Books by John (Dean and Professor of Patristics Behr

A two-volume set providing a new edition and translation of one of the most important and controversial texts from early Christianity. It offers a sympathetic understanding of the text, and provides new insights into the structure of the work and the nature of theology as it was practiced in early Christianity.

A full, contextual study of Irenaeus of Lyons, the first great theologian of the Christian tradition. John Behr sets Irenaeus both within his own context of the second century and our own contemporary context.

Irenaeus and Clement, writing at the end of the second century, offer us very different views of holiness from those that came to dominate the monastic ideal. This book examines in detail their philosophies of what it means to be a human being living in the presence of God.