ABSTRACT
Irenaeus becomes bishop following the brutal martyrdoms that ravaged the Christian communities of Vienne and Lyons toward the end of the second century. This conflict is recounted in an encyclical letter titled "The Testimony of those Perfected in Lugdunum". According to Irenaeus, the substantial division between the spiritual and material worlds is the fundamental pillar on which his opponents' systems are constructed. The pneumatic disciple envisions the supreme God as if he has no connection to the material world; similarly, he defines the material world as if it has no connection to the supreme God. Irenaeus certainly retains this rhetorical and literary use of recapitulation. Among his first uses of the recapitulation terminology is one that occurs in the course of his argument against his opponent's interpretation of John's gospel. Creation is the fundamental origin from which the narrative of scripture proceeds and the setting in which the formation of humanity takes place.
