Imago Dei in St. Thomas Aquinas: a philosophical and anthropological analysis of man created in the Image of God

Abstract

Image as a philosophical concept has a long and complex history that begins as early as antiquity. Christian scholars included it in their philosophical studies in the form of imago Dei. In this paper, the author analysed the works of St. Thomas Aquinas to determine the anthropological consequences that follow from the idea of human creation in the image of God. It was first established that man as a being created in the image of God participates through his intellect in God’s nature. Moreover, three stages of human participation in God were presented. Subsequently, the author defended the classical theory of Aquinas against contemporary reinterpretation of his thought. It was argued that Aquinas rightly claims that only the intellectual part of the human soul is, strictly speaking, created in God’s Image, while the human body (and other irrational creatures) resembles God in the likeness of a trace.