The Irenaean Theodicy

A Presentation By :

Cassia

Monique

Tooba

Farah

Melanie

The Irenaean Theodicy

ORIGINS OF THE IRENEAN THEODICY

The Irenaen Theodicy was developed by a Man called Ireneaus (130-202) also referred to as St Ireanus

He was Bishop of Lugdunum in Gaul, then a part of the Roman Empire (now Lyons, France). He was an early Church Father and apologist, and his writings were influential in the early development of Christian theology.

FACTFILE

• Irenaeus is recognized as a saint by the Roman Catholic Church and the Eastern Orthodox Church.

• His feast day is on June 28 in the Roman Catholic calendar of saints, where it was inserted for the first time in 1920

• The Roman Catholic Church celebrates him as a martyr.

Irenaeus is the first of the church fathers to consider the mystic number 666. he was content to believe that the Antichrist would arise some time in the future after the fall of Rome and then the meaning of the number would be revealed.

• Nothing is known of the date of his death, which must have occurred at the end of the 2nd or the beginning of the 3rd century.

• The tomb in which his remains were found in were utterly destroyed in 1562 by the Huguenots.

What is the Irenean Theodicy?

In his work Against Heresies, Irenaeus argued that the world was the way it was because God had a plan and a purpose to provide hummanity with the opportunity to develop the qualities neccessary to become perfect.

Exploring the Detail

Irenaeus referred to Hummanity as children of God and according to him there were two stages in the creation of the human race as we know it.

Important to note...

Irenaeus strongly maintained that God could not have created humans in complete perfection.

This is because attainting the likeness of God needed the willing co- operation of the human individual.

This meant God had to give us freewill, which is the only way humans can willingly co-operate or act without coercion.

Therefore God did not make a perfect world with perfect inhabinants beecause evil has a necessary and valuable role in God's plans for hummanity.

Irenaeus supports this by saying "How, If we had no knowledge of the contrary, could we have instruction in that which is good?"

In other words, we cannot appreciate good and want to do good if we don't have bad in the world.

Ireneaus' Conclusion

He concluded that God created a natural order to include the possibility of good as well as evil and suffering. He had to create human beings at an distance from himself otherwise the freedom of human is lost.

According to Irenaeus, Eventually Evil and suffering will overcome and hummanity will develop into God's perfect likeness and will live in Heaven, where all suffering will end forever and God's plan will be complete

ACTIVITY

How could their suffering impact their character?

... And so therefore God has to allow evil and suffering to occur

Just in case anyone asks who were the Hugenots?

The Huguenots were members of the Protestant Reformed Church of France during the 16th and 17th centuries. French Protestants were inspired by the writings of John Calvin in the 1530s, and they were called Huguenots by the 1560s. By the end of the 17th century and into the 18th century, roughly 500,000 Huguenots had fled France during a series of religious persecutions.

Freedom requires the possibility of choosing good instead of evil...

STAGE ONE

Humans were made in the image of God, for example we were brought into existence as intelligent but immuture beings with the capacity of moral and spiritual perfection

STAGE TWO

Humans would grow into the likeness of God by developing over a long period of time into perfect moral and spiritual beings