I call upon You, Lord, God of Abraham and God of Isaac and God of Jacob and Israel, You who are the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the God who, through the abundance of your mercy, was well-pleased towards us so that we may know You, who made heaven and earth, who rules over all, You who are the one and the true God, above whom there is no other God; You who, by our Lord Jesus Christ gave us the gift of the Holy Spirit, give to every one who reads this writing to know You, that You alone are God, to be strengthened in You, and to avoid every heretical and godless and impious teaching.

St Irenaeus of Lyons, Against the Heresies 3:6:4


Sunday, May 30, 2010

Creator/creature distinction in the Anthropology of Irenaeus

“People...who attribute the weakness of their nature to God are completely unreasonable. They understand neither God nor themselves; they are ungrateful and never satisfied. At the outset they refuse to be what they were made: human beings who are subject to passions. They override the law of human nature; they already want to like God the Creator before they even become human beings. They want to do away with all the differences between the uncreated God and created humans. Thus they are more unreasonable than the dumb animals.”

Irenaeus of Lyons, Against Heresies, IV:38:4
at
Labels: , , ,

2 comments:

  1. Jhay PhoenixJune 1, 2010 at 3:50 PM

    So true...Depravity indeed.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Kevin StevensonJune 2, 2010 at 9:26 PM

    Thanks for stopping by and the comment, Mr. PSb. Indeed, depravity. Further, every sin and rebelion, I believe, has this primary sin as its seed.

    ReplyDelete

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)