Early Leaders, Teachers, and Apologists

Question 1

Cyprian of Carthage

Answer 1

• Latin North African bishop, theologian, martyr
• 3rd century
• Pastor during mid-century persecution (Decius/Valerian)
• Responded to schism; wrote on Church and sacraments
• “He can no longer have God for his Father, who has not the Church for his mother.” And, extra Ecclesiam nulla salus, or, “outside the Church there is no salvation.”

Question 2

Ignatius of Antioch

Answer 2

• Bishop of Antioch
• 1st and 2nd centuries
• Martyred in Rome
• One of the Apostolic Fathers
• Wrote series of letters to the churches
• “Permit me to imitate the passion of my God.”

Question 3

Origen of Alexandria

Answer 3

• Early Christian teacher and apologist
• 2nd and 3rd centuries
• Well versed in Greek philosophy
• Prolific biblical and theological writings
• emphasized spiritual interpretation of Scripture
• Some of his speculations (such as on the soul) later deemed unorthodox

Question 4

Perpetua and Felicitas

Answer 4

• ea. 3rd-cent. martyrs in Carthage, North Africa (d. 203)
• Noblewoman Perpetua and her slave Felicitas, both young mothers, imprisoned after their baptisms and executed in arena with companions
• influential passion narrative; first women to be widely venerated by church

Question 5

Tertullian of Carthage

Answer 5

• North African Latin Apologist
• 2nd and 3rd centuries
• Develops early Trinitarian language
• Affirmed natural law but rejected Greek philosophy (“What has Athens to do with Jerusalem?”)
• Later attracted to the charismatic, rigorist “new prophecy” movement called Montanism

Question 6

Polycarp of Smyrna

Answer 6

• Bishop of Smyrna in Asia Minor (Izmir, Turkey)
• 1st - mid-second century
• link between apostolic age and early Christian writers (such as Irenaeus)
• arrested, confessed serving Christ for 86 years, refused to recant, burned to death
• earliest account of Christian martyr outside NT

Question 7

Clement of Alexandria

Answer 7

• Early Christian theologian and teacher
• 2nd - ea. 3rd century
• Head of catechetical school in Alexandria
• Dialogues with Platonist philosophy
• Christ is the Logos and the Christian is the “true gnostic (i.e. has true knowledge)”

Question 8

Justin Martyr

Answer 8

• Early Christian apologist
• 2nd century
• Described his path from various philosophies to Christianity as the “true philosophy”
• Presided over Christian philosophical school in Rome
• Provides an early account of Christian worship

Question 9

Irenaeus of Lyons

Answer 9

• Bishop of Lyons in Gaul (France), “first catholic theologian”
• 2nd century
• opposed Gnosticism in Against Heresies
• Appealed to Scripture and tradition
• Christ was the new Adam who in his incarnation restored (“recapitulated”) humanity