Imago Dei in Early Christian Anaphoras

Abstract

Genesis expresses human creation in God's image and likeness. This Divine image—imago Dei—given to humanity, was an important notion in the liturgical prayers of early Christians. This paper shows that early Christian anaphoras of the first five centuries utilize image language to introduce the economy of salvation, emphasizing a need for Christ's salvific incarnation, while highlighting traditional descriptions of the imago Dei. Two descriptions of the imago Dei emerge in early anaphoras. One focuses on the immortality and rationality of the human soul as the depiction of the Divine image, seen in the anaphora of St Mark, the Armenian Anaphoras of St Basil, the Byzantine Anaphora of St Basil, and the Apostolic Constitutions. The second description of the imago Dei—best seen in the anaphora of St Gregory the Theologian and the Apostolic Constitutions—ties image to authority and complements Genesis 1:26, which references humanity's dominion after creation in the Divine image. These descriptions seem to take a secondary role, since introducing the salvation narrative remains the most dominant use of the imago Dei language, which highlights the link between creation and incarnation.