In the book of Genesis tells us about the creation of man and the world:
So God created mankind in his own image,
in the image of God he created them;
male and female he created them. Genesis 1:27
The concepts of image and likeness are metaphysical concepts and arise from the definition of essence.
Aristoteles gives us the definitions of essence and substance in his book Metaphysics (Book V), the essence is the main characteristic of something; for example the essence of man is the reason, the man is a rational animal, the essence of God, his main characteristic, is the wisdom.
The substance is that of what is preached, for example the substance of man is the person,when we talk about man we talk about an animal with two arms and two legs, who walks bipedal. The substance has to do with the physical description of the things. The essence is the immaterial substance. The substance of God is the wisdom, talk about the wisdom is talk about God.
Thomas Aquinas in his book Summa Theologiae explain to us that the likeness or similarity implies the equality of essence, that is to say that two objects are similar if they share the same essence.
The image is the perfect likeness or perfect similarity, the image occurs between twins.
Thomas Aquinas explain that men resemble God as the whitish to the white, or the rays to the sun.
This is why the goal of the spiritual life is to achieve the likeness to God. We reach the likeness to God when we receive the holy spirit. For example the disciples of Jesus achieve the likeness to God in Pentecost, Acts of the Apostles 2:
"When the day of Pentecost came, they where all together in one place. Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they where sitting. They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. All of them where filled with the Holy Spirit."
The image of God is given in the fruits of the spirit, the character of God, the fruits of the spirit are also the ultimate goals of the spiritual life, according to Thomas Aquinas.
The fruits of the spirit are the result of the contemplative activity after the Gnosis (receive the Holy Spirit): "But the fruits of the spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness,goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law", Galatians 5:22-24
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