Faith and Love in Ignatius of Antioch

Tarvainen, Lookadoo

• Publisher: Pickwick Publications
• Year: 2016
• eBook ISBN: 9781532601309
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Religion

"Faith is the beginning of life, love is the end.""All things together are good, if you believe with love.""Faith and love are everything. Nothing is better than them."In his seven letters, Ignatius of Antioch puts the concepts of faith and love side by side in novel and gripping combinations. Olavi Tarvainen illuminates Ignatius's terse statements in this close study of his letters. In doing so, he sheds new light on an understudied theme in early Christianity. Yet he moves beyond the question of what these words collectively mean to ask how Ignatius employs them individually. By doing so, faith and love become a new lens through which to view the entire scope of Ignatius's theology in fresh and exciting ways.

1

Faith and Love as Central Themes of Ignatian Thought

There are a number of concepts that appear again and again in the dynamic and driving thought of Ignatius. Those which emerge most often are the two concepts of faith and love. They often occur connected with one another. There is no other pair of words in Ignatius’s letters that stands in such close connection. In this chapter, then, the focus is on the two concepts that are able to render entirely and completely the whole content of the Christian message.1

We find a general definition of these concepts in Smyrn. 6.1, “A position should not make anyone proud, for the whole (ὅλον) is faith and love, which nothing surpasses.” In this verse Ignatius alerts the recipients of the letter to the temptation that can approach a person in an ecclesiastical office or in a position of trust and to the danger of pride and boasting. Consequently, he points to the foundation of a right faith: in Ignatius’s mind proper Christianity is sustained by faith and love. Therefore, an admonition subsequently follows here that was rightly addressed to the lower officeholders, the elders and deacons, and that should have rebuked them for their human weaknesses and their appetite for false fame.2 This thought is very nearly a plea in the text. Each one must overcome their own “I” and burst the sphere of selfishness in order to infiltrate the central truth of the Christian faith.

The thought that faith and love are the foundation on which each Christian life has to build is not an image that is applied only for rhetorical reasons in Ignatius. He outlines again and again the central significance and basic content of these two concepts in the most varied contexts and in countless places. An example should demonstrate this clearly.

The way that these two concepts comprise the entirety of the Christian faith is emphasized in the following verse in Eph. 14.1.

None of these things escapes you if you direct faith and love, which are the beginning and the end of life, perfectly toward Jesus Christ. Faith is the beginning, love the end. But the two in unity are God. Everything else that belongs to virtue follows from that.

In these words, faith and love are the key to the holiest secrets of the Christian faith. Everything that constitutes the life of a Christian can be extrapolated from these two concepts. If a person is not permeated with faith and love, he remains excluded from God’s redemptive and salvific acts. But if a person is taken into these redemptive and salvific acts, he starts out in faith and effects love to the end. The somewhat enigmatic expression, “but the two in unity are God,” must mean that God himself is present in the realization of faith and love.3 Because the Word of God became flesh in Christ, his will and Spirit can now take up residence in human beings. Faith is the moving power that induces a being from love and in love in the way that a Christian should live.

Other verses document the central meaning of the concepts of faith and love in Ignatius. He writes that he is full of joy because the community in Smyrna is filled with faith and love.4 He wishes that success may be granted to the Christians in Magnesia for everything that they do in faith and love.5 He speaks about the unity of faith with love, which nothing surpasses.6 He calls the much-loved name of the Ephesians, which they have acquired by right nature according to the faith and love in Christ Jesus, welcome in God.7 He also greets the house of Tavia, whom he desires to remain in both fleshly and spiritual faith and love.8 Ignatius enshrines the community in Smyrna that is perfect in unmovable faith, as if nailed to the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ with flesh and spirit, and is established in love in Christ’s blood.9 “If you believe in love . . .”10—this clause also shows the close connection, the inseparability of faith and love in Ignatius. Even a scholar such as Seeberg, who thinks that three main concepts in Ignatian theology can be presented, that is, faith, love, and hope, still concludes that the first two concepts comprise the entire content of the Christian life in themselves.11

What does Ignatius understand by faith as “the beginning” of the Christian life and love as its “end?” At this point it must be remembered that Ignatius lived in an age in which the basic notions of the Christian message were still quite clear and plainly in consciousness for believers. The new faith was chiefly a faith in Jesus Christ, who suffered, died, and was raised for us. Christianity radically differentiated itself through this conviction from other contemporaneous religions. Judaism could not acknowledge Jesus as the Son of God and thus also could not grasp that his blood is the atonement for humanity’s sins. Christianity really had no common foundation with gentile religions, since it advocated a completely new and other vision of the relationship between a person and God. The message of Christ and his work, the gospel of the cross and resurrection, formed the core of Christian faith. Likewise, it is always evident in another context that, with the concept of faith, Ignatius is thinking of this central event and considers it the foundation of the Christian faith.12 This faith is not “dead”; it is not the acceptance of historical facts as true. Rather the good fight of faith in the community and a truly living and inner trust in the Lord are meant.13 Christian spirituality signifies the same thing as Christian faith in Ignatius; it means that which Paul calls “being in Christ.”14

What then does ἀγάπη mean when used by Ignatius in this context? According to Richardson, ἀγάπη in Ignatius is a lifestyle permeated by brotherly love.15 The understanding of this concept in Ignatius is probably captured correctly with this definition. Love determines the manner and way in which the faithful lead their daily life. With it, they have reached an “end.” There is no way to a further perfection. The Christian life, as it ought to be, is a life permeated by love. The law of love is binding for their overall conduct. It prohibits everything evil toward the neighbor, and it calls to service, humility, and selflessness.

Love thus demonstrates itself in daily life; it proves itself in whether a person has the right disposition and the right faith. “No one who professes faith sins, and the one who possesses love does not hate. One knows the tree by its fruit. Thus those who profess to be Christ’s disciples will become apparent by their actions. For it does not come down to the profession but whether one is found in the power of faith at the end” (Eph. 14.2). With this line of thought, Ignatius aligns himself with New Testament tradition. Synoptic and Johannine transmissions thus appear side by side for him.16 “Either plant a good tree so there will be ...

Table of contents

• Title Page
• Translator’s Preface
• Preface
• Introduction
• Chapter 1: Faith and Love as Central Themes of Ignatian Thought
• Chapter 2: Faith
• Chapter 3: Love
• Conclusion
• Bibliography