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Victorinus and the Imago Dei

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 October 2024

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The doctrine of man as the Imago Dei has been brought out into the forefront of theological speculation in recent years, especially by Emil Brunner and Karl Barth; and Catholic theologians fully admit that Christian tradition needs to be re-explored before an adequate theological statement can be made in the face of the existentialist writers. The great problem, of course, is how can the two apparently irreconcilable trends in Christian tradition be synthesised without prejudice to the truth which each enunciates. How, in short, can the classic theory of St. Augustine be reconciled with the far too little known Imago Christi stress of Tertullian and St. Irenaeus? The latter school taught that man was made to the image of God in the sense that he was made after the pattern of the Christ coming in the flesh to redeem mankind : this school therefore strongly stresses the corporal likeness as a basic element in the Image doctrine. St. Augustine on the other hand, basing himself on a subtle analysis of the nature of the ‘mens,’ contends that man is made to the image of the Trinity itself, and carries in his soul a reflection of the divine life. This theory is then concerned to emphasise man’s spiritual nature as the most important element in the Imago doctrine.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © 1944 Provincial Council of the English Province of the Order of Preachers

References

1 G. Brunner, Man in Revolt, pp. 82 sq. and 400 sq.: and Barth, The Knowledge of God and the Service of God, pp. 41 sq.

2 Com. in Gal. Praef: ‘qui Romam, me puero rhetoricam docuit.’