he did so by self-consciously appealing to the tradition, and indeed, living memory of John, the disciple of the Lord. This lecture will look at the legacy of John in his ‘school’, that is figures such as St Polycarp, Melito, and Polycrates, all culminating in the person of St Irenaeus of Lyons, an Easterner in the West.

- John Behr, St Vladimir's Seminary

Abstract: The present paper examines the polemical aspects in the preaching of St John Damascene. After discussing the definition of polemics, the author provides a survey of polemical passages in John’s homiletic oeuvre and contextualizes them in the historical milieu of Umayyad Palestine. As the study shows, the Damascene is not a particularly polemical preacher, but his polemical targets can be divided roughly into two categories: those who are embedded in the scriptural or hagiographic narrative (such as Jews) and those who are related to the interpretation of these narratives (such as heretics).

- Fr Damaskinos Olkinuora, University of Eastern Finland

Abstract: Irenaeus’ frequent references to the scriptures are best understood in their historical and ecclesial context, that is, he regarded them as a core component of the “rule of truth” against which to defend the authentic apostolic teachings of Christianity “against the heresies”. The first and main part of this paper will explore the context and content of his use of this significant phrase in passages from Adversus Haereses, his application of it in refuting heretical uses of Scripture and his unique contribution to the fourfold Gospel Canon. In the second part, I shall provide a brief introduction to the extraordinary but relatively unknown contribution to Irenaean studies by the Spanish Jesuit Fr Antonio Orbe (1917-2003).

- Margaret Beirne, St Andrew’s Greek Orthodox Theological College

Abstract: As Heintz (2003) has argued, ingratitude (and therefore gratitude) is a major theme in Irenaeus’ Against the Heresies. Looking at the ancient understanding of gratitude, as typified by Seneca’s De Beneficiis, the article shows how in a key passage (Against the Heresies IV.11.2) Irenaeus uses the theme of gratitude to reconfigure some of the dichotomies of Greek thought (being vs becoming, time vs eternity, spirit vs matter) and overcome the attacks of the Gnostics. These insights are applied to Irenaeus’ teaching on the central ritual of Christianity, to show that the gratitude taught and expressed there is actually integral to the process of our divinisation.

- Joseph Vnuk, Catholic Theological Institute, Port Moresby

Abstract: This paper will examine the theological anthropology of St Irenaeus of Lyons, looking particularly at the plasma that God moulds and breathes life into. This biblical account of the human person has its basis in how Irenaeus talks about the Trinitarian God, as creator ex nihilo, vested in what he creates; not on account of God needing creation but because Irenaeus sees in this creative act God’s economia and salvation entrenched. Plasma language in Irenaeus has been used in scholarship to emphasise the physical nature of man and how man was formed within a scriptural account of creation and out of God’s hands. The plasma’s theological significance and relational qualities, however, require greater depth of study for the purpose of articulating a theology of the human person. This paper hopes to draw out the divine significance of the plasma by exploring its content and authorship. Thus, in seeking to understand Irenaeus’ theological identity of the human person and more particularly the role of the plasma, the paper will also give an account of his doctrine of God.

- Vicki Petrakis

Abstract: The relationship and abiding tension between the two educational traditions of exothen and kath’imas education in Byzantium is a theme that persisted with greater or lesser intensity for over a thousand years.1 Examining the writings of Saint Gregory Palamas in the Hesychast Controversy one discovers the rekindling of this debate during the mid-fourteenth century.2 What stands out in this particular instance of the debate is Gregory’s articulation of a dual-epistemological theory of knowledge, and the effect this has for understanding the relationship between philosophical and theological knowledge as embodied in the two educational traditions of Byzantium. Gregory’s teachings with respect to the distinction between the uncreated essence and uncreated energies of God ultimately provide the underlying basis of this dual-epistemology and its ramifications for resolving the tensions of the exothen and kath’imas educational traditions.

- Matthew Penney, Queen’s University