Extended description

55. A meaningful history of Christianity could be written in terms of the Unitive and its vicissitudes throughout the centuries. As we look at a few of the critical crystallizations and junctures in this history, our starting place is with the unitive vision of John and the early Syriac tradition, which we have just examined. Here we find a consciousness and a vision of life still centered and illuminated by this new unitive reality which has come into the world in Jesus and been received by the individual and the community through faith and baptism. 56. A second moment or face of this history is in the patristic theology centered in the Word of God, the Logos incarnate in Jesus Christ. This tradition is directly and obviously Johannine, and it is taught already by the church fathers of the second century. Greatest among these is Irenaeus of Lyons, who has been called the father of Christian theology. Irenaeus’ vision is of a breadth and vigor comparable only to that of John himself; being, like that of the early Syrians, almost entirely free from intrusive philosophical structures, his thought moves with the Word itself.