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originates like that of the animal, that is, by procreation. It also accounts for the fact that the
Lutherans hardly recognize the moral unity of the human race, but emphasize strongly its
physical unity and the exclusively physical propagation of sin. Barth comes closer to the
Lutheran than to the Reformed position when he seeks the image of God in “a point of contact”
between God and man, a certain conformity with God, and then says that this was not only
ruined but even annihilated by sin.[The Doctrine of the Word of God, p. 273.]
3. THE ROMAN CATHOLIC VIEW.
Roman Catholics do not altogether agree in their conception
of the image of God. We limit ourselves here to a statement of the prevailing view among
them. They hold that God at creation endowed man with certain natural gifts, such as the
spirituality of the soul, the freedom of the will, and the immortality of the body. Spirituality,
freedom, and immortality, are natural endowments, and as such constitute the natural image
of God. Moreover, God “attempered” (adjusted) the natural powers of man to one another,
placing the lower in due subordination to the higher. The harmony thus established is called
justitia — natural righteousness. But even so there remained in man a natural tendency of the
lower appetites and passions to rebel against the authority of the higher powers of reason and
conscience. This tendency, called concupiscence, is not itself sin, but becomes sin when it is
consented to by the will and passes into voluntary action. In order to enable man to hold his
lower nature in check, God added to the dona naturalia certain dona supernaturalia. These
included the donum superadditum of original righteousness (the supernatural likeness to God),
which was added as a foreign gift to the original constitution of man, either immediately at the
time of creation, or at some later point as a reward for the proper use of the natural powers.
These supernatural gifts, including the donum superadditum of original righteousness, were
lost by sin, but their loss did not disrupt the essential nature of man.
4. OTHER VIEWS OF THE IMAGE OF GOD.
According to the Socinians and some of the earlier
Arminians the image of God consists in man’s dominion over the lower creation, and in this
only. Anabaptists maintained that the first man, as a finite and earthly creature, was not yet the
image of God, but could become this only by regeneration. Pelagians, most of the Arminians,
and Rationalists all, with little variation, find the image of God only in the free personality of
man, in his rational character, his ethico-religious disposition, and his destiny to live in
communion with God.
D. THE ORIGINAL CONDITION OF MAN AS THE IMAGE OF GOD.
There is a very close connection between the image of God and the original state of man, and
therefore the two are generally considered together. Once again we shall have to distinguish
between different historical views as to the original condition of man.