Irenaeus

151

Chapter thirteen

“The Rule of Truth... which He Received

through Baptism” (Haer. I.9.4)

Catechesis, Ritual, and Exegesis in Irenaeus’s Gaul

Alistair Stewart

T

his chapter explores the relationship between baptismal ritual and catechesis in Ire-

naeus’s context in the light of his statement that the rule of truth is received through

baptism. For whereas it is entirely possible that this statement is a confusion of bap-

tismal ritual with catechumenal process (it is taken as axiomatic that the rule of faith

was the basis for catechetical direction),^1 the possibility that there is a link between the

substance of the material delivered in catechesis and the baptismal ritual itself might

give some clue to the nature and development of credal declarations. The statement

that the rule of faith is received in baptism is made in the context of a discussion of

Valentinian reading of scripture; those who are baptized in this manner, says Irenaeus,

are able properly to understand the Scriptures. Against this heretical misreading of the

Scriptures, then, is set the rule of faith, which is then stated.^2 This particular statement

is interesting because its fundamental trinitarian shape is followed by a christological

supplement.

Although the church is extended over the entire inhabited world up to the

boundaries of the earth, she has received both from the apostles and from their

disciples the faith that there is one God, the Father Almighty “who made the

heaven and the earth and the sea and all that is in them”, and in one Jesus Christ

the Son of God made flesh for our salvation and one Holy Spirit which has

proclaimed through the prophets the dispensations (οίκονομία) and the com-

ing and the birth from the virgin and the passion and the resurrection from the

dead and the bodily reception into the heavens of the beloved, our Lord Jesus

Christ, and his coming again from the heavens in the glory of the Father for

the consummation of all things and the resurrection of all flesh of the whole of

humanity. (Hae r. I.10.1)

In examining Irenaeus’s statement here I intend to suggest the following:
a. that the catechetical process known to Irenaeus involved some form of traditio or
“handing on” to the candidate of a credal formula;