Irenaeus, Theistic Evolution, and the Eschaton: The Elimination of Relational Chaos

I will offer Irenaeus’ Christus Victor view of the atonement as the solution to both human division and evolutionary violence. I will accomplish this by defining Satanic bondage as “chaos” in conversation with the Chaoskampf motif in the biblical canon and relate this chaos to death, human division, and the evolutionary process. Irenaeus’ Christus Victor view accommodates evolutionary theory well and helps us to understand both the annihilation of death itself and the promise that God will be “all in all.”

Matthew William Brake | George Mason University