Which comes first: the Bible or Tradition? What are the foundations of Orthodox doctrine? How did the earliest Christians view the relation between Scripture and Christian teaching?

To address these important questions, Aletheia is delighted to welcome back international guest speaker Fr John Behr. His talk will look closely at the work of St Irenaeus of Lyons (130-202 AD), who was one of the earliest Christian authors to explore and explain the relationship between Scripture, Tradition and the Canon or the Rule of Truth. His texts became foundational for Christianity and Christian theology thereafter, and are ones to which we must continually return as we grapple with the new questions put to us today.

Fr John Behr is Professor of Patristics at St Vladimir's Orthodox Seminary, teaching courses in patristics, dogmatics and scriptural exegesis at the seminary, and also at Fordham University, where he is the Distinguished Lecturer in Patristics.

(Photo courtesy of the Yale Centre for Faith and Culture.)