Irenaeus of Lyons

We don’t know much about Ireneaus. Born in second-century Smyrna, he eventually became bishop of Lyons in France.

So the author calls this an ‘intellectual biography’. Though we know little of Irenaeus, we have his great work ‘Against All Heresies’. He was an apologist, a writer who defended the truth of Christianity against competing views. In Irenaeus’s case, these were Jews, philosophers, and Gnostics. Primarily he was concerned about the latter, for they were seeking to infiltrate and take over the Church.