To appreciate the influence of Platonism on the theology of John Calvin, we must move on to consider Augustine, who, of all the Church Fathers, was the most influential on Calvin. Augustine differed, in fact, from the other Church Fathers, in that he argued that the terms ‘image’ and ‘likeness’ were synonymous. Having said that, he did on occasions use the term ‘likeness’ in isolation, to convey the growth resemblance of man to God. This was because, for Augustine, man is an imperfect image and so is capable of growth in likeness to God. Full likeness in this sense, however, is reserved for the state of glory and the resurrection. Whilst Augustine was certainly influenced by Neo-Platonism and was never able wholly to break
free from that influence, the way in which he viewed the image of God in man as imperfect, shows how decisively he broke away from the ‘Plotinian concept of image.’ He did however, tend to draw a distinction between soul and body and certainly held to a hierarchical view of soul and body, the soul always being viewed as the nobler part, because, for Augustine, the image of God is very definitely in the soul and not the body. There was a
tendency, even in the theology of Augustine, to view salvation as a struggle of the soul to regain control over the body and its passions. The body, whilst viewed as ‘good’ was, nonetheless, to be subordinate to the reason and the will, which are, in turn, subordinate to God. It has to be noted therefore, that Augustine’s approach was not purely Biblical and that
the remaining Platonist influence in Augustine inevitably led to certain tensions in his thinking which are reflected in his theology.
http://churchsociety.org/churchman/documents/Cman_105_3_Hallett.pdf