Imaging God: A theological answer to the anthropological question?
TL;DR: In this article, a more interactionist, dynamic, and relational view of "imaging God" is commended as a key anthropological term, which locates theological anthropology securely within the interactive context of being related to by God and suggests that theological anthropology might be a matter of performance rather than definition.
Abstract: Traditionally the central trope in Christian theological anthropology, “the image of God” tends to function more as a noun than a verb. While that has grounded significant interplay between specific Christian formulations and the concepts of nontheological disciplines and cultural constructs, it facilitates the withdrawal of the image and of theological anthropology more broadly from the context of active relation with God. Rather than a static rendering of the image a more interactionist, dynamic, and relational view of “imaging God” is commended as a key anthropological term. Engaging with Psalm 8 suggests that, biblically, asking the anthropological question “What is humanity?” is tied to the answer to the theological question: who is God? This locates theological anthropology securely within the interactive context of being related to by God and suggests that theological anthropology might be a matter of performance rather than definition: actively imaging God.
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TL;DR: This article argued that the possibility of further transformation of human nature, deification, and thus into the likeness of God depends on Christ as the one who bears the image of God perfectly, and the Spirit who enables such a transformation in human subjects.
Abstract: Although official Roman Catholic teaching affirms the concept of evolution as a convincing theory in order to explain the biological origin of different life forms, there is still a strong insistence on an “ontological gap” between human beings and all other creatures. This paper investigates how best to interpret that gap while still affirming human evolution. Drawing on medieval theologian Thomas Aquinas, I seek to uncover the influence of Aristotelian ideas on the rational soul. I will argue for the crucial importance of divine grace in consideration of divine image-bearing bearing so that while other animals share in the likeness of God, only humans, like angels, bear God's image. Such an approach does not provide any justification for the denigration of other creatures. Rather, the possibility of a further transformation of human nature, deification, and thus into the likeness of God depends on Christ as the one who bears the image of God perfectly, and the Spirit, who enables such a transformation in human subjects.
28 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the idea of the Imago Dei in Genesis 1:26-27 is seen as a signifier of human life under God, rather than a single determining characteristic or essential attribute.
Abstract: Classical approaches to the idea of the imago Dei in the theology of creation have tended to postulate a distinctive element of the human being not found in other creatures, with the possible exception of angels. This is often combined with attempts to use the imago concept as an organizing principle within Christian theology. Such approaches are now problematic not merely on account of their exegetical findings, but for methodological reasons. In light of recent exegesis, the imago Dei in Genesis 1:26–27 should be seen as a signifier of human life under God, rather than a single determining characteristic or essential attribute. Following the wisdom literature, the imago Dei can be understood, in a more diffused manner, as represented by human persons over long periods of evolutionary history in their characteristic quotidian forms of life, thus signifying the providential ordering of human life everywhere. The recent work of David Kelsey on theological anthropology is engaged in this context.
18 citations
Dissertation•
01 Nov 2014
TL;DR: In this article, the authors explore the evolution of the biblical concept of imago Dei and compare the contributions of Maimonides and Aquinas in their intellectualist conceptions of human distinctiveness.
Abstract: This thesis explores the evolution of the biblical concept of imago Dei. Written from the
perspective of Christian theology, the thesis engages select Jewish and Christian voices in
analysis of the shared theological premise that the human person is created in the image of
God The discussion will begin with the scriptural origins of the concept, drawing upon
exegetical interpretations as well as the early perspectives of the Rabbinic and Patristic
period. It will then offer a comparative account of the contributions of Maimonides and
Aquinas, in their intellectualist conceptions of human distinctiveness. From there, the
discussion will turn to the Christological appropriation of the concept in work of Karl
Barth and then to the covenantal, dialogical interpretation of David Novak. In both of
these thinkers, we will observe a rejection of the intellectualism of Aquinas and
Maimonides in favour of relational interpretations which are, in their integrative
understanding of the person as body and soul, more consistent with the biblical - and
Rabbinic - view of the person. The desire for an integrated view of the person will also
emerge as significant when the discussion turns to feminist engagements with the concept,
which also emphasise the inclusive potential of imago Dei. The thesis will conclude with
a consideration of the enduring relevance of the concept of imago Dei in the context of
contemporary Jewish and Christian theology.
17 citations
Dissertation•
15 Dec 2015
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors investigate the relationship between the human and the cyborg in the context of anthropological anthropology and argue that the human cannot recognise Eden or even dream of the possibility of return.
Abstract: Are we cyborgs or humans? This question is at the heart of this investigation, and the implications of it are all around us. In Christian theology, humans are seen as uniquely made in the image of God (imago dei). This has been taken to mean various things, but broadly, it suggests an understanding of humans as somehow discrete from, and elevated above, other creatures in how they resemble God. Cyborgs mark a provocative attempt to challenge such notions, especially in the work of Donna Haraway, whose influential ?Cyborg Manifesto? (1991) elaborated a way of understanding cyborgs as figures for the way we live our lives not as discrete or elevated, but as deeply hybridised and involved in complex ways with technologies, as well as with other beings. Significantly, Haraway uses the cyborg to critique notions of the human rooted in theological anthropology and anthropogeny: the cyborg was not created in Eden. This assertion is the starting point of my investigation of cyborgs and humans in theological anthropology. Analysis of this position is broken down into three key concepts throughout the investigation that form the three main parts of the structure: (1) What is the significance of Eden, specifically as a point of origin? What ideas do we inherit from Genesis mythologies, and how do they influence our multitudinous understandings of not only humans, but also cyborgs, that range from the Terminator, to astronauts, to hospital patients? What does it mean to say that the cyborg cannot recognise Eden or even dream of the possibility of return?(2) If the cyborg was not created in Eden, then is it still to be considered as creaturely? How does this figure tessellate into, or challenge, notions of human nature and sin in the absence of an origin or teleology in a Garden? What commentaries of the human as created in God?s image can we compare this to, and how do all of these readings bear on how we see ourselves and technologies? (3) More constructively, given that the cyborg amalgamates the organic and the mechanic, and discusses hybridity, how might this be appropriated by theological anthropology? What does it mean to say that we are hybrids? From these questions, I reflect on tensions between the cyborg and the human, and make suggestions for a theological appropriation of the cyborg figure that takes heed of the emphasis on hybridity by applying it to notions of Eden and imago dei. The overarching aim is to decentre and destabilise the human, and to refigure it within its broader networks that are inclusive of other creatures, technologies, and God.
15 citations
Dissertation•
01 Jan 2015
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors argue that technological creativity is a gift from God to humanity through which we are invited corporately to share imaginatively in God's creative activity in a manner appropriate to the nature and purposes of God.
Abstract: The argument of this thesis is that technological creativity is a gift from God to humanity through which we are invited corporately to share imaginatively in God’s creative activity in a manner appropriate to the nature and purposes of God. A demonstration of the ubiquity of creativity in aviation technology precedes an examination of theological approaches to technology, using the categories of Richard Niebuhr’s ‘Christ and Culture’, which reveals a lack of engagement with human creativity. This creativity, shown to be rooted in human imagination and a characteristic of all human beings, is part of the image of God in which human beings are created according to the Biblical accounts of creation in Genesis. The God who is imaged is shown to be loving and permissive in creation, inviting created partners to contribute, rather than prescriptive and violent. The Trinitarian character of God is also shown to be the origin of communal, and not just individual, human creativity. An exploration of the failure of technology to live up to this vision affirms that there is no inherent dark side to God’s creative gift to humanity as the problems come about through a mix of lack of knowledge, sin, and the will-to-power. An examination of a particular complex technological artefact, the city, leads to an argument that human technology is significant for the eternal purposes of God. Although a distorted understanding of the ‘image of God’, in which human beings become the domineering focus of creation, underlies the development of modern technology it is still the object of God’s redeeming and transforming power because of God’s love for and commitment to the whole creation. Technological creativity still has a place in God’s creation and will have a transformed place in God’s new creation.
11 citations
Additional excerpts
...354 Clines, 'Humanity as the Image of God,' 495....
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...The 194 Arthur C. Clarke, 'The Nine Billion Names of God,' The Collected Stories....
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...350 Anna Case-Winters, 'Rethinking the Image of God,' Zygon 39, no. 4 (2004): 815....
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...347 Clines, 'Humanity as the Image of God,' 463f. 348 Ibid., 463....
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References
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TL;DR: In this paper, the authors discuss the renewal of interest in trinitarian theology amongst systematic theologians in the West which followed their familiarization with the social conceptions of the Orthodox churches.
Abstract: The question which I am ultimately trying to address in this article is: what does the Trinity have to do with human individuality? My question reflects the renewal of interest in trinitarian theology amongst systematic theologians in the West which followed their familiarization with the social conceptions of the Orthodox churches.' But why should the availability of social and relational frames of reference for the Trinity have proved so reinvigorating for systematics in the West? There are two reasons, I think. The first is that the social understanding of the Trinity seems to offer a way of taking conventional Christian doctrine seriously whilst avoiding the obscurity and mystification of metaphysical conceptions. The second is that it provides an immediate and obvious connection with theological anthropology, and hence with practical theology in general and with political theology in particular. For in using social terms to conceptualize the Trinity, one is bound to formulate a conception of
12 citations
12 citations
TL;DR: The challenge of the interpreter in our day is to hear the full range of notes within all of Scripture, to wrestle with the theological implication of this biblical witness, and, above all, to come to grips with the agony of our age before a living God who still speaks through the prophets and Apostles as mentioned in this paper.
Abstract: “The challenge of the Christian interpreter in our day is to hear the full range of notes within all of Scripture, to wrestle with the theological implication of this biblical witness, and, above all, to come to grips with the agony of our age before a living God who still speaks through the Prophets and Apostles”
9 citations
Journal Article•
TL;DR: In this article, a set of orientational metaphors or spatial schemata are generated in the brain through our perception of and movement within the physical world, which can be metaphorically projected onto other physical objects.
Abstract: Human experience is always embodied, and so is the rational world we create. We can only respond to our surrounding world via bodily means. Basic meaning structures (image schemata) are generated in the brain through our perception of and movement within the physical world. By means of these image schemata human experiences are comprehended and abstract reasoning (metaphors) organized. Because the body is experienced, it generates the basic image schema of containment and boundedness. As a result of this and due to the upright posture of the human body, a set of orientational metaphors or spatial schemata is generated: up / down, front / back, high / low, in / out, and far / near. Image schemata are not fixed but are continuously modified by experience and can be metaphorically projected onto other physical objects. Psalm 8 is explained in terms of these principles in order to gain understanding of the Israelite embodied perception of the relationship between humankind andYahweh as reflected in the psalm.
8 citations
TL;DR: It was not through biotechnological possibilities that human beings first discovered "self-creation" as a question, but rather through the primordial human desire to be like God as mentioned in this paper.
Abstract: It was not through biotechnological possibilities that human beings first discovered “self-creation” as a question. Rather, the question fits into the horizon of the primordial human desire to be like God. Against this hamartiological insight, a soteriological expectation related to technology has arisen. The latter expectation must be rejected, but not in all respects. Rather, one has to stress the inventive and constructive aspect of the dignity to rule, which is implied in human linguistic reason (λογοσ).
There are, however, boundaries to be perceived and to be set. This becomes evident when embryo-consuming research is at stake. In this context, the main question is: Wherein lies human “dignity”? This is the same question as: wherein lies the “being-as-person”? The author sees the fewest difficulties in attributing personhood to the beginning of life, which occurs with the fusion of ovum and sperm. This attribution is not justified by the material substrate as such. Rather, it is the result of intertwining the element, namely the lump of cells, and the word of institution, which “speaks together” the lump of cells and the person: This lump of cells is a person. Human beings are honored and enabled to use this instituting word, a φυσɛι, because according to Gen 2:7 and 19f, God granted unto human beings linguistic reason (λογοσ), and thus the power to define. In this intertwining of element and instituting word lies the human dignity, which is undeservedly conferred on humans as a categorical gift. This absolute gratuity implies the unconditional acknowledgment of the dignity and the personhood of human beings—before one can speak of any characteristics or abilities.
Psalm 8 underscores the elementary human dependency on unconditional acknowledgment as an inviolable person, an acknowledgment preceding all human characteristics and achievements. The psalm further intertwines this acknowledgment and the commission to rule, which is conferred on human beings, as an insoluble unity. What at first appear to be opposites is in fact a synopsis and inseparable connection of creaturely human determinations that correspond to God's simultaneously being the almighty creator and the compassionate, merciful father.
By using “dignity” and “person” as critical terms of negotiation, theology can engage in a conversation with the societal and political public. In rejecting the dominant determination of the “person” as an autonomous, self-determinately active, individual rational being, theology finds an ally in juridical thinking, which also acknowledges the dignity even of persons unable to act.
Two consequences are to be drawn concerning biotechnology: perceiving the remaining dependency, vulnerability and vanity of human beings forces us to abandon illusions of “self-creation” and immortality. Second, priorities are required that determine the goals and limits of research—especially in protecting the personal dignity of embryos—in the light of our accountability before God the creator and judge.
5 citations