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So the concept of the image of God, Imago Day, namely the view that humanity is created in or according to the image of God is probably one of the most

intriguing and at the same time most contested categories. Although the text of Genesis

in which we find this expression, nowhere specifies its meaning.

Generations of Christian theologians interpreted it in terms of human uniqueness in the created order.

Ironies of Leon, a second century, a theologian emerged as one of the earliest writers who explored this idea

and whose lead contributed significantly to later patristic and medieval elaborations, which are widely

discussed in academic literature.

The writings of the Apostolic Fathers, on the other hand, do not feature often in these discussions,

and hence the focus of my today's talk. In what follows, I will first analyze the use of the concept of Imago Dei

and related ideas in the writings of the Apostolic Fathers. These are usually dated to the second

half of the first and the first half of the second century C.

So we will approach these writings in their chronological order.

We will start with the writings of First Clement, Barnabas, Diagnitas, all of which rehearse the idea of human creation according to the image and likeness of God in their own way.

Next, we will deal with the letters of Ignatius of Antioch, with his distinctive

approach to the image of God. And we will finish with some concluding remarks. So, first

Clement, or Clement of Rome, he was writing sometime during the last decades of the

first century, and he refers to Imago Dei in the middle of his extensive letter.

At first he eloquently describes the process of creation of the universe

and then focuses on the formation of humanity as follows. And you can find the first quotation on your handout.

Above all, he says, as the most excellent

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