Creation in the Image of the Glory-Spirit

In his 1977 article "Creation in the Image of the Glory-Spirit," Meredith Kline sketched out the meaning of imago Dei in connection with God’s overall creative intent to imitate His own theophanic and incarnate Glory. The article was first published in the Westminster Theological Journal 39 (1977), 250-72 and is available in full as part of an online collection of Kline’s writings:

When defining the imago Dei, dogmatic theology has traditionally tended to engage in an analysis of what constitutes humanness. But to answer the general question 'What is man?' is not the same thing as answering the precise question 'What is the image of God?'. If our objective is to discern what the biblical idea of the image of God is, it would appear necessary to abandon the traditional dogmatic wineskins, go back to the beginning of Genesis, and start afresh.

…Under the concept of man as the glory-image of God the Bible includes functional (or official), formal (or physical), and ethical components, corresponding to the composition of the archetypal Glory. Functional glory-likeness is man's likeness to God in the possession of official authority and in the exercise of dominion. Ethical glory is reflection of the holiness, righteousness, and truth of the divine Judge (not just the presence of a moral faculty of any religious orientation whatsoever). And formal-physical glory-likeness is man's bodily reflection of the theophanic and incarnate Glory.