Irenaeus and Orthodox Apologetic Methodology

The Eastern Orthodox Church has ever engaged in efforts to overturn distortions of the faith. From the New Testament authors to present-day writers, Orthodox Christians have encountered many and various types of errors. Contemporary Apologetics has focused especially on issues related to apologetic methodology where, rather than restricting argumentation to specific positions and counter-positions, the very way in which apologetics is to proceed has become a subject of study. As such, it appears that there has been relatively little explicit discussion in Orthodox scholarship of apologetic methodology considered in and of itself, and yet the Church Fathers practiced apologetics with identifiable apologetic methods. The present study is an attempt at addressing this subject by taking a close look at the apologetic efforts of St. Irenaeus of Lyon with an eye towards discovering and clarifying his apologetic methodology. In doing this, his approach can be compared to contemporary apologetic methods, especially Presuppositional Apologetics, and in doing so also show how what might be called Orthodox Presuppositional Apologetics, or Neopatristic Presuppositionalism, is authentic to historic Orthodox apologetics while also being corrective of non-Orthodox approaches.