During the general audience on 16 April Pope John Paul II continued his catechesis on man as the image of God. His discourse was based on the biblical text of Wis 8:5-9.

1. Man, created in the image of God, is a being both corporeal and spiritual. On the one hand, he is bound to the external world, and on the other, he transcends it. As a spirit, besides being body, he is a person. This truth about man is an object of our faith, as is also the biblical truth about his being constituted in the "image and likeness" of God. It is a truth constantly presented by the Church's Magisterium during the course of the centuries.

The truth about man does not cease in the course of history to be the object of intellectual analysis, both in the sphere of philosophy and of numerous other human sciences: in a word, the object of anthropology.

2. That man is an incarnate spirit, or if you wish, a body informed by an immortal spirit, can already be inferred in some way from the description of creation contained in the Book of Genesis and in particular from the "Yahwist" account, which uses, as it were, a stage setting and anthropomorphic images. We read that "the Lord God formed man of dust from the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being" (Gen 2:7). The continuation of the biblical text gives us clearly to understand that man, created in this way, is distinguished from the entire visible world, and in particular from the animal world. The "breath of life" has made man capable of knowing these beings, of naming them, and of recognizing that he was different from them (cf. Gen 2:18-20). Although the "Yahwist" account does not speak of the "soul", nevertheless it can easily be deduced from it that the life given to man in the act of creation is such as to transcend the mere corporeal dimension (that proper to animals). It reaches, beyond the material, the dimension of the spirit, wherein there is the essential foundation of that "image of God", which Gen 1:27 sees in man.

Unity and duality

3. Man is a unity: he is one in himself. But in this unity there is contained a duality. Sacred Scripture presents both the unity (the person) and the duality (body and soul). One thinks of the Book of Sirach which says, for example: "The Lord created man out of earth and turned him back to it again"; and further on: "He forms men's tongues and eyes and ears, and imparts to them an understanding heart. With wisdom and knowledge he fills them; good and evil he shows them" (17:1, 5-6).

From this point of view Psalm 8 is particularly significant. Exalting man it addresses God in the following words: "What is man that you should be mindful of him, or the son of man that you should care for him? You have made him little less than the angels, and crowned him with glory and honor. You have given him rule over the works of your hands, putting all things under his feet" (vv. 5-7).

4. It is frequently emphasized that biblical tradition stresses especially the personal unity of man, by using the term "body" to designate the whole man (cf. e.g., Ps 144[145]:21, Joel 3:1; Is 66:23; Jn 1:14). The observation is exact. But notwithstanding this, the duality of man is also present in biblical tradition, sometimes very clearly. This tradition is reflected in Christ's words: "Do not fear those who deprive the body of life but cannot destroy the soul. Rather, fear him who can destroy both body and soul in Gehenna" (Mt 10:28).

5. Biblical sources authorize us to view man as a personal unity and at the same time as a duality of soul and body: a concept that found expression in the Church's entire Tradition and teaching. This teaching has assimilated not only the biblical sources, but also the theological interpretations of them which have been given by developing the analyses conducted by certain schools (Aristotle) of Greek philosophy. It has been a slow, constant work of reflection, culminating principally—under the influence of St Thomas Aquinas—in the pronouncements of the Council of Vienne (1312), where the soul is called the "form" of the body: forma corporis humani per se et essentialiter (DS, 902). The "form", as a factor determining the substance of the being "man", is of a spiritual nature. And this spiritual "form", the soul, is immortal. This was authoritatively stated later by the Fifth Lateran Council (1513): the soul is immortal, in contrast with the body which is subject to death (cf. DS, 1440). The Thomistic school emphasizes at the same time that, by virtue of the substantial union of body and soul, this latter, even after death, does not cease to "aspire" to be reunited with the body. This is confirmed by the revealed truth about the resurrection of the body.

6. Although the philosophical terminology used to express the unity and complexity (duality) of man is sometimes the object of criticism, it is beyond doubt that the doctrine on the unity of the human person and at the same time on the spiritual-corporeal duality of man is fully rooted in Sacred Scripture and Tradition. Notwithstanding the frequent expression of the conviction that man is the "image of God" because of the soul, traditional doctrine does not lack the conviction that the body also participates, in its own way, in the dignity of the "image of God", just as it participates in the dignity of the person.

7. In modern times the theory of evolution has raised a special difficulty against the revealed doctrine about the creation of man as a being composed of soul and body. Many natural scientists who, with their own methods, study the problem of the origin of human life on earth, maintain—contrary to other colleagues of theirs—not only the existence of a link between man and the ensemble of nature, but also his derivation from the higher animal species. This problem, which has occupied scientists since the last century, involves vast layers of public opinion.

The reply of the Magisterium was offered in the encyclical Humani Generis of Pius XII in 1950. In it we read: "The Magisterium of the Church is not opposed to the theory of evolution being the object of investigation and discussion among experts. Here the theory of evolution is understood as an investigation of the origin of the human body from pre-existing living matter, for the Catholic faith obliges us to hold firmly that souls are created immediately by God"... (DS, 3896).

It can therefore be said that, from the viewpoint of the doctrine of the faith, there are no difficulties in explaining the origin of man, in regard to the body, by means of the theory of evolution. It must, however, be added that this hypothesis proposes only a probability, not a scientific certainty. The doctrine of faith, however, invariably affirms that man's spiritual soul is created directly by God. According to the hypothesis mentioned, it is possible that the human body, following the order impressed by the Creator on the energies of life, could have been gradually prepared in the forms of antecedent living beings. The human soul, however, on which man's humanity definitively depends, cannot emerge from matter, since it is of a spiritual nature.

8. A fine synthesis of creation as set out above is found in the Second Vatican Council: "Man, though made of a body and soul, is a unity. Through his very bodily condition he sums up in himself the elements of the material world. Through him they are thus brought to their highest perfection..." (GS, 14). And further on: "Man is not deceived when he regards himself as superior to bodily things and is more than just a speck of nature... For by his power to know himself in the depths of his being he rises above the whole universe of mere objects" (ibid.).

In this way, then, the same truth about the unity and duality (the complexity) of human nature can be expressed in a language closer to the modern mentality.