Given the various interpretations of what it means for mankind to bear the image of God, the imago dei, I think the suggestion of William P. Brown, Professor of Old Testament at Columbia Theological Seminary, is particularly helpful for warding off the fallacy of the excluded middle. Otherwise, you will likely find yourself vacillating theologically between each interpretation as you hear it put forward in the commentaries and literature. We should be cautious if something as complex as the imago dei is simplified.

Our species-specificity operates on a number of different levels, so also God’s specificity. Thus, it is best to think of the imago Dei not as something that reflects a singular aspect of the divine off a singular aspect of the human but as a prism refracting the various ways human beings, beginning with their gendered diversity, are capable of conveying the manifold character of God in the world.[1. William P. Brown, The Seven Pillars of Creation: The Bible, Science, and the Ecology of Wonder (New York: Oxford University Press, 2010), 76.]

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