What is man? Lessons in philosophical and theological anthropology. Digitized in 2009 from the analog original, recorded in 2000. 8th lesson: Man, the image of God revealed in Christ Juan Luis Lorda. Professor of Systematic Theology and Theological Anthropology, Faculty of Theology, University of Navarra Content: Theology is a wisdom-based knowledge that attempts to illuminate all things from God. It affirms very central things that illuminate others: the origin, the end, and the meaning of man. Gaudium et Spes, n. 22: Christ fully reveals man to man himself. It is a summary of Christian anthropology. Context: the theology of the image. Sacred Scripture: Genesis 1,26-28, which recounts the creation of man. “Let us make man in our image and likeness”: man is the image of God. By giving him spirit, he made him his own image. This is even more striking when one takes into account that in Israel it was forbidden to make any image of God, in order to avoid idolatry. The true image of man is in Christ. This is developed by St. Paul in his letter to the Romans: Adam, the image of God, was a figure of him who was to come. This idea contains a doctrine on creation. Christ is the image of the invisible God (Col 1:15-17; Heb 1:2-3). Through him all things were created. It contains a doctrine of the incarnation: The original idea of ​​man is in the Word, from the beginning. When the Son is incarnated, this original idea appears imprinted on human nature. And a doctrine of redemption: the incarnate Son, who shares with us everything except sin, is going to die and rise again. In the risen Christ is the image of the fullness of man. List of various Pauline texts: Christ rose from the dead as the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep. Just as we bear the image of Adam, we will bear the image of Christ. The whole Christian life consists in becoming like Jesus Christ. To recapitulate: Christ is the image of the Father. When he is incarnated, he is the image of man. After the resurrection, in Christ we see the situation to which we are called. We are renewed by Christ until we reach the fullness of the resurrection. A doctrine much discussed in theology. Patristics: Theology of Saint Irenaeus. Man created in the image of God; he is lost through sin and is recovered with the help of the Holy Spirit so that we become like the image of the perfect man, Jesus Christ (a very frequent comment in patristics when speaking of the divinization of man). Doctrine of the admirable exchange: God becomes man so that man may become divinized. Doctrine of recapitulation: the Son of God, by becoming incarnated, recapitulates for God all creation, above all man. Saint Athanasius. Solidarity with Jesus Christ of all human nature. Echo in Gaudium et Spes and in John Paul II: Christ unites himself in a certain way with every man. St. Cyril repeats the same idea. Development in theology at the beginning of the 20th century: they recover the patristic idea. Guardini, in his work The Essence of Christianity: that essence is in Christ. Danielou, especially in Eschatology. Von Balthasar, when he takes the idea of ​​the concrete universal from Nicholas of Cusa. Man as an image is not something static that is described, but something called to develop. Gaudium et Spes, n. 22: Christ fully reveals man to man himself and reveals to him the sublimity of his vocation. That is our destiny. For this reason, man's life on earth becomes an imitation of Christ. Col 2, 6-7. Identification with Christ is achieved by the Holy Spirit that we receive and by our effort. This is guided by the commandments of Christ and by his example: Service: washing of the feet at the Last Supper. The commandment of mutual love, imitating Him. We are called to follow the way of Christ: to be anointed by the Holy Spirit, to grow by fulfilling the commandments, and to attain the ultimate fullness of the resurrection. Bibliography HU Von Balthasar. Image and likeness of God. Excursus de Teodramática, II, 1. B. Mondin. Theological anthropology. Paolina, Alba 1977. C. Spicq. God and man in the New Testament. Trinitarian Secretariat, Salamanca 1979, chap. VV Lossky. Mystical theology of the Eastern Church. Herder, Barcelona 1982, chap. VI. A. Hamman. L'uomo immagine somigliante di Dio. Paoline, Milan 1991. JL Lorda. Anthropology. From the Second Vatican Council to John Paul II. Palabra, Madrid 1996.