Seeing, Embodying, and Proclaiming Christ

Abstract

This essay examines the way Irenaeus of Lyons describes Blandina in her martyrdom: seen by others as embodying Christ and so encouraging them to also bear witness and be born into life by the Virgin Mother, the Church. It explores in particular Irenaeus' exegetical moves, so as to regain a sense of the unity of theology and exegesis as a transformed and transforming vision, which in turn extends the incarnation of Christ into the present in those who also take up the cross. In this way Irenaeus offers a way of understanding the unity of the discipline of theology and a vision of life and the Church that speaks to our contemporary situation.