St. Irenaeus, Bishop of Lyons', Five Books Against Heresies (Volume 2): Greek and Latin Edition

As a boy, St. Irenaeus of Lyons received instruction from men like St. Polycarp of Smyrna who had heard the Apostles’ preaching firsthand. By the late second century A.D., Irenaeus had grown into the Church’s leading bishop and theologian. He was justly famous for fighting the prominent heresies of his day, but that’s not all: Pope Benedict XVI said that “his work went far beyond the confutation of heresy: in fact, one can say that he emerges as the first great Church theologian who created systematic theology.” Irenaeus occupies privileged position in all the history of the Church, both for his great antiquity and the simple elegance of his thought. Bl. Pope John Paul II said that “interest in him is the heart of contemporary patristic revival.”

In 1857, Cambridge University Press published a critical edition of all the works of St. Irenaeus then extant: his five tremendous books Against Heresies and the several dozen fragments of his other writings that have come down to us. A contemporary reviewer in 1858 wrote that “the text generally is quite the best we have.” In 1970, over one hundred years later, W. A. Jurgens wrote that “the standard text is still that of W. W. Harvey.” You will find Harvey’s edition referenced in the footnotes of the Catechism and the documents of Vatican II – to this day, his readings and notes are discussed in scholarly circles.

This new facsimile reprint of Harvey’s famous work, made from the best-quality photographs and hand-restored for easy legibility will put the works of Irenaeus into the hands of a new generation of scholars for an eminently affordable price.