Gregory of Nyssa and the Image and Likeness

"If humanity is called to life in order to share in the divine nature, it must have been suitably constituted for the purpose...It was essential that a certain kinship with the divine should have been mixed in human nature, so that this affinity should predispose it to seek what is related to it...That is why humanity was given life, intelligence, wisdom, and all the qualities worthy of the godhead, so that each one of the should cause it to desire what is akin to it. And since eternity is inherent in the godhead, it was absolutely imperative that our nature should not lack it but should have in itself th principle of immortality. By virtue of this inborn faculty it could always be drawn towards what is superior to it and retain the desire for eternity.
That is summed up in a single phrase in the account of the creation of the world: 'God created man in his own image.'"

"If the image could be essentially understood while the original remained incomprehensible, the image would not be an image at all. But our spiritual dimension, which is precisely that wherein we are the image of our Creator, is beyond our ability to explain...by this mystery within us we bear the imprint of the incomprehensible godhead."

-translation taken from The Roots of Christian Mysticism by Olivier Clément.