Recently, a group of students asked me about the "image of God" in angels and humans. Since both have a will and an intellect, are they equally the image of God or is one higher? Additionally, they inquired as to which of the two resembles God more and which is closer to God. Below is a synopsis of my response:
Philosophically, the more complex a being the less perfect while the simpler, the more perfect. This is because simpler beings (pure spirits) have less capacity for alteration/change, while complex beings (bodily beings) have a proclivity to change and impermanence. So in this regard, angels are higher in nature than humanity, because they have no natural vulnerability to corruption of their nature and less inclined to change, while human nature (body and soul) is in constant phases of change and can suffer the corruption of decay, giving it the character of limited permanence. This is why the author to the Hebrews states that "we see Jesus, who for a little while was made lower than the angels." (2:9) By taking a humanity, he bound himself to a nature that was inferior to the nature of the angels, in terms of degrees of perfection.
Nevertheless, Thomas Aquinas points out that while the angels are higher than humans in their nature (in regards to their essence more precisely resembling the permanence and immaterial qualities of God), humans are higher than the angels in respect to reflecting God's relational behavior. Angels cannot in their nature emulate the fruitfulness of the inner-Trinitarian life of God. Whereas human nature is oriented toward an interpersonal communion that utilizes the whole being (body and soul) in sexuality, producing the "fruit" of a new person, angels are incapable of this. Because human nature is inclined toward persons "proceeding" from persons, much like the spiration of the Holy Spirit from the interpersonal communion of the Father and the Son, Aquinas concludes that humans reflect God's relational qualities more deeply than the angels, even though the angels reflect God's immaterial essence more intensely.
Christ, then, brings this human dignity to a higher level in that now that God the Son has become man, human nature has the capacity to participate in the divine nature bodily (2 Pet 1:4). Unlike the angels who experience the glory of God in their nature solely as their nature being an exemplary participation in God's immutability, incorruptibility, as well as perfection of Goodness by grace, Human nature can now participate in God's divinity bodily, through an infusion of God's Spirit. Because God never became an angel, the angelic nature doesn't "partake" of the divine nature in the same manner that humanity does, whereby one joined to Christ can become "divinized" and commune with the Son through a common nature sacramentally. This is why St. Peter writes that the gospel announces "things into which angels long to look." (1 Pet 1:12) Angels can never experience being "clothed with Christ" in baptism (Gal 3:27) or "bear[ing] the image of the man of heaven" (1 Cor 15:49), being a member of Christ bodily (1 Cor 6:15), or being the "temple of God/Holy Spirit" within one's nature (1 Cor 3:16, 6:19). The word became flesh, not angelic, and because of this humanity is offered a deeper communion with God's nature than even the angels. This is why the Church professes that "Mary has by grace been exalted above all angels and men to a place second only to her Son." (Vatican II, Dogmatic Constitution on the Church, n.66)
So then, do both humans and angels have an intellect and will? Yes, and so both are a kind of "image" of God in that regard. However, angelic intellect and will are more acutely reflections of God's intellect and will in that the intellect and will of the angels more perfectly resemble God's will and intellect by remaining unhindered by emotions and not limited by the body. The intellect of the angels enjoy a deeper freedom and fluidity, and thus "image God" more perfectly than ours. Nevertheless, as mentioned above, angels are by nature incapable of "imaging" the relational qualities of Trinitarian life to the degree that human nature is able, making humanity a higher "image" in terms of divine relationship.
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