Epistemología y Exégesis en las primeras obras de Agustín (387-391)

The biblically-inspired motif of the divine image (imago dei, cf. Gen. 1.26) is a central anthropological concept in early Christian discourse. While this motif has been studied extensively, it has not yet been studied against the backdrop of the closely related epistemological terms imago, imaginatio and phantasia as these develop in Augustine’s early works (387-391). Given that Puffer (2014) characterizes the presence of imago dei in the early works as an ‘exterior’ characteristic of human beings, the question arises, how does the treatment of imago and imaginario/phantasia inform Augustine’s imago dei motil in the early works, and if so, how? In other words, is the background to Augustine’s anthropology of the divine image framed against the background of the epistemological status of image and imagination in the early works or vice-versa? The answer to this question, it is hoped, will illuminate aspects of the status of the image in Augustine’s early works. The working assumption is that since imago, imago Dei, and imaginario/phantasia are all linguistically related, they may also be conceptually related, specially pertaining to the (mis)trust of ‘exteriority’ of imago Dei.