IMAGO DEI, DUALISM, AND EVOLUTION: A PHILOSOPHICAL DEFENSE OF THE STRUCTURAL IMAGE OF GOD

Zygon® ◽  
2014 ◽  
Vol 49 (1) ◽  
pp. 101-120 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aku Visala
Keyword(s):  
Image Of God ◽  
Imago Dei ◽  
Structural Image

scholarly journals The Image of God in Reformed Orthodoxy. Soundings in the Development of an Anthropological Key Concept

Perichoresis ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 14 (3) ◽  
pp. 81-96
Author(s):  
Gijsbert van den Brink ◽  
Aza Goudriaan
Keyword(s):  
Natural Law ◽  
Theological Anthropology ◽  
Image Of God ◽  
Imago Dei ◽  
Human Being ◽  
Close Proximity ◽  
The Image Of God

Abstract One of the less well-researched areas in the recent renaissance of the study of Reformed orthodoxy is anthropology. In this contribution, we investigate a core topic of Reformed orthodox theological anthropology, viz. its treatment of the human being as created in the image of God. First, we analyze the locus of the imago Dei in the Leiden Synopsis Purioris Theologiae (1625). Second, we highlight some shifts of emphasis in Reformed orthodox treatments of this topic in response to the budding Cartesianism. In particular, the close proximity of the unfallen human being and God was carefully delineated as a result of Descartes’s positing of a univocal correspondence between God and man; and the Cartesian suggestion that original righteousness functioned as a barrier for certain natural impulses, was rejected. Third, we show how, in response to the denial of this connection, the image of God was explicitly related to the concept of natural law. Tying in with similar findings on other loci, we conclude that Reformed orthodox thought on the imago Dei exhibits a variegated pattern of extensions, qualifications, and adjustments of earlier accounts within a clearly discernable overall continuity.

scholarly journals Formed in the Image of God: The Theological Status of Neanderthals

2017 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Megan Stueve
Keyword(s):  
Social Networking ◽  
Homo Sapiens ◽  
Image Of God ◽  
Imago Dei ◽  
Archaeological Record ◽  
Homo Neanderthalensis ◽  
God's Image ◽  
Adaptive Nature ◽  
The Image Of God

A thorough examination of the various theological interpretations of imago Dei shows that Homo sapiens are not the only species to be created in the image of God.  While maintaining their uniqueness in the eyes of the Lord, Homo sapiens also share this gift with another species, Homo neanderthalensis.  The archaeological record proves that Neanderthals qualify for imago Dei under each of the four main interpretations of the biblical term.   Based on their rationality and adaptive nature, their compassion through use of medicine, their social networking and their symbolic use of art, it can be concluded that Neanderthals were also created in God’s image. 

scholarly journals Die Heidelbergse Kategismus oor die mens as beeld van God

2013 ◽  
Vol 47 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Gabriël M.J. Van Wyk
Keyword(s):  
Image Of God ◽  
Imago Dei ◽  
Reformed Theology ◽  
Genesis 1 ◽  
Critical Interpretation ◽  
The Image Of God

Hierdie artikel fokus op relevante konfessionele standpunte oor die tema van imago Dei in die reformatoriese en voor-reformatoriese teologie wat as historiese en sistematiese kontekstualisering dien vir die daaropvolgende uitleg van die tema soos wat dit in die Heidelbergse Kategismus hanteer word. ’n Bondige bespreking van die histories-kritiese uitleg van Genesis 1:26–27 word aan die orde gestel om as oorgang te dien tot ’n kritiese waardering van die Kategismus vanuit die perspektief van die eietydse teologie. Die uitleg van Genesis 1:26–27 dien as die vernaamste impuls om die tema in die eietydse teologie onbevange en los van die uitsluitende dwang van tradisionele konfessionele geskille aan die orde te stel, maar met inagneming van ’n ryke teologiese tradisie. In wese is die betoog dat die mens as beeld van God geroepe is om God se heerlikheid en eer op aarde uit te dra en hierdie opvatting word ook in die Heidelbergse Kategismus teruggevind.This article focuses on the relevant confessional statements about the theme imago Dei in reformed- and pre-reformed theology that served as the historical and systematic contextualisation of the subsequent interpretation of the theme as it is treated in the Heidelberg Catechism. A concise discussion of the historical-critical interpretation of Genesis 1:26–27 follows in order to serve as a transition to the critical appreciation of the Catechism from the perspective of contemporary theology. The interpretation of Genesis 1:26–27 served as the main impetus for the open-minded discussion of the theme in contemporary theology, apart from the exclusive constraints of the traditional confessional disputes, but with appreciative consideration for our rich theological tradition. In essence, the author argues that all people, because they are created in the image of God, are called upon to glorify God on earth and that this belief is already formulated in the Heidelberg Catechism.

L’antropologia agostiniana dell’imago Dei. Nota di aggiornamento della ricerca

Augustinianum ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 60 (2) ◽  
pp. 573-586
Author(s):  
Vittorino Grossi ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Image Of God ◽  
Imago Dei ◽  
Human Race ◽  
Original State ◽  
Primary Element ◽  
The Image Of God

In Augustinian reflection, the main problem of the imago Dei is the renewal of its image through being healed from lust, so as to regain the ordo amoris destroyed by sin. Current research investigates what the gratia Christi and charity contribute to the renewal of the image of God, at the level of a marriage bond that human race was given as part of the act of creation. This emerges as a primary element, both in the original state of man and in his recovery through the gratia Christi.

The imago Dei as a Refractive Symbol

2020 ◽  
pp. 62-85
Author(s):  
Adam Pryor
Keyword(s):  
Image Of God ◽  
Imago Dei ◽  
Living Systems ◽  
Individual Organism ◽  
Creative Power ◽  
The Image Of God ◽  
Power Of God

This chapter focuses on two key themes constructive accounts of the imago Dei must address: the continuing relevance of the image/likeness distinction beyond its original exegetical framing and how what we mean by ‘image’ might be better theologically rendered as ‘symbol.’ Situating the doctrine in the wider biblical cosmogony from which it arises, while focusing on three historical theologians—Irenaeus, Augustine, and Schleiermacher—the chapter builds a case for what constitute inescapable elements of this symbol. Building on this historical recapitulation, it is argued that to be the image of God is to be a symbol of God: one who refracts the creative power of God evidenced in cosmogonies to facilitate the flourishing intra-action of living systems with the habitable environment. The consequence of this approach is that to be the imago Dei is not something properly ascribed to any individual organism as a marker of distinctiveness, but it describes a particular type of astrobiological intra-action that extends the creative power of the divine as a refraction, not merely a reflection.

Imago Dei

2019 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 147-177
Author(s):  
Weldemina Yudit Tiwery
Keyword(s):  
Human Trafficking ◽  
Image Of God ◽  
Imago Dei ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Scriptural Interpretation ◽  
Female Victims ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
Genesis 1 ◽  
Current Context ◽  
God's Image

This paper examines the close connection between the domain of biblical interpretation and the communal sphere, which is comprised of living data that serves as starting point for scriptural interpretation. The yield of such interpretations serves as an important contribution for a church seeking proactively to address and resolve various urgent concerns in the current context. This essay considers one such crisis needing to be addressed: the issue of human trafficking in East Nusa Tenggara, with specific regard to how female victims of human trafficking have been torn apart by the variegated forms of oppression they have undergone. By looking to Genesis 1:26-27, with its emphasis on the concept of imago Dei, this paper demonstrates just how useful is a postcolonial approach to reading scripture, namely in the case of female victims who are reconsidering the manner in which they regard and understand themselves; no less than are men, women too are created in the image of God and, therefore, have in the sight of God an equality and parity of status with men. Equality and parity become a strong foundation upon which to resist every effort to debase the dignity and value of women. Furthermore, this article highlights the role of the community, namely as an agential collective set to oppose any attempt to rob fellow human beings of their claim, namely as living persons created according to God’s image.

Creata ad Imaginem Dei, Licet Secundo Gradu: Woman as the Image of God According to John Calvin

1988 ◽  
Vol 81 (2) ◽  
pp. 125-143 ◽  
Author(s):  
John L. Thompson
Keyword(s):  
Image Of God ◽  
Imago Dei ◽  
John Calvin ◽  
Rorschach Test ◽  
Adam And Eve ◽  
Ink Blot ◽  
The Image Of God

To say that Adam and Eve were created in the image of God ought to answer a host of questions, but the historian of exegesis finds that it raises more questions than it answers, since any given interpretation of the image of God reveals as much about the interpreter as it does about the image itself. It would be a bit melodramatic to describe Gen 1:26 as an exegetical Rorschach test, a literary “ink blot” which means only what the interpreter thinks it means. But Gen 1:26 does, in fact, serve usefully as a “weathervane.’ An interpreter's explanation of the imago dei often points to his or her larger theological agenda.

Embodied, Relational, Desiring, Vulnerable – Reconsidering Imago Dei

2020 ◽  
Vol 62 (3) ◽  
pp. 267-294
Author(s):  
Jan-Olav Henriksen
Keyword(s):  
Jesus Christ ◽  
Image Of God ◽  
Imago Dei ◽  
Human Being ◽  
Fundamental Representation ◽  
Human Flourishing ◽  
Internal Connection ◽  
To Come ◽  
Basic Features

SummaryGod is always experienced in the mode of representations. The fundamental representation of God is Jesus Christ, the true image of God. In order to specify this designation further, with reference to all of humanity, it is suggested that the basic features of such representation can be identified in the features of desire and vulnerability, as manifestations of interconnectedness and dependence. These features are not only expressing themselves as that with which humans need to come to terms, but they also manifest the deeply relational character of humanity and its internal connection to goodness. They also make it possible to specify further how God and the human being are intrinsically connected, and make it possible to see why love is so important in the realization of imago Dei: It is love that secures that both desire and vulnerability can contribute to human flourishing, and thus precludes sin from manifesting itself.

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