The Ambrosian Origin of St. Augustine's Theology of the Image of God in Man

Abstract

IN RECENT years the theology of the image and likeness of God in the human soul has drawn the attention of a number of distinguished patrologists. A series of important monographs has appeared in which the use of this theme by Clement of Alexandria, Origen, Irenaeus, Athanasius, Gregory of Nyssa, Cyril of Alexandria, and others has been subjected to detailed and careful analysis. The diverse sources of the patristic theology of the soul as the image of God—the Old and New Testaments and the philosophies of Plato, of the Stoics, and even of Heraclitus—have been painstakingly brought to light, and the important place that the metaphysics of the soul as the image and likeness of God was given in the ascetical and mystical theology of the Greek Fathers has been carefully explained. Recently, as was to be expected, the interest of scholars in this theme has led to further research in the works of the Latin Fathers, especially in those of St. Augustine where its role is of such great doctrinal and historical importance. The publication of Heijke's monograph on the image of God in the works of Augustine exclusive of De trinitate has made a valuable contribution to the growing literature on this topic, which will soon be complemented by Somers' companion study of the image of God in