Recapitulation (Anakephalaiosis)

Christ gathers up the whole of human life in Himself and lives it again rightly. St Irenaeus works it out in detail against the Gnostics: where Adam was disobedient at a tree, Christ is obedient on a tree; where Eve believed a messenger and bound herself, the Virgin believed a messenger and loosed the knot; and He passed through every age of life, infancy and childhood and youth and manhood, sanctifying each by being in it. Salvation on this reading is not a transaction conducted over our heads but a second running of the whole human course, done correctly, by one who is ours.