[Sergius]

Originally Posted by Bishop Kallistos Ware

According to St Irenaeus, man at his first creation was "as a little child," and needed "grow" into his perfection. In other words, man at his first creation was innocent and capable of developing spiritually (the "image" (created in God's image - Ljub)), but his development was not inevitable or automatic. Man was called to co-operate with God's grace and so, through the correct use of his free will, slowly and by gradual steps he was to become perfect in God (the "likeness"). This shows how the notion of man as created in God's image can be interpreted in a dynamic rather than a static sense. It need not mean that man was endowed from the outset with a fully realized perfection, with the highest possible holiness and knowledge, but simply that he was given the opportunity to grow into full fellowship with God. The image-likeness distinction does not, of course, in itself imply the acceptance of any "theory of evolution;" but it is not incompatible with such a theory.

From The Orthodox Way.