This course is an intensive study of the church father, Irenaeus of Lyons with specific attention given to his context and literary and theological contributions. Although often maligned by contemporary scholars as a belligerent, sarcastic, and unfair theological mercenary, a closer look at his writings in their historical and theological context will produce a remarkably different picture of a man who humbly, thoughtfully, and effectively steered early Christian theology by clarifying the church’s textual authority and establishing the boundaries of orthodoxy and heresy