Irenaeus on the Atonement

The most important work of Irenaeus was his Adversus Haereses, written in Greek and translated into Latin. We have already had the chance to speak of his distinctive doctrine of recapitulation. Christ comes to undo the damage done to humanity by Adam. Taking Romans 5 as his starting-point, he speaks of Christ reversing the disobedience which took place on the tree by that obedience which was accomplished on a tree. Jesus both sums up and restores humanity. Two elements of his atonement theology are noteworthy:

1 – he speaks of the atonement as a ransom paid to persuade the devil to release those he holds in bondage.

The Word of God, mighty in all things, and not lacking in His justice, acted justly even against the Apostasy itself, redeeming from it those things which are not His own, not by force, as the Apostasy gained possession of us at the beginning, insatiably seizing what was not its own, but by persuasion, even as it was fit that God should by persuasion and without employing force receive what He wished; so that neither the law of justice should be broken, not the ancient creation of God perish. (V.1.1)

2 – he speaks of the necessity of both divine and human natures in Christ in order to effect an atonement.

He united therefore, as we said before, man to God. For unless man had vanquished the adversary of man, the enemy would not have been justly vanquished; and again, unless God had granted us salvation we should not have had it securely, and unless man had been united to God, he could not have been a partaker of incorruption. (III.18.7)