Today’s episode explores one of the most bizarre and imaginative distortions of Christian theology recorded in early church history. In Against Heresies, Book 1, Chapter 14, Irenaeus recounts the wild teachings of Marcus, a Gnostic heretic who spiritualized the Greek alphabet, invented divine beings made of letters, and claimed secret revelations from a feminine figure he called the “Tetrad.” From a mystical alphabetic “Truth” with a body of letters to claims that Jesus’ name contains hidden numerical power, Marcus’s teachings blend linguistic mysticism, numerology, and occult speculation. Irenaeus exposes it all—not just to ridicule it, but to show how far false teachers would go in their attempts to remake Christianity into a mystery cult. Alongside this, we read Augustine’s reflections on his early education, where he confesses his childish resistance to learning and how God used even forced study for his eventual good. Aquinas rounds out the reading by clarifying the natural moral habit called synderesis, that deep, instinctive knowledge to do good and avoid evil, which cannot be mistaken even when conscience falters.

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