Human and Divine Being Quotes

“Human beings truly are created in the imago Dei and this image is fulfilled perfectly in Christ, who is “the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For in him were created all things in heaven and on earth, the visible and the invisible . . . He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. He is the head of the body, the church . . . For in him all the fullness was pleased to dwell.”333 Because of the Son of God’s hypostatic union with human nature, human beings are empowered by the life-giving soul of Christ to participate in the process of cosmic redemption. The human soul becomes the gateway of salvation “and when it opens itself in its innermost being to the influx of divine life, the soul (and through it the body) is formed into an image of the Son of God.”334 In becoming configured to Jesus of Nazareth, true God and true man, according to the pattern of his self-giving and self-emptying life, human beings sacramentally are incorporated into the mystical Body of Christ, thereby incorporating the totality of created being along with them. As enmeshed within the created order—both materially and spiritually—human beings serve as the lynchpin of salvation’s circuit.”
― Donald Wallenfang, Human and Divine Being: A Study on the Theological Anthropology of Edith Stein