Irenaeus on Conditional Immortality

Irenaeus was one of the earliest church fathers and theologians, living in the second century (A.D. 130-202) well before the Council of Nicea. In his main surviving work, Against Heresies, he presents a “conditionalist" view: the soul is not immortal, rather eternal life is a gift from God that is extended to mortal souls and those who reject it will perish rather than endure.

The two key passages are reproduced below:

It is the Father of all who imparts continuance for ever and ever on those who are saved. For life does not arise from us, nor from our own nature; but it is bestowed according to the grace of God. And therefore he who shall preserve the life bestowed upon him, and give thanks to Him who imparted it, shall receive also length of days for ever and ever. But he who shall reject it, and prove himself ungrateful to his Maker, inasmuch as he has been created, and has not recognised Him who bestowed [the gift upon him], deprives himself of [the privilege of] continuance for ever and ever. 

Against Heresies 2.43.3

Those who assert that He [Jesus Christ] was simply a mere man, begotten by Joseph, remaining in the bondage of the old disobedience, are in a state of death having been not as yet joined to the Word of God the Father, nor receiving liberty through the Son...But, being ignorant of Him who from the Virgin is Emmanuel, they are deprived of His gift, which is eternal life; and not receiving the incorruptible Word, they remain in mortal flesh, and are debtors to death, not obtaining the antidote of life...For it was for this end that the Word of God was made man, and He who was the Son of God became the Son of Man, that man, having been taken into the Word, and receiving the adoption, might become the son of God.  For by no other means could we have attained to incorruptibility and immortality, unless we had been united to incorruptibility and immortality. But how could we be joined to incorruptibility and immortality, unless, first, incorruptibility and immortality had become that which we also are, so that the corruptible might be swallowed up by incorruptibility, and the mortal by immortality, that might receive the adoption of sons?

Against Heresies 3.19.1

Conditional immortality has been a minority view within orthodox Christian theology since that time and I believe it is the view most consistent with biblical evidence such as John 3:16 (“whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life") and 1 Corinthians 15:42 (“what is sown is perishable, what is raised is imperishable").

It contrasts with a view of the immortality of the soul which is arguably drawn from Greek philosophy and a doctrine of eternal torment that is potentially inconsistent with the nature and love of God. It also stands as a defensible alternative to notions of universal salvation and straight universalism that have gained ground in recent decades (for further background also see my posts on “The Reconciliation of All Things" and “Time's Arrow").