The Body as Image of God in Rabbinic Literature

1994 ◽  
Vol 87 (2) ◽  
pp. 171-195 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alon Goshen Gottstein
Keyword(s):  
Image Of God ◽  
The Body ◽  
Rabbinic Literature ◽  
Biblical Text ◽  
Medieval Theology ◽  
Standard Work ◽  
The Image Of God

The liberation of rabbinic theology from the reins of medieval theology is still underway. One of the central issues that sets rabbinic theology apart from later medieval developments is the attribution of body or form to the godhead. Even though the anthropomorphic tendency of rabbinic thought is widely recognized, it is still early to speak of a learned consensus on this issue. The standard work on the topic remains Arthur Marmorstein'sEssays in Anthropomorphism, written in 1937. Marmorstein recognized the anthropomorphic tendency of rabbinic thinking. His way of dealing, both theologically and scholastically, with the issue was to suggest the existence of two schools in the tannaitic period. According to Marmorstein, the schools of Rabbi Akiva and Rabbi Ishmael were divided on the question of the literality of the understanding of the biblical text. Rabbi Akiva's literal reading gave rise to an anthropomorphic understanding of God. Rabbi Ishmael's nonliteral, or allegorical, reading brought about an opposition to anthropomorphism. This description of rabbinic anthropomorphism has informed the discussions of many scholars, including those who have dealt with our present topic—the image of God. I would, therefore, state my differences with this presentation.

“Beautiful on the Cross, Beautiful in His Torments”: The Place of the Body in the Thought of Paschasius Radbertus

Traditio ◽  
2005 ◽  
Vol 60 ◽  
pp. 1-46
Author(s):  
David Appleby
Keyword(s):  
Image Of God ◽  
The Body ◽  
The People ◽  
The Cross ◽  
Literary Portrait ◽  
The Image Of God ◽  
Mind's Eye

In his literary portrait of Abbot Adalhard, written soon after the abbot's death in 826, Paschasius Radbertus of Corbie compared his subject's moral and spiritual progress to the method of the ancient painter Zeuxis as this had been described in Cicero'sDe inventione.According to Cicero, the people of Cortona commissioned Zeuxis to decorate a temple with the image of Helen, who was reputed to be the most beautiful of mortal women. Because nature withheld overall perfection from any individual, Zeuxis studied several handsome models and combined the best features of each in an image that was more perfect than the form of any actual maiden. Adalhard too was an artist who sought to realize a work that somehow went beyond nature, but in his case the objective was a reformation of the image of God in himself. To achieve this, Adalhard too used models, in his case the lives and deeds of the saints, whose examples of virtue he discerned with the mind's eye and assimilated in an effort to resemble the transcendent archetype.

Reading Gospel Parables as Jewish Literature

2018 ◽  
Vol 41 (1) ◽  
pp. 29-43
Author(s):  
R. Steven Notley
Keyword(s):  
Image Of God ◽  
Rabbinic Literature ◽  
Hellenistic Period ◽  
Jewish Literature ◽  
Humanistic Approach ◽  
Human Individual ◽  
Roman Antiquity ◽  
The Image Of God

The gospel parables are part of the broader genre of Jewish story-parables found in rabbinic literature. In the first half of this article seven preliminary characteristics of Jewish parables are presented, some of which challenge our widely accepted assumptions regarding gospel parables. For example, although there is near scholarly consensus that Jesus told his parables in Aramaic, we do not have a single Aramaic story-parable in Jewish literature in Roman antiquity. All are in Hebrew. In the second half of the study, an example is given of how twin parables are used to convey a novel idea that emerged in Judaism of the Hellenistic period – the value of the human individual because they have been created in the image of God – to demonstrate that Jesus not only embraced this innovative Jewish humanistic approach, but also how he did so with parables.

The Image of God in Man—is Woman Included?

1979 ◽  
Vol 72 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 175-206 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maryanne Cline Horowitz
Keyword(s):  
Human Dignity ◽  
Social Institutions ◽  
Image Of God ◽  
Biblical Text ◽  
Men And Women ◽  
Male And Female ◽  
The Bible ◽  
The Earth ◽  
The Image Of God

“Then God said, ‘Let us make humankind (adam) in our image, after our likeness; and let them have dominion….’ And God created humankind in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.” Gen 1:26–27 clarifies that the Hebrew termadamstands for the generic species of humanity which is composed of men and women. If there is any doubt on this interpretation, Gen 5:2–3 declares and defines again: “When God created humankind, he made him in the likeness of God. Male and female he created them, and he blessed them and named them humankind when they were created.”The “image of God in man and woman” opens us to transcend both the masculine and feminine metaphors for God which abound in the Bible and to transcend our historical selves and social institutions in recognition of the Holy One. It would appear that whatever one's interpretation of the “image” and “likeness” of God, one would have to recognize that the biblical text makes explicit that in our resemblance to the Divinity and in our dominion over the earth and animals, men and women share a common human dignity.

An Embodied Imago Dei

2017 ◽  
Vol 11 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 9-23 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jessica Joustra
Keyword(s):  
Racial Identity ◽  
Racial Differences ◽  
Social Relationships ◽  
Image Of God ◽  
Imago Dei ◽  
The Body ◽  
Important Resource ◽  
Whole Person ◽  
The Image Of God

This paper argues that Herman Bavinck’s understanding of the Imago Dei is an important resource in conversations on race. While Bavinck does not specifically discuss racial differences within the context of the Imago Dei, his theology provides valuable resources for constructive conversations on race and diversity. Bavinck’s rejection of unilateral conceptions of the Imago Dei, alongside his understanding of the whole person as the image of God, leads to an affirmation of the spiritual and physical aspects of humanity. Bavinck’s view, a necessarily embodied understanding, has an explicit bearing on our understanding of the body as well as our understanding of social relationships. The particularity and universality of humanity, grounded in Bavinck’s understanding of the Imago Dei, presents a means of holding together an affirmation of the uniqueness and value of racial identity alongside of the deep unity that exists amongst humanity that transcends race.

The Reception of Greek Science in Gregory of Nyssa's De hominis opificio

2009 ◽  
Vol 63 (1) ◽  
pp. 24-46 ◽  
Author(s):  
Susan Wessel
Keyword(s):  
Human Person ◽  
Mental States ◽  
Image Of God ◽  
The Body ◽  
Gregory Of Nyssa ◽  
Physical Conditions ◽  
De Hominis Opificio ◽  
The Image Of God ◽  
The Brain ◽  
Medical Writers

AbstractOne of the most significant philosophical questions that Gregory of Nyssa grappled with in his anthropological treatise, De hominis opificio, was how intelligible mind, the image of God that the human person contained, might possibly exist in the physically-circumscribed limits of the corporeal body. Gregory addressed this question by engaging in a medical controversy that was current in his day: where in the body was the reasoning faculty located? Against those who placed this faculty in the brain, Gregory argued that certain mental states and afflictions were due to physical conditions suffered by the body and, therefore, had nothing to do with the reasoning faculty being confined to the brain. I conclude that Gregory's selective use of the anatomical investigations of Galen and the Greek medical writers helped him construct a unified theory of the human person in which the intelligible activity of mind both interacted freely with the physical body and depended upon the body functioning naturally for the complete expression of its divine rationality.

scholarly journals Analisis Dan Evaluasi Terhadap Pandangan Thomas Aquinas Tentang Gambar Allah

2020 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 45-64
Author(s):  
Adi Putra
Keyword(s):  
Image Of God ◽  
The Body ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Severe Damage ◽  
Analysis And Evaluation ◽  
The Bible ◽  
Good State ◽  
God's Image ◽  
The Image Of God ◽  
Better Than

This study discusses the analysis and evaluation of Thomas Aquinas's view of the "image of God". Through qualitative research with a literature review approach, the following conclusions are obtained Aquinas's view of God's image is very unbiblical. Because it is more inclined to the philosophy of Plato and Aristotle. This is a characteristic of scholastic group theology. Because scholastic theologians tend to place ratios more dominant in theology than the Bible. Furthermore, the image of God carried by humans is not only in the ratio but in the totality of human existence in the earth as God's representative. The image of God in humans experiences severe damage after the fall of man in sin. The ratio is no better than the body. In other words, all parts of human beings, whether spirit, ratio, morals, body, when created in a noble or very good state. This rejects Aquinas's view that there are inferior forces. Finally, through this research, we want to stress that the image of the true God is in Christ. This has the effect that it is only through Christ that the image of God that has been badly damaged can be repaired.

scholarly journals Calvin and Later Reformed Theologians on the Image of God

2016 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 127
Author(s):  
SEUNG-GOO LEE
Keyword(s):  
Image Of God ◽  
Imago Dei ◽  
The Body ◽  
John Calvin ◽  
Human Soul ◽  
The Image Of God

Abstract: Even though John Calvin, in contrast with other theologians, presented a biblical view of the image of God, several aspects of his thought raise questions, including his language about the body as the prison of the human soul and his view of women as the image of God in a subsidiary sense. Several Reformed theologians have learned from Calvin’s understanding of the imago Dei and corrected his concept by refining it. This paper proposes a theological development in our understanding of the imago Dei.

scholarly journals Konsep Pembaruan Nous Berdasarkan Surat Roma 12:1-2

2021 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 114-130
Author(s):  
Hendi Hendi ◽  
Eka Nur Cahyani
Keyword(s):  
Text Analysis ◽  
Image Of God ◽  
The Body ◽  
Church Fathers ◽  
Semantic Approach ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
In Christ ◽  
The Mind ◽  
The Image Of God ◽  
The Church

The Concept of Renewal Nous in Christ Based on Romans 12: 1-2. This article discussing the renewal of nous in Christ through a syntactic and semantic approach to text analysis, namely the focus on the text itself, interactions with other texts and the writings of the Church Fathers. The renewal of nous is the starting point of the consequences of the journey of the believer after being baptized and becoming a Christian is to perfect the image of God in him which continues to be perfected until he becomes like Christ. There are two main points of discussion, namely the process of renewing Nous and the results of renewing Nous. The process of renewing nous is kenosis by offering the body and not becoming conformed to the world as a form of turning off the desires of the flesh so that it is no longer sold in sin. The result of renewal is having a front (the mind of Christ). Only Christians who renew their nous have the mind of Christ, guarding their souls with all vigilance to the likeness of His image. Abstrak Konsep Pembaruan Nous Di dalam Kristus Berdasarkan Surat Roma 12:1-2. Artikel ini membahas tentang pembaruan nous di dalam Kristus melalui pendekatan analisis teks secara sintaksis dan semantis yaitu fokus pada teks itu sendiri, interaksi dengan teks-teks lain dan tulisan para Bapa Gereja. Pembaruan nous adalah titik awal konsekuensi dari perjalanan orang percaya setelah dibaptis dan menjadi orang Kristen adalah menyempurnakan gambar Allah di dalam dirinya yang terus disempurnakan sampai menjadi serupa dengan Kristus. Ada 2 pokok pembahasan yaitu proses pembaruan nous dan hasil dari pembaruan nous. Proses pembaruan nous adalah kenosis dengan mempersembahkan tubuh dan tidak menjadi serupa dengan dunia sebagai wujud dari mematikan keinginan daging sehingga tidak lagi terjual di dalam dosa. Hasil dari pembaruan nous adalah memiliki fronew (pikiran Kristus). Hanya orang Kristen yang memperbarui nousnya yang memiliki pikiran Kristus, menjaga jiwanya dengan segala kewaspadaan hingga serupa gambar dan rupaNya.

Persons Together

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alan L. Mittleman
Keyword(s):  
Human Nature ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Image Of God ◽  
Jewish Tradition ◽  
The Political ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Human Flourishing ◽  
Political Dimensions ◽  
Market Relations ◽  
The Image Of God

This chapter moves into the political and economic aspects of human nature. Given scarcity and interdependence, what sense has Judaism made of the material well-being necessary for human flourishing? What are Jewish attitudes toward prosperity, market relations, labor, and leisure? What has Judaism had to say about the political dimensions of human nature? If all humans are made in the image of God, what does that original equality imply for political order, authority, and justice? In what kinds of systems can human beings best flourish? It argues that Jewish tradition shows that we act in conformity with our nature when we elevate, improve, and sanctify it. As co-creators of the world with God, we are not just the sport of our biochemistry. We are persons who can select and choose among the traits that comprise our very own natures, cultivating some and weeding out others.

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