Nature vs. Image

Yesterday's post was incomplete, and therefore liable and open to misunderstanding. It was not meant to be denouncing nature, or those who find God in nature. It was only meant to remind that as wonderful as nature is, the human person is still more wonderful because of its possession of the imprint of God, the very image of God, upon the soul.

In attempting to highlight the wondrous image of God upon the soul, Gregory of Nyssa goes to great length to explain how such an image can be found only in humankind. It is not to be found in any other created thing. He says The fact of being created in the image of God means that humanity right from the moment of creation was endowed with a royal character...The godhead is wisdom and logos [reason, meaning]; in yourself too you see intelligence and thought, images of the original intelligence and thought...the divine Creator has drawn this feature on our faces too. (PG 44,126-7)

It isn't that we can't find God's handiwork in creation and be inspired. If that were not so, monasteries would not seek places of quiet nature to complement their own spirit of solitude and silence. Nature is powerful, and can help us to understand God. There are many who see in nature God's own wondrous cathedral. It's the wondrousness of nature that can help us better understand our own soul; that we possess within ourselves a treasure even greater than the soaring mountains or the splendid sea coasts. Gregory is reminding us to also look within, and see that image of God, right there on our soul.