About Irenaeus’ quote: He was arguing against the Gnostics, who were arguing for oral tradition to override the Scriptures. For some reason, I don’t think this would be a good citation for a Roman Catholic…
Whoa. If it’s not a good citation for a Catholic (I assume you mean the 23 autonomous particular churches which comprise the Catholic Church, not just the Latin Rite), then you
should include the Eastern and Oriental Orthodox, since they pretty much hold the same beliefs as we do - and since the other 22 particular churches in union with the Latin church have the same heritage as they. What are we left then?
If we’re going to do it all the way, it would be a mouthful though. According to you, it wouldn’t be a good citation for a Roman (Latin) Catholic, a Coptic Catholic, an Ethiopian Catholic, a Maronite Catholic, a Syriac Catholic, a Syro-Malankara Catholic, an Armenian Catholic, a Chaldean Catholic, a Syro-Malabar Catholic, an Albanian Catholic, a Belarusian Catholic, a Bulgarian Catholic, a Croatian Greek Catholic, a Greek Byzantine Catholic, a Hungarian Catholic, an Italo-Albanian Catholic, a Macedonian Catholic, a Melkite Greek Catholic, a Romanian Catholic, a Russian Catholic, a Ruthenian Catholic, a Slovak Catholic, or a Ukranian Catholic! And we’re still just talking about Catholics!
Now to put the jokes aside. St. Irenaeus in
Adversus Haereses does refer to the apostolic Gospel, handed down in written documents, as the ground of the faith of the Church.
We have learned from none others the plan of our salvation, than from those through whom the Gospel has come down to us, which they did at one time proclaim in public, and, at a later period, by the will of God, handed down to us in the Scriptures, to be the ground and pillar (
fundamentum et columnam) of our faith. For it is unlawful to assert that they preached before they possessed “
perfect knowledge,” (
perfectam agnitionem) as some do even venture to say, boasting themselves as improvers of the apostles.
For, after our Lord rose from the dead, [the apostles] were invested with power from on high when the Holy Spirit came down [upon them], were filled from all [His gifts], and had perfect knowledge: they departed to the ends of the earth, preaching the glad tidings of the good things [sent] from God to us, and proclaiming the peace of heaven to men, who indeed do all equally and individually (
pariter et singuli) possess the Gospel of God. Matthew also issued a written Gospel among the Hebrews in their own dialect, while Peter and Paul were preaching at Rome, and laying the foundations of the Church. After their departure, Mark, the disciple and interpreter of Peter, did also hand down to us in writing what had been preached by Peter. Luke also, the companion of Paul, recorded in a book the Gospel preached by him. Afterwards, John, the disciple of the Lord, who also had leaned upon His breast, did himself publish a Gospel during his residence at Ephesus in Asia.
It is not possible that the Gospels can be either more or fewer in number than they are. For, since there are four zones of the world in which we live, and four principal winds, while the Church is scattered throughout all the world, and the pillar and ground (
columna et firmamentum;
stylos de kai stērigma) of the Church is the Gospel and the spirit of life; it is fitting that she should have four pillars, breathing out immortality on every side, and vivifying men afresh. From which fact, it is evident that the Word, the Artificer of all, He that sits upon the cherubim, and contains all things, He who was manifested to men, has given us the Gospel under four aspects, but bound together by one Spirit. As also David says, when entreating His manifestation,“
You that sits between the cherubim, shine forth.” For the cherubim, too, were four-faced, and their faces were images of the dispensation of the Son of God.
In the first quote, St. Irenaeus argues that each of the Apostles who imparted the one Gospel to the Church, first in worldwide preaching and then in writings possessed perfect knowledge from the Holy Spirit, countering arguments that they preached prior to having perfect knowledge and thus removes the heretics’ ground for postulating themselves as ones who improve the Apostles. Irenaeus taught that the Spirit at His descent, gave all the Apostles the perfect knowledge of the one Gospel, which they preached to the world and eventually found expression in four different written accounts.
In St. Irenaeus’ idea, since the church is dispersed throughout the quadriform world in a quadriform manner and has for its support the Gospel and the life-giving Spirit, it follows that the Church should have four pillars which, from every quarter of the earth, regenerate men. The Church’s support consists of the Spirit-given Gospel which the Spirit applies in a vivifying manner to men throughout the world. Therefore he presents first the image of the Church dispersed and regenerated throughout the quadriform earth by the four pillars of Gospel and Spirit.
I don’t see anything here that contradicts Catholic teaching…
Shouldn’t it be the other way around? The Catholic Church founded by Christ Jesus, interprets the scriptures. We will need to do a lot of evangelizing to help noncatholics understand the importance of Divine Tradition and magisterial teaching, which go hand in hand with understanding the scriptures, and even more so.