Implicit in the notion of human creation in the image and likeness of God is a set of authority relationships. By virtue of the imago Dei, humans have a native capacity for a relationship with God but may also interact with the world on God’s behalf. Yet the concept of imago Dei also implies that God’s authority over humans is not strictly heteronymous. Rather, it is grounded in a reciprocity that informs us of what God’s authority is. As Nicholas Lash has noted, authority can be plotted along a line that runs from the internal to the external, the material to the formal. Creation in the image of God places emphasis on the former of each pair.
This short communication will highlight patterns in Irenaeus’ and Augustine’s understanding of the imago Dei that emphasize a more internal model of authority. Irenaeus’ presentation in the Against the Heresies suggests a progressive, eschatologically oriented notion of creation in the image and likeness of God that comes to its fulfilment in Christ. It will be argued that the promise of a future goal, largely articulated in terms of assimilation and communion, is a constitutive element in a conception of divine authority.
In many of his writings, Augustine’s presentation of the imago Dei suggests an understanding of the human person as a responsive expression to a divine initiating action. A person, therefore, is not simply self-reflexive but reflects God in his or her very being. Therein, it will be argued, a profoundly dynamic understanding of divine authority.
Although the short communication will not treat the topic in great detail, it will draw suggestions for how such an understanding of “engaged authority” on the part of God provides a crucial theological base for any subsequent notion of ecclesial authority.
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