The Dichotomous Nature and the Image of God in Man in the Theology of Father Dumitru Stăniloae

The Dichotomous Nature and the Image of God in Man in the Theology of Father Dumitru Stăniloae

8 March 2024

The theology of father Dumitru Stăniloae has an obvious spiritual and philocalic feature, being inspired by the theological thinking of the Church Fathers, which lived and wrote in the light of the Holy Spirit. Christian anthropology emphasizes the dichotomous reality of the human being, since human nature is made up of a material body and a spiritual soul. Due to man’s relationship with the material world, these two realities are not antagonistic, but in intimate relationship, so that the world achieves its purpose through man, but it also serves man both in terms of his material existence – as the material basis of biological life – and in terms of his spiritual life, as a frame of man’s dialogue with God, since through creation man can have a knowledge of God. The teaching that man is created in the image and likeness of God is the fundamental aspect of the Christian anthropology. The image of God is Christ and man was created on this heavenly Pattern, therefore Christian anthropology is always Christocentric. Man is above the whole creation due to the divine image in him, whose primary aspect is freedom, which cannot be conceived without reason.