Catholic Dictionary
Find accurate definitions of over 5,000 Catholic terms and phrases (including abbreviations). Based on Fr. John Hardon's Modern Catholic Dictionary, © Eternal Life. Used with permission.
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ANACEPHALAEOSIS
A summary or recapitulation, applied in theology to explain St. Paul's statement that God will "bring everything together under Christ, as head, everything in the heavens and everything on earth" (Ephesians 1:10). It means that the whole of creation is related to the Incarnation. Christ is indeed the highest descendant of Adam's race; he is also the goal of creation. But even more, as the one who redeemed mankind from sin, he literally transformed every phase of human history and reconstituted the whole of creation, which until he came had been subjected to vanity.
