Does the image of God survive the fall?

Most traditions hold that the image is defaced or distorted by sin but not destroyed, which is why human dignity is still affirmed; some Reformed accounts speak of the image being largely lost yet restored in Christ.

Does the doctrine require a soul?

Traditionally it has been linked to the rational soul, but a number of contemporary theologians defend physicalist or hylomorphic accounts in which the image describes the whole embodied person rather than an immaterial part.

Imago Dei and Human Nature

The doctrine of the imago Dei holds that human beings are created in the image of God, grounding accounts of human dignity, constitution, and vocation.

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Definition

The teaching that humans bear the image of God, together with the account of what human persons are.

Scope

This topic surveys interpretations of the image of God, substantive (a capacity such as reason or will), relational (the capacity for relationship with God and others), and functional or vocational (the human role of representing God in creation). It treats the constitution of the person, including trichotomist, dichotomist, and monist views, and the contemporary dialogue with the sciences over whether persons are souls or unified organisms. The account is descriptive, comparing interpretations rather than asserting one.

Core questions

What does it mean to be made in the image of God?
Is the image a capacity, a relationship, or a vocation?
Are human persons composed of soul and body, or are they unified wholes?
Does the image remain after the fall?

Key theories

Relational interpretation of the image: Karl Barth's view that the image of God consists not in a faculty but in the human capacity for relationship, modeled on the differentiation and communion of male and female and ultimately on the relational being of God.
Functional interpretation of the image: The reading, supported by ancient Near Eastern parallels, that to bear God's image is to exercise a representative role, ruling and caring for creation on God's behalf as a royal steward.

History

Patristic writers such as Irenaeus distinguished image and likeness; the medieval tradition, following Augustine and Aquinas, located the image chiefly in the rational soul. The Reformers emphasized its corruption by sin while affirming a remnant. Twentieth-century theology, led by Barth and Brunner, advanced relational readings, and recent scholarship has drawn on biblical studies for functional interpretations and on the sciences for debates about human constitution.

Debates

What the image consists in: Whether the image is a substantive capacity (reason, will), a relational capacity, or a functional vocation, with implications for which beings bear it and whether it admits of degrees.
Soul-body constitution: Whether theological anthropology requires a distinct immaterial soul (substance dualism) or is compatible with non-reductive physicalism or hylomorphism, a question pressed by neuroscience.

Key figures

Irenaeus of Lyons
Thomas Aquinas
Karl Barth
Marc Cortez

Seminal works

barth1960
cortez2010
mcgrath2016

Frequently asked questions

Does the image of God survive the fall?: Most traditions hold that the image is defaced or distorted by sin but not destroyed, which is why human dignity is still affirmed; some Reformed accounts speak of the image being largely lost yet restored in Christ.
Does the doctrine require a soul?: Traditionally it has been linked to the rational soul, but a number of contemporary theologians defend physicalist or hylomorphic accounts in which the image describes the whole embodied person rather than an immaterial part.