Whether the Image of God Is in Man?
Objection 1: It would seem that the image of God is not in man. For it
is written (Isa. 40:18): "To whom have you likened God? or what image
will you make for Him?"
Obj. 2: Further, to be the image of God is the property of the
First-Begotten, of Whom the Apostle says (Col. 1:15): "Who is the
image of the invisible God, the First-Born of every creature."
Therefore the image of God is not to be found in man.
Obj. 3: Further, Hilary says (De Synod [*Super i can]. Synod.
Ancyr.) that "an image is of the same species as that which it
represents"; and he also says that "an image is the undivided and
united likeness of one thing adequately representing another." But
there is no species common to both God and man; nor can there be a
comparison of equality between God and man. Therefore there can be no
image of God in man.
_On the contrary,_ It is written (Gen. 1:26): "Let Us make man to Our
own image and likeness."
_I answer that,_ As Augustine says (QQ. 83, qu. 74): "Where an image
exists, there forthwith is likeness; but where there is likeness,
there is not necessarily an image." Hence it is clear that likeness
is essential to an image; and that an image adds something to
likeness--namely, that it is copied from something else. For an
"image" is so called because it is produced as an imitation of
something else; wherefore, for instance, an egg, however much like
and equal to another egg, is not called an image of the other egg,
because it is not copied from it.
But equality does not belong to the essence of an image; for as
Augustine says (QQ. 83, qu. 74): "Where there is an image there is
not necessarily equality," as we see in a person's image reflected in
a glass. Yet this is of the essence of a perfect image; for in a
perfect image nothing is wanting that is to be found in that of which
it is a copy. Now it is manifest that in man there is some likeness
to God, copied from God as from an exemplar; yet this likeness is not
one of equality, for such an exemplar infinitely excels its copy.
Therefore there is in man a likeness to God; not, indeed, a perfect
likeness, but imperfect. And Scripture implies the same when it says
that man was made "to" God's likeness; for the preposition "to"
signifies a certain approach, as of something at a distance.
Reply Obj. 1: The Prophet speaks of bodily images made by man.
Therefore he says pointedly: "What image will you make for Him?" But
God made a spiritual image to Himself in man.
Reply Obj. 2: The First-Born of creatures is the perfect Image of
God, reflecting perfectly that of which He is the Image, and so He is
said to be the "Image," and never "to the image." But man is said to
be both "image" by reason of the likeness; and "to the image" by
reason of the imperfect likeness. And since the perfect likeness to
God cannot be except in an identical nature, the Image of God exists
in His first-born Son; as the image of the king is in his son, who is
of the same nature as himself: whereas it exists in man as in an
alien nature, as the image of the king is in a silver coin, as
Augustine says explains in _De decem Chordis_ (Serm. ix, al, xcvi, De
Tempore).
Reply Obj. 3: As unity means absence of division, a species is said
to be the same as far as it is one. Now a thing is said to be one not
only numerically, specifically, or generically, but also according to
a certain analogy or proportion. In this sense a creature is one with
God, or like to Him; but when Hilary says "of a thing which
adequately represents another," this is to be understood of a perfect
image.
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