Major work

•          Against Heresies (defense of Christian view of salvation and role of apostolic tradition)

Importance

•          Bishop of church at Lyons (modern-day France)

•          Considered the first great systematic theologian

•          Held to the doctrine of recapitulation—the atonement view that Christ retraced the steps of Adam and succeeded where Adam failed

•          Defended the faith against the Gnostics

•          As a boy heard Polycarp teach

•          Says Matthew wrote a Hebrew Gospel

•          Tells of an incident between the apostle John and the heretic Cerinthus