Athanasius has already explained that being created in the image of God means being designed for personal knowledge of God, and this is something that only the Word of God can bring. The knowledge of God that the Word of God brings is precisely what humanity turned away from in sin, as they turned inward and so turned into nonbeing. But when the Word of God restores knowledge of God, he saves humankind from corruption and nonbeing, from all “this dehumanising of mankind.”94 Only the Word and Image of God could rehumanize us.
