Word-Son

Abstract

Chapter 3 investigates the standing of the Word-Son in relation to God the Father. The first section explores the contours of Irenaeus’ doctrine of reciprocal immanence and identifies features left unexplained. The second section explains these features by studying the logic that appears in the earlier polemical arguments of Against Heresies 2. The third section continues examining the polemical arguments of AH 2, but now with a focus upon the comments Irenaeus makes about the production of a simple, spiritual substance—his comments about divine production. Taken together these sections further establish Irenaeus’ understanding of the intra-Trinitarian relationship of the Word-Son to the Father, including the nature and generation of the Word-Son. In contrast to characterizations of Irenaeus’ theology as economic or modalistic, we see that Irenaeus affirmed an eternal and distinct coexistence of the Word-Son with God the Father as the one God.