A Phenomenology of the Divine Image

What does it mean to speak of humans as the image of God when apophatic theology speaks of an infinite God who transcends naming, comprehension, and worldly appearance? Bringing Church Father, Gregory of Nyssa into dialogue with the phenomenologies of Michel Henry, Maurice Merleau-Ponty, and Jean-Louis Chretien, Thomas Breedlove answers this question and explores the importance of embodiment to the doctrine of imago Dei.

Divided into three parts, this book investigates humans' relation to the divine through three successive approaches. The first, in conversation with Merleau-Ponty, analyses the existential and phenomenological aspects of fleshly finitude as the paradigmatic site of the creature's difference from God. The second takes up Henry's philosophy of life alongside Gregory's metaphysics of participation to offer an account of creaturely life in its likeness or identity to divine life. The third, though conversation with Chrétien, examines the christological aspects of Gregory's anthropology in order to find the dynamic synthesis of likeness and difference that determines the nature of human beings as, in some way, reflecting God.

In blending 4th century theology with 20th century phenomenology, Breedlove not only showcases the alternative perspectives they can offer each other, but further presents a novel theological anthropology. He argues that imago Dei is not merely one aspect of human identity, but rather precisely what constitutes 'human creatureliness', as is revealed in the dynamism and groundlessness of the flesh.