Augustine's Early Theology of Image: A Study in the Development of Pro-Nicene Theology (Oxford Studies in Historical Theology) - Hardcover

Boersma, Gerald P.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0190251360 ISBN 13: 9780190251369

Publisher: Oxford University Press, 2016

Synopsis

What does it mean for Christ to be the "image of God"? And, if Christ is the "image of God," can the human person also unequivocally be understood to be the "image of God"? Augustine's Early Theology of Image examines Augustine's conception of the imago dei and makes the case that it represents a significant departure from the Latin pro-Nicene theologies of Hilary of Poitiers, Marius Victorinus, and Ambrose of Milan only a generation earlier.

Augustine's predecessors understood the imago dei principally as a Christological term designating the unity of divine substance. But, Gerald P. Boersma argues, Augustine affirms that Christ is an image of equal likeness, while the human person is an image of unequal likeness. Boersma's careful study thus argues that a Platonic and participatory evaluation of the nature of "image" enables Augustine's early theology of the image of God to move beyond that of his Latin predecessors and affirm the imago dei both of Christ and of the human person.

About this title

About the Author

Gerald P. Boersma is Assistant Professor of Theology at St. Bonaventure University.

Edition details

• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Publication date: 2016
• ISBN 10: 0190251360
• ISBN 13: 9780190251369
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 336