If God did create us in his image was it our bodies or our souls that were in his image? If it was our souls then the idea of God as male would be pointless, but if it were our bodies then God should have been male, right? If our bodies were the one's in his image and men come in all shapes and colours, then how would God look like? Would he grow like us? Die like us? And what about eve? Who's to say that she was not in his image as well and that the writers of the bible just forgot to mention that. Just a thought.

-- M.E. (kami2000@hotmail.com), April 11, 2000

Answers

Dear M.E.,

You are to be admired for comtemplating these deep questions. There can be no better help for you at this point in your life than to obtain and read the new (1992) Catechism of the Catholic Church. It is just so beautiful, it will take your breath away!

The writer of Genesis did not "forget" to mention that the first woman was made in the image of God. He wrote: "So God created mankind in His own image, in the image of God He created mankind; male and female he created them."

When God created our first parents, He was "pure spirit" (as the Son of God, Jesus, had not yet taken on a human nature). Therefore, the first man and woman, being made in God's "image and likeness," resembled Him in something other than flesh. What was it? Things of a spiritual nature -- for example, the soul, with its intellect, free will, memory, innocent sinlessless, truthfulness, goodness, etc..

"In no way is God in man's image. He is neither man nor woman. God is pure spirit in which there is no place for the difference between the sexes. But the respective 'perfections' of man and woman reflect something of the infinite perfection of God: those of a mother and those of a father and husband." [CCC 370]

"By calling God 'Father,' the language of faith indicates two main things: that God is the first origin of everything and transcendent authority; and that He is at the same time goodness and loving care for all His children..." [CCC 239]

God bless you.
John

-- J. F. Gecik (jgecik@desc.dla.mil), April 11, 2000.

Man is a composite of matter and spirit, body and soul, that do not exist in separate state before death. I then think that when God made our first parents HE made them in His image as human beings, that is, our souls and our bodies combined are in the image of God.

Enrique

-- Enrique Ortiz (eaortiz@yahoo.com), April 13, 2000.

Dear Enrique,
You have brought into the picture a "problem" that I tried to avoid, even though I have thought about it many times.
You are certainly right in saying that "[m]an is a composite of matter and spirit, body and soul, that do not exist in separate states before death." That is why I used to wonder why Genesis said that we are made in God's image and likeness -- when I knew that God had no physical "body" while He was creating Adam.
The Catechism says this in #41: "All creatures bear a certain resemblance to God, most especially man, created in the image and likeness of God. The manifold perfections of creatures - their truth, their goodness, their beauty all reflect the infinite perfection of God..."

I decided to answer here that we are in His image and likeness in the "spiritual realm" -- because I have recently heard/seen Catholic apologists on Internet, TV and radio make that statement. (I include the 75-year-old orthodox priest, Fr. Robert Levis, of EWTN.)

But there is something slightly dissatisfying with that answer, because of the excellent point you make -- that we are "embodied spirits" or "ensouled bodies," as some have put it. Let us look at your opinion that "when God made our first parents, He made them in His image as human beings, that is, our souls and our bodies combined are in the image of God." Perhaps I am mistaken, but it appears that you are saying that we are bodily, physically in the image of God, not just spiritually. In order for this idea to be valid, it seems to me that one of two things would have to be true:
(1) God must have had a human-like body while He was creating Adam. [I don't think that you believe this, since you know that Jesus took flesh in the womb of Mary -- God taking on a body only at that time and not before.]
OR, (2) God, from all eternity, "had in mind" for His Son a certain kind of physical body, and then gave that kind of body to our first parents. In other words, even before the first day of creation, He know that He would make man, that man would fall, and that Jesus would have to be our Redeemer -- so He could foresee what Jesus would look like and then make Adam accordingly.

Does this make sense to you, or did you have something else in mind? (What I just wrote -- in analyzing the idea of our being bodily/physically in the image of God -- came from my private reflections, so I don't claim it to be an orthodox teaching. I have never seen this explored anywhere.)

Though it may ultimately help us (and so I quote it here), I cannot say that I fully understand CCC 705: "Disfigured by sin and death, man remains 'in the image of God,' in the image of the Son, but is deprived 'of the glory of God,' of his 'likeness.' The promise made to Abraham inaugurates the economy of salvation, at the culmination of which the Son himself will assume that 'image' and restore it in the Father's 'likeness' by giving it again its Glory, the Spirit who is 'the giver of life.'" Perhaps someone can explain this to me?

Looking forward to your next message, your brother in Christ,
John

-- J. F. Gecik (jgecik@desc.dla.mil), April 13, 2000.

OR, (2) God, from all eternity, "had in mind" for His Son a certain kind of physical body, and then gave that kind of body to our first parents. In other words, even before the first day of creation, He know that He would make man, that man would fall, and that Jesus would have to be our Redeemer -- so He could foresee what Jesus would look like and then make Adam accordingly.

John: I think that the part of your post that I copied here gives us the solution:

God is not bound by time or space; for Him all things are in the present, therefore when He created Adam He had Jesus' body present and therefore He made Adam accordingly.

Could this text help us understand?:

"Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature" Col 1,15.

Enrique

-- Enrique Ortiz (eaortiz@yahoo.com), April 14, 2000.

Interesting to speculate, Enrique.
Thanks for mentioning what I accidentally left out -- that all time, which we call "past, present, and future," is all a "present moment" to God.
I see what you see in Colossians 1:15 ("He is the image of the invisible God, the first-born of all creation;"). But are we seeing too much? Is this word "first-born" instead a figurative reference to the eternal begetting of the Son by the Father (in spirit)?
John

-- J. F. Gecik (jgecik@desc.dla.mil), April 14, 2000.