At least five reasons can be given in defense of the view that the body and soul, and not just the soul alone, is created in the image of God. First, as discussed in question 2, the mind and body, while not an identity, are a unity. The human person is not complete without a body. Second, God created matter and everything God created is good, reflecting His glory (Gen. 1:31; 1 Tim. 4:4). Third, murder of the body is wrong because it is a crime against the image of God (Gen. 9:6). Fourth, the Incarnate Christ is called the “image of God” (Heb. 1:3; 2 Cor. 4:4; Col. 1:15). Fifth, the ultimate glorification of man, which includes the resurrection of the body, reveals that the body is as much the image of God as the soul (Rom. 8:22-25).

But does the view that the body is part of the image of God imply that God has a body? The answer is negative for several reasons. First, solid metaphysical thinking teaches that an infinite, simple, eternal Being must be immaterial. Second, Scripture teaches that God is a Spirit (John 4:4; 2 Cor. 3:17). Third, Scriptural references to God’s “body parts” must be considered anthropomorphic. Otherwise, God would not only resemble a man, but also a bird! (Ps. 91:4) Fourth, if God had a body, then all creatures with bodies would in some way be created in His image. Yet, that is obviously not the case. Instead, man’s body differs from the bodies of all other creatures in that it is specifically created, in unity with the soul, that man might reflect the glory of God. Man, as a soul/body unity, is uniquely qualified above all other creatures to both worship God in the spiritual realm and exercise dominion over His creation in the physical realm. 

Of the many soul/body views, three can be considered to be within the pale of Christian orthodoxy, though only one succeeds as an adequate explanation of the biblical data and sound philosophical reasoning.

First, the view of Pre-Established Harmony, promoted by Leibniz, teaches that the mind and body are two different substances that are synchronized by God to work in relation to one another.

Second, Augustine taught the view of Occasionalism, which sees the soul and the body as two different things that are coordinated by God so that ideas arise in the mind on the occasion of sense perception.  

Third, the Hylomorphic view of Aquinas, which best explains the biblical data, teaches that the soul and body are a holistic unity, with the mind animating the body. The first two views say that man is a soul and only has a body and, therefore, have to concoct elaborate explanations for how the soul and body could ever interact. Hylomorphism, however, teaches that the soul is the form of the body and a human person is not complete without one or the other. The soul and body are a unity, however, and not an identity: the soul is to the body as thoughts are to the words on paper. Hylomorphism is consistent with the Traducian view of the origin of the soul and best explains the universal experience that the soul and body intimately affect one another, as in emotional grief and physical pain. Furthermore, only Hylomorphism can adequately explain why the murder of the body is a crime against the image of God in man (Gen. 9:6). Also, the Christian doctrine of the resurrection is inexplicable if man is complete without a body (2 Cor. 5:1-4). Indeed, the word “soul” means “person” and often includes the body (Ps. 16:10). 

The Pre-existence view, held by Justin Martyr and Origen, states that the souls of men were created by God before the creation of the world, but this contradicts Genesis 1:27 which explicitly teaches that Adam’s soul was created after the creation of the world.

The Creationist view, held by Thomas Aquinas and Charles Hodge, holds that God individually creates each soul at some point between conception and birth. This view has great difficulty explaining inherited sin and also fails to take into account that creation was completed on the sixth day (Gen. 2:2; Deut. 4:32; Mt. 13:35) and that God is resting since (Heb. 4:4-6).

Finally, the Traducian view, held by St. Augustine, William G. T. Shedd, and Lewis Sperry Chafer, maintains that both the body and the soul are generated by the human parents. This view is preferable for several reasons. First, while the soul of Adam was created directly by God (Genesis 2:7), the soul of Eve was produced through Adam (2:21-22). Second, Adam had children in his own image (5:3), suggesting strongly that the soul, and not just the body, is produced by human procreation. Third, the Traducian view better accounts for imputation of sin from Adam to the rest of the human race (Rom. 5:12; 1 Cor. 15:22). It is difficult, if not impossible, to account for the biblical teaching of man’s universal inclination to sin (Rom. 3:23) with any other view other than Traducianism. Finally, the psycho-somatic unity of man is best explained by the Traducian view. Man is a soul/body unity, not merely a soul who has a body. Neither the Pre-existence nor the Creationist view can adequately account for this truth because both view the soul as a separate creation that is simply implanted in the body at some point.