System of Sacred Theology · §3.28.6 · Ludwig Crocius

Image and likeness of God in the whole human; natural and supernatural

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There follows the affection of humankind, which is that the whole human, both by soul and by body, was created according to the image of God and after His likeness, in which his highest perfection is beheld. Image differs from likeness as species from genus; among some, likeness is the exegesis of image, as if it were said the most similar image of God — Genesis 1:27; 5:1.

The word image signifies either the archetype itself to whose exemplar another is made, or that which is made toward another. In the former acceptance only Christ can be called the image of God; in the latter, the image of God is beheld in no visible thing except in humankind. We assert that its subject first and through itself is the rational soul, most beautifully adorned with the gifts of justice, holiness, and truth. Yet we do not altogether exclude the human body from the reason of this image. Rightly, therefore, the whole human is said to have been created according to the image of God — which is clear even from the restoration of this image, in which not only the soul but the whole human, and even the body itself, is so restored as to be the temple of the Holy Spirit. And the image of God exists not in the man only but also in the woman, though in the man it is more illustrious.

Latin

Sequitur hominis affectio, quae est quod totus et anima et corpore conditus est ad imaginem Dei et secundum similitudinem ejus, in quo summa ejus perfectio conspicitur. Differt quidem imago a similitudine ut species a genere; apud quosdam similitudo exegesis imaginis est, quasi dicatur imago Dei simillima — Gen. I.27; V.1. Vox imaginis significat vel ipsum ἀρχέτυπον ad cujus exemplar aliud fit, vel id quod ad aliud fit. Priore acceptione solus Christus imago Dei dici potest; posteriore in nulla re aspectabili praeterquam in homine imago Dei conspicitur. Nos vero asserimus subjectum illius primo ac per se esse animam rationalem, justitiae sanctitatis ac veritatis donis pulcherrime exornatam. Corpus vero humanum ab imaginis hujus ratione non prorsus excludimus. Recte igitur dicitur totus homo ad imaginem Dei conditus — id quod vel ex instauratione hujus imaginis liquet, in qua non tantum anima sed totus homo ipsumque adeo corpus ita instauratur ut sit templum Spiritus Sancti. Imago autem Dei non in viro tantum sed et in femina exstat, licet in viro sit illustrior.

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