The biblical bases for a cosmic Christology is often found in Colossians, Ephesians, and the prologue to the gospel of John.
In his theory of atonement, Irenaeus speaks about how all of humanity was created good but tainted by sin, but that all of creation was "recapitulated" and restored under the new headship of Christ.
He understood the Incarnation as bringing the historical Christ into the material world and, through evolution, leading all of creation towards perfection in the Omega Point.
This was particularly poignant through debates that arose from the World Council of Churches meeting in New Delhi in 1961, when the Indian Paul D. Devanandan argued from Ephesians 1:10 that a cosmic Christ united all things to himself; this, he claimed, included non-Christian religions.
This would continue to be asserted by South Asian Christians such as M. M. Thomas from India and D. T. Niles of Ceylon as a rationale to dialogue with and work together with other religions.