Our name
In His Image
What it means that every person — you, your brothers, the stranger — is made in the image and likeness of God.
"And God created man to his own image: to the image of God he created him: male and female he created them."
Genesis 1:27 (Douay-Rheims)The household takes its name from the first chapter of the Bible. Before Scripture says anything else about us — before sin, before the law, before any accomplishment — it says this. Our covenant puts it simply: the brothers desire to be more fully formed in the image and likeness of God.
The Church has spent two thousand years unpacking that one line. Here is what it means in short, and where to read more.
In brief
Four things the image of God means
You can know and love
Reason and free will set the human person apart. We are the creature able to know God and to choose to love Him in return.
You are made for communion
God is a Trinity — a communion of persons. So we are not made to be alone: friendship, brotherhood, and marriage reflect who God is.
Your dignity can't be lost
Being made in God's image is not earned or achieved, so it can't be forfeited. Every person, at every stage and in every condition, carries it.
Christ shows you who you are
Jesus is the perfect image of the invisible God. The more we are conformed to Him, the more fully human — and more fully ourselves — we become.
"For the glory of God is a living man; and the life of man consists in beholding God."
St. Irenaeus of Lyons · Against Heresies IV.20.7, c. 180 ADOften shortened to "the glory of God is man fully alive," this line from one of the earliest Church Fathers ties the whole idea together: we become most fully the image of God not by shrinking our humanity but by living it toward Him.
Reading path
Where the Church teaches it
Start at the top and work down — each step goes a little deeper.
- Scripture
Genesis 1:26–31 · Psalm 8 · Colossians 1:15 · 2 Corinthians 3:18
The image given at creation (Genesis), the wonder that God is mindful of us at all (Psalm 8), Christ as the image of the invisible God (Colossians), and our being changed into that same image "from glory to glory" (2 Corinthians).
Read Genesis 1 ↗ - The basics · 10 minutes
Catechism of the Catholic Church §355–361
The Catechism's short section "In the image of God": why the human person alone is called to share in God's own life, and why that makes every person a "someone," not a "something."
Read on vatican.va ↗ - Vatican II · 1965
Gaudium et Spes §12 and §22
§12 grounds human dignity in the image of God and our social nature. §22 holds the line St. John Paul II returned to again and again: only in the mystery of the incarnate Word does the mystery of man become clear.
Read on vatican.va ↗ - The deep dive · 2004
Communion and Stewardship: Human Persons Created in the Image of God
The International Theological Commission's full treatment, approved under Cardinal Ratzinger: the image of God in Scripture and tradition, as communion with others, and as stewardship over creation.
Read on vatican.va ↗ - Today · 2024
Dignitas Infinita: On Human Dignity
The Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith on why dignity is "infinite" — rooted in being created and loved by God — and what that means for the poor, migrants, the unborn, the sick, and more.
Read on vatican.va ↗ - For men especially
St. John Paul II, Mulieris Dignitatem (1988)
Written on the dignity of women, but essential for men too: it reads Genesis 1–2 to show that man and woman together image God, and what that asks of how we treat one another.
Read on vatican.va ↗