Power and Human Freedom (Washington, D.C.: The Catholic University of America
52 Made to be Godly pation and the restoration of the divine image in the human person are the two main components in Augustine's understanding of the Christian soul's progress. After stating how Augustine's theory of participation finds its roots in Plato, Bonner goes on to write that "the progress of the soul should be towards a closer and closer participation in God, which will be completed only in the next life, when it will be as close a union with God as possible for a created being with its Creator." Yet, how will this close union take place? Bonner answers by showing how the restoration of the created image in the human person, realized through participation in God, can reverse the effects of the Fall and bring the faithful to the restored likeness intended for them from all time.43
Bonner's comments bring us to our fourth and final aspect of this passage, the completion for which created images strive. Because we are not God yet are made for God, we must imitate the model who himself has no exemplar. The Son is our only access to the Father and for our sake the Son has become a way in time for those who follow him [nobis uia temporalis]. Furthermore, Augustine's wording here invites his readers to think of this uia also as the mansio. Perhaps with John 14:6 in mind, Augustine's quae mansio nobis aeterna est per diuinitatem (Trin. 7.3.5) suggests that the way of Christ in time is also humanity's dwelling in eternity. Whether the antecedent of quae is either the uia or the humilitas of Christ, humanity's striving to Christ is simultaneously humanity's being with Christ.
Closely connected to these four important aspects of Augustine's reading of Gen. 1:26 is also his ability to read in the ad of Gen. 1:26 [ad imaginem et similitudinem] how created images are packed with a propensity to seek out and to be-
43. Gerald Bonner, Freedom and Necessity: St. Augustine's Teaching on Divine Power and Human Freedom (Washington, D.C.: The Catholic University of America Press, 2007), 31.