The Church Fathers · c. 180
Against Heresies
Adversus Haereses
Irenaeus of Lyons · c. 130–c. 202
What it is
Five books setting out the Gnostic systems in detail and then dismantling them, on the grounds that the God who made matter is the God who redeemed it, and that Christ recapitulates in himself everything Adam lost.
Why it lasted
The first great work of systematic theology, and the reason the church has a canon and a rule of faith rather than a private tradition for initiates.
Scripture it works from
Where to read it
This work is in the public domain and can be read in full, free, at the archives below. The Library catalogues it; it does not host the text.
These open a search on each archive rather than a direct link, which is the honest way to point at an edition nobody here has checked line by line.
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