SAINT THOMAS AQUINAS' THE IMAGE

10/5/2024

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Whether image in God is said personally?

Image in God is said personally. For an image portrays something similar to another's form, species, and accurate idea of them which manifests into its depiction which is identified by other intellects who observe the image. For this man or that woman will see the same image and know what it is without consulting one another. In this way, the image in God is a personal relation. Heretics in the Modenri Age accuse the faithful of worshipping such images as if those in the faith believed the images to be a god in itself. However, this is only true if one directs the highest level of reverence (divine worship) to the image as a cause for itself as if the image itself were God. In another way, if I were to look at your pen and say “this here is my god,” then that would be idolatry. However, if I looked at the your pen and said, “this reminds me of when an apostle wrote a part of the gospel, praise be to God,” then this would not be idolatry; for the pen becomes a vessel of honor which reminds our spirit to give due praise and worship to the One Creator.

Whether the name of Image is proper to the Son?

The Son is the image of the Father in the truest sense for that which is begotten and of generation is the most perfect image of what something is in similitude from that to which it came from (The Son is begotten of the Father who is of paternity). In another sense, man is the image of God in a less perfect way in comparison to the Son because relation between creature to Creator is of a different order. It also follows that the Father and the Son are one principle of the Holy Spirit and that the Holy Spirit is not the image of the Father. Only the Son alone is the image of the Father in the proper sense because there cannot be an image of an image (as in Holy Spirit), for then there would be two images in the Holy Spirit depicting both Father and Son thus being impossible (for no one image is the image of two things at once). Therefore, the Holy Spirit is not called the Image, although it receives likeness from The Father.

I am blessed to be a Third Order Lay Dominican. However, the ideas expressed in this post are my own and do not represent the endorsement of or position of the Order of Preachers as a whole.

Commentary regarding Saint Thomas Aquinas’ Summa Theologiae derived from: ST part (I), Q. 27-49 from newadvent.org with permission.

Scripture texts in this work are taken from the New American Bible, revised edition © 2010, 1991, 1986, 1970 Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, Washington, D.C. and are used by permission of the copyright owner. All Rights Reserved. No part of the New American Bible may be reproduced in any form without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

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