The term image is everything is truer today than its ever been before. Whether its the designer clothes a person is wearing, place of residence, the car they drive or the calculated lines they recite, presentation is now replacing content when it comes to discerning the authenticity and character of a person. This is the measure by which people are valued nowadays; superficially and without substance. Unfortunately and sadly this is also true within the church. We lack concern when it comes to the true character of an individu Anatomy and Physiology al, but we care more about their gifts and talents. It’s seems like society and the church are captivated and awestricken with an individual’s false persona, and television personalities rather than a person’s character. This standard is used chiefly because of the materialistic and/or secular nature of today’s society. Much of this is done either consciously, or subconsciously, in an effort to enhance one’s “image” as seen through the eyes of man, one’s friends, family, peers, and even society in general. All that being said, the term, “image is everything” is alive and well. However, it shouldn’t have validity for the reasons described above, but rather because man is created in the “image” and “likeness” of God. This is the true image that should shape the manner in which Orthodox Christians live their lives. “Then God said, ‘Let us make man in our image, after our likeness; and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth.’ So, God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.” (Gen 1: 26-27) The significance of man being created in God’s image is sometimes overlooked due to the complete silence of the rest of the Old Testament on this subject (In the Image and Likeness of God by Vladimir Lossky). However, the Orthodox Church lays the utmost emphasis on the image of God in man (The Orthodox Church by Timothy Ware). To acquire the likeness of God is to become deified or to become a “god by grace”, this is the ultimate goal of Orthodox Christians. Accordi Anatomy and Physiology ng to the church fathers, the terms image and likeness do not mean the exact same thing. In general, the term image can be thought of as the powers with which each one of us is endowed by God from the moment of our existence. By making proper us of being created in His image, each one of has the ability to acquire God’s likeness or to be deified. (1) Oddly, its meaning “image of God” has been debated, a  Anatomy and Physiology hot topic, if you will, for centuries in and outside of the church. Most theologians argued that it is the human mind – the capacity to exercise reason or rationality, the intellect – which marks us as being made ‘in the image of God. It also distinguishes us from animals.>