Thus it is that
over decades of
Faith publications, symposia and youth catechesis we have and continue to put an extremely unfashionable effort into updating the traditional arguments for the
distinction of matter and spirit, body and soul.
Irenaeus therefore made a
distinction between the image of God which is man's distinctive endowment of reason, his dominion
over nature, and his creaturely dignity; and the similitude to God which is
faith, hope and love, that is, the full and righteous relation which man is supposed to enjoy as God's creature.