An Essay about Irenaeus of Lyons' perception of the importance of the human body against Gnosticism.
Inhalts
Irenaeus- The Body and Salvation
Jesus- Divine and Human
Gnosticism and the Body
Body, Soul, Salvation
Conclusion
Works Cited
Irenaeus- The Body and Salvation
It has been debated for centuries whether the human body is important within human nature. Irenaeus of Lyons studies the necessity Jesus taking human flesh, God becoming present in the world through His Son. Through looking closely at the human and divine natures of Jesus, he starts to consider humanity as a whole and why being human in the flesh and soul is an important part of this worldly journey to seek God’s Kingdom. In order to understand the significance of the human flesh, it is important to first look at Irenaeus’ work on Jesus as human and divine, becoming an example for humanity. Secondly, there come the attesting dualistic arguments of Gnostic belief that the soul is spiritual and the essence of humanity while the body is material and unimportant for preserving one’s human nature. Lastly, Irenaeus argues against Gnosticism disproving this dualistic perspective by drawing attention to the creation of humanity, Imago Dei (being created in the image and likeness of God), and how the soul and body are significant in the process of seeking Salvation. The spiritual and physical (soul and body) work together as a whole to complete one’s human nature and have the sole purpose to seek the Salvation of God through this worldly journey.
Jesus- Divine and Human
The key to understanding the entirety of human nature, why both soul and body are important, is by looking closer at Salvation, which is only possible through Jesus. The Gnostics stand firm on the belief that the soul is important and that the flesh is sinful and material. However, it is evident in the very person of Jesus that being in the flesh is a big part of the spiritual journey for seeking God. Nielsen takes note of Irenaeus’ teaching of Jesus as human and divine, stating, “To redeem us, Jesus put on the same flesh that we have. That is why the apostle Paul, according to Irenaeus, so often uses the words ‘flesh and blood’” (Nielsen, 21). There is a reason that God sent Jesus, His Son, in the flesh. Jesus becomes a visible sign of love to the world and in taking on the cross, shows the world the necessary role of the body and soul in finding God’s redemption and salvation in this world. Irenaeus has a particular fascination with Jesus coming as ‘flesh and blood’ in the world, an important factor that Jesus identifies in the Last Supper for what is now the Eucharistic celebration in the mass. Nielsen continues on stating:
“Jesus Christ became ‘flesh and blood’ both to show that he was man and also to realize the redemption of our flesh, for if the flesh is not capable of receiving salvation, then the Word of God would never have become flesh” (Nielsen, 82).
An important point to note here is that if the flesh could not receive God’s salvation, humanity would not have been created in this form, the ‘Word of God would never have become flesh’ (Nielsen 82). God could have brought salvation in another form, but He sends Jesus to the world, both human and divine, not only showing the world love and redeeming grace but also reaffirming the significance of being human and being made in God’s image.
Minns connects Irenaeus’ teaching of Jesus’ human and divine nature to humanity as a whole and how we are to replicate Christ’s example. He writes:
“It is in the image of God because the incarnate Son of God serves as the pattern according to which Adam and Eve were fashioned. Human beings will only come to be truly in the likeness of God when the risen bodies of the just live not simply by the beginning, but by the Holy Spirit itself, so that their bodies patterned after Christ, are suffused with the Father’s glory” (Minns, 163).
Jesus is an example for humanity of what it means to be sacrificial and a servant, what Adam had started out as in the Garden of Eden before sin entered the world. Through the Eucharistic celebration in the mass, the communion of the Church recalls the sacrifice of the cross and the redemption given to the world, through Christ acting as both servant and sacrificial lamb in the flesh. Minns goes on to talk about the significance of Christ in the Eucharist, becoming an example for humanity of both human and divine. He writes:
“Just as the Eucharistic elements [wine and bread] consist of an earthly and a divine element so in Holy Communion our earthly bodies begin to shed their corruptibility as they receive the hope of a resurrection into eternity” (Minns, 165).
Just as the bread and wine become the body and blood of Christ through transubstantiation, earthly objects made divine by God’s redeeming grace, there is a human tendency to sin and a divine element of hope in every person. This makes the human body and soul both significant, together working towards salvation.
Although Irenaeus’ explanation of the human and divine nature of Christ would have been enough to explain why every person replicates God’s image in body and soul, Gnostics felt there was need to question the physical and sinful nature of humanity. For Gnostics, the world was created out of evil, an imprisonment of the soul within the flesh, the body. The next step for Irenaeus was to study the beliefs within Gnosticism in order to understand and protest against their dualistic perspective of the person.
Gnosticism and the Body
Gnosticism focuses on the spiritual person, specifically in what can be found beyond the human body. Chalquist gives a brief summary of their belief, that the body entraps the spirit. He states, “The Gnostic scriptures contain an abundance of derogatory remarks about ‘the flesh’, which is called corrupt, lustful, ‘feminine’, and evil” (Chalquist, 59). Going against Irenaeus and Christian belief that humanity is created in God’s image and likeness, Gnostics see the body as a prison that needs to be escaped. This thought comes from one of the big unanswerable questions in the universe, of where evil comes from.
Along with discovering the origin of evil, the Gnostics had to look at the fact that the world was created with the possibility of sin, leading to the belief that it was created out of evil, and by evil forces. Weinandy writes about the importance of being human, comparing Gnosticism with Christian belief. He writes, “Salvific knowledge (gnosis) consisted in knowing how to extricate one’s true self- the divine spark- from the evil material body so as to obtain the freedom to make one’s way back to the realm of the spiritual and the divine” (Weinandy, 16-17). Gnosticism separated, also known as dualism, the two parts of the human, the soul and the body. Whereas Christianity believed the entirety on the human person was required to find salvation, Gnostics found that the true human was not in fact a body; it was the spiritual essence that mattered. Neilsen notes that there is a negative value attached to creation within Gnosticism. He states, “The world is negatively assessed, the body is a prison. The point of concern is the preservation of the soul, the return of the ‘scintilla vitae’ to its own origin within Pleroma” (Nielsen, 42). The key for Gnostics was to do everything possible to preserve the soul, separating into categories of the least spiritual to the most based on material possession. An example would be the Psychic person, one with a material part to their soul and is incapable of finding immortality, grounded in the material world (Nielsen, 29).
Gnosticism moves away from needing salvation from sin, and works towards the idea that the world needs to be liberated from the body, from the material possessive part of consciousness. Not only is there a more central idea of the salvation of the soul, but it also becomes more about the individual than a community, clearly taking a stand against Christian belief. As Gnosticism looks at the body, ideas form about substances, separating the material world from the world of forms and the spiritual. Nielsen takes note of this view of forms in accordance with that of salvation. He writes:
“Salvation in the full sense of the word only falls to the lot of the ‘pneumatics’, the highest category, who know the system of the Valentinians, their corporeal body remains behind on earth and is lost. Their ‘souls’ they must lay down, before they can enter into the Pleroma. The ‘psychics’ were only capable of attaining to a comparative degree of blessedness. The negative value attached to certain entails a similar negative evaluation of ‘matter’” (Nielsen, 41).
Salvation is not only just for the soul, but a ‘secret’, and difficult for all people to find. Those too attached to the world, to the material and negativity wouldn’t meet the spiritual standard. Matter becomes a negative and even dirty word from the Gnostic perspective. As the body is physical and existing in the material world, it too becomes concerning and is viewed as a prison, entrapping the soul from reaching its true and highest possible potential. This not only makes humanity draw inward and focus on the value of their soul, but also goes against the good and blessings given in creation.
Irenaeus finds this contradictory for everything humanity knows about not only creation, but of God. He studies the logic behind Gnosticism and the problem of evil and tries to disprove their teachings by focusing on creation and what makes every human a human being, and how this reflects God’s likeness. Weinandy writes about Irenaeus’ perspective of humanity stating, “It is the very humanness of human beings that, for Irenaeus, reflects who and what God is, for in making us human he made us in his own likeness” (Weinandy, 17). Opposing Gnostic thought, Irenaeus makes a bold statement that the material and sinful nature is a part of humanity, though a small part. Every part somehow reflects God’s likeness within humanity, something to be treasured and not rejected, as Gnostics attempt to do. From this point, Irenaeus tries to prove the importance of the complete existence of humanity, body and soul, by discussing human dignity and how every person, being created in God’s image and likeness, is linked to the start of creation, to the coming salvation that is made possible through Jesus.
Body, Soul, Salvation
Irenaeus uses his theological perspective on the human and divine natures of Jesus to disprove Gnostic teachings of ‘spiritual not physical’. The Word of God literally takes flesh, through Jesus and is also present within humanity. It is the Word becoming visible, through Jesus, a visible person in the world. If salvation is only possible in this form, then the human body has great significance in the salvation of every person. Deffenbaugh takes not of how Irenaeus focuses on divinity within each person. He writes, “Man’s greatest dignity, that is the dignity of his spirit and body, is to be Alive. The life-giving vision of God occupies not only his spirit, but thanks to the incarnation it comes through receiving the Son of God’s visibility, thus dignifying the body as well” (Deffenbaugh, 31). Humanity as body and soul help to represent the divinity of God in the world.
Where Gnostics do hint at the idea that some people can reach a greater spiritual level, they miss the element of salvation within the entire person. Irenaeus looks into the Gnostic study of forms and the separation of the different levels of spiritual people, proposing they have concept that should be explored, without viewing the human individual from a dualistic perspective. He talks about there being three parts to preserving the spirit, stating:
“The ‘homo perfectus’ consists of three parts: ‘caro’, ‘anima’ and ‘Spiritus’. The ‘Spiritus is the spirit of God, which forms and redeems. The ‘anima’ may, if it follows the spirit, be raised up by the spirit, but if it keeps to the flesh it is given over to Carnal desires. They who do not have the redeeming and formative element within them, shall be called ‘flesh and blood’. He in whom the spirit of God is grafted is no longer called ‘flesh and blood’, but ‘homo spiritualis’, as is set forth in Paul’s parable of the wild olive tree” (Nielsen, 81).
The spirit and body are both important. Gnostics were correct in their presumption that the spirit is powerful and must be preserved and kept pure. However, it is through the flesh that the spirit of God acts and aids in the journey of finding redemption. Without the two working as one body, one whole, it becomes body or soul, not one complete spirit of faith. Redemption would not be possible without homo perfectus, one complete person, one whole substance created in God’s very likeness. The spirit of God is the key to finding salvation and in the same way that God calls His people together in one communion, so to He calls the human person to be complete in body, soul and spirit.
Irenaeus uses the example of baptism and how, when the body is cleansed and renewed in the Holy Water and anointed with oil, the soul is filled with God’s Holy Spirit, both being essential together. He writes, “Our bodies were united to imperishability by means of the bath, but our souls by means of the spirit. And so both are necessary, since both prepare [us] for life with God” (Deffenbaugh, 30). In addition to what the Gnostics believe, Irenaeus proposes that in order to find true redemption and prepare for eternal life with God, the body is a part of the process, working with the soul. Salvation comes for those who believe, who have that spiritual element as well, living it out through their body, connected as one. Irenaeus goes on to talk about what it means to be both spiritual and bodily as a whole in connection with a life of faith. He states:
“It is the whole of us -body and soul- that bears the likeness of God both within our very being and within our bodily words and actions. It is through the resurrection of our bodies that we take on the perfect image of Jesus, the risen and glorious man. Respect for our bodies and the bodies of others is an essential element of Christian Gospel” (Weinandy, 32).
The key reason for the body then is to bear the likeness of God through action and word, living out a life according to God’s plan. In living this kind of life, every person learns to make sacrifices for others as Jesus does on the cross and in his resurrection. The Word becomes flesh, in Jesus, and leads a spiritual life dedicated to service and sacrifice for others, setting an example for humanity to follow. Where Gnostics try to say only the soul and spirit of a person will be preserved and that the body is unimportant, Irenaeus states the complete opposite. Every person takes on the flesh facing the challenge to live a spiritual life through following Jesus’ example, in acts of service. As the body of the church is to act in service towards everyone, every individual is to act upon their gift of life by taking on the world united in body and soul, led guided by God’s Spirit.
Conclusion
The body is equally as important as the soul in finding Salvation. Jesus as human and divine becomes an example for humanity of what it means to be complete as body and soul. Jesus takes on the cross in the flesh and brings salvation through suffering for a purpose. Being created in the image and likeness of God, there is a yearning to hope within every person, even when the tendency to sin can be easier to follow. Gnostics cling to the element of sin and the problem of evil, feeling that sin preys on the weak and those clinging to the material world, their soul being imprisoned within their bodily form. Irenaeus of Lyons tells us that though the tendency to sin is strong, humanity is created in God’s image and therefore has the ability to reflect the goodness of God and act in His Spirit. Redemption is only possible through homo perfectus, the one complete and perfect person. This doesn’t mean perfect in terms of free from sin, but created in the perfect form reflecting the image of God, in body, soul and spirit. In conclusion, through Irenaeus’ studies on the humanity against Gnosticism it is evident that the body is essential for bringing people into communion through service, but is also key for uniting the soul, flesh and spirit on this earthly journey to seek Salvation.
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- Quote paper
- Kaitlyn Vermeeren (Author), 2017, Irenaeus and the Body, Munich, GRIN Verlag, https://www.grin.com/document/385563
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