Man as the Image of God

Scripture (Gen. 1:26) tells us that God said, “Letus make man to our own image and likeness.” An image is a kindof copy of its prototype. Unless the image is in every way perfect,it is not the equal of its prototype. Finite man cannot be a perfect image of the infinite God. Man is an imperfect image of God. This means that man is made to resemble God in some manner.

The image of God in man makes him superior to other earthly creatures. St. Augustine says (Gen. ad lit. vi12), “Man’s excellence consists in the fact that God made him to His own image by giving him an intellectual soul which raises him above the beasts of the field.” It is true that all creatures have a likeness to God, some by the fact that they exist,some by the further fact that they live, some by the still further fact that they have knowledge. But only intellectual creatures(angels and men) have a close likeness to God; only such creatures have the spiritual operations of understanding and willing. Of earthly creatures, man has a true likeness to God; other creatures have a trace or vestige of God rather than an image.

The angels are pure spirits, that is, they areunmingled with matter, and they are not intended for substantial union with matter. Therefore they are more perfect in their intellectual nature than man is, and, in consequence, they bear amore perfect image of God than man does. In some respects, however,man is more like to God than angels are. For man proceeds from man,as God (in the mysterious proceeding of the divine Persons)proceeds from God; whereas angels do not proceed from angels. And again, man’s soul is entirely in the whole body and entirely in every part of the body; thus it images the mode of God’s presence in the universe.

The image of God is in every individual human being. It shows in this: that God perfectly knows and loves himself, and the individual human being has a natural aptitude for knowing and loving God. Man, by grace, can love God on earth, althoughimperfectly; in heaven, by grace and glory, man can love God perfectly. Hence the image of God is in the individual man.{-It is important to ponder the fact here presented in a day when more and more importance and value is ascribed to society as such.-}

The divine image in man reflects God in Unity and also in Trinity. In creating man, God said (Gen. 1:26): “Let us make man to our own image and likeness.”

The image of God in Trinity appears in man’sintellect and will and their interaction. In God, the Father begetsthe Word; the Father and the Word spirate the Holy Ghost. In man,the intellect begets the word or concept; the intellect with its word wins the recognition or love of the will.

Thus the image of the Trinity is found in the acts ofthe soul. In a secondary way, this image is found in the faculties of the soul, and in the habits which render the faculties apt andfacile in operation.

The image of God is in the soul, not because the soul can know and love, but because it can know and love God. And the divine image is found in the soul because the soul turns to God,or, at any rate, has a nature that enables it to turn to God.

Man is created to the image and likeness of God. The image of God is discerned in the acts and faculties and habits ofthe soul. The likeness of God is either a quality of this image, orit is the state of the soul as spiritual, not subject to decay or dissolution.