Light Through the Past

This week we pick up again with Sts. Irenaeus and Hegesippus in the context of the emergence of the Episcopal office and its link to the Gift of the Apostolic ministry. Dr. Jenkins first discusses Apostolic succession, what it is, and what is its importance before turning to the history of the Episcopal office and its function in the first decades of the life of the Church. Books, links, and more information about matters discussed are all on my blog.

Today Dr. Jenkins replies to two questions sent his way, and both related to the discussion of St. Irenaeus. For more information on our questions, and books mentioned in this episode, you can jump to https://luxchristi.wordpress.com/2022/04/28/two-questions-along-the-way-to-st-irenaeus-and-bishops/.

In this episode, Prof. Jenkins leads us through St. Irenaeus on the Eucharist, and how our participation in the Holy Elements brings us the vivifying life of Christ. You can see the readings covered in this episode at https://luxchristi.wordpress.com/2022/04/05/st-irenaeus-third-readings/

Having examined St. Irenaeus' teaching on creation in the last episode, today we continue our investigation by looking at the great saint's doctrine of redemption. Dr. Jenkins explores how for St. Irenaeus the Creator is also the Redeemer who recapitulates in himself the whole of the divine drama of the Old Testament, from Paradise through His Virgin birth to His death of the Tree.

In this episode, Dr. Jenkins looks at St. Irenaeus on the centrality of the Incarnation in his doctrine of creation. The great saint's teaching not only refutes the Gnostic doctrines about the cosmos being a mistake but shows that the relationship of the Incarnation to the creation of the world also establishes the parameters for the doctrine of redemption.

This week Dr. Jenkins continues his discussion of the Gnostics, looking at four of its main proponents, Basilides, Valentinus, the Sethians, and then the outlier of Marcion.

You can see notes and add your own questions to Dr. Jenkins at https://luxchristi.wordpress.com/

This week Dr. Jenkins looks, in broad outline, at the strange structure and obscure origins of the Gnostics, some of the questions that concern their origins, and how this will relate to St. Irenaeus and his great efforts in both the refutation of their teachings and the positive teachings of the Church that arise in his theology.

You can see notes and add your own questions to Dr. Jenkins at https://luxchristi.wordpress.com/

In this episode, Dr. Jenkins gives a brief introduction to St. Irenaeus and the predominance, despite would some contemporary scholars may assert, of a unified Orthodoxy in the early Church when combatting gnostic heresies.

Today we discuss the thought and importance of St. Justin Martyr, or St. Justin the Philosopher. St. Justin forms an important bridge between the earliest Apostolic Fathers and the late second- and early third-century Fathers of the Church.

In this episode, Dr. Jenkins introduces us to St. Ignatius of Antioch and his early, clear teachings on the episcopacy and the Eucharist which are rooted in the Incarnation.