‘What Am I in a Boundless Creation?’

2014 ◽  
Vol 22 (1) ◽  
pp. 34-50
Author(s):  
Hilary Marlow
Keyword(s):  
Life Forms ◽  
Image Of God ◽  
Ecological Perspective ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Ethical Challenges ◽  
Environmental Pressures ◽  
Ben Sira ◽  
The Face ◽  
The Creation ◽  
The Image Of God

Drawing on insights from the field of ‘ecocriticism’ within literary studies, this article examines the creation poem of Ben Sira (16.26-17.14) from an ecological perspective. The text is significant for such a purpose because of its reuse of the Genesis creation accounts, in particular the notion of human beings as the image of God and with dominion over creation, which has caused some critics to label the biblical accounts as exploitatively anthropocentric. Preceding sections of Sirach include discussion of human significance ‘in a boundless creation’ and human free will and moral responsibility, and these themes are developed in the poem itself. The poem’s description of the creation of humankind suggests both human finitude, a characteristic shared with other life forms, and the uniqueness of the divine image in human beings. These characteristics are set within the context of the cosmos as a stable and ordered whole, obedient to God, and of the responsibilities stipulated in the Torah to deal rightly with one’s neighbour. Reading this text from an ecological perspective invites recognition of the ambiguity of human place in the world, transient yet earth-changing, and of the ethical challenges in caring for global neighbours in the face of growing environmental pressures.


scholarly journals Response to Melissa Raphael

2016 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 23-25
Author(s):  
Ruth Illman
Keyword(s):  
Digital Media ◽  
Image Of God ◽  
Human Face ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Jewish Art ◽  
Contemporary Issue ◽  
The Face ◽  
The Creation ◽  
The Image Of God ◽  
Ethical Demand

A response to Melissa Raphael’s article ‘The creation of beauty by its destruction: the idoloclastic aesthetic in modern and contemporary Jewish art’. Key themes discussed include the notion of human beings as created in the image of God, Levinas’s understanding of the face and its ethical demand as well as the contemporary issue of the commodification of the human face in digital media.

scholarly journals Reaching Invariables: Between Theology, Anthropology and Christology

2016 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
pp. 372-390
Author(s):  
Ulrike Swoboda
Keyword(s):  
Reproductive Technologies ◽  
Image Of God ◽  
Ethical Challenges ◽  
Christian Anthropology ◽  
Protestant Churches ◽  
The Creation ◽  
The Image Of God

Abstract The article deals with pictures of God and humans in relation to Art (Artificial Reproductive Technologies). Although sexuality and Art are connected issues the sexual attribute of humans is somehow missing in documents of protestant churches trying to define Christian anthropology. The purpose of this article is to compare two documents of two member churches of Cpce (Community of Protestant Churches in Europe) in respect of Gen 1,26–27 (the creation of men in the image of God) while dealing with the ethical challenges of Art.

scholarly journals Interpreting socio-economic rights - transforming South African society

2017 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 54
Author(s):  
Linda Jansen Van Rensburg
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
South African ◽  
Image Of God ◽  
Political Rights ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
African Society ◽  
Economic Rights ◽  
South African Society ◽  
The Face ◽  
The Image Of God

Honourable Justices, Ladies and Gentlemen, before I embark on my paper I would like to quote the following words of Archbishop Desmond Tutu1 who describes human rights as "God-given, there simply and solely because we are human beings".  He further notes that: they were universal – everyone, just everyone whoever they might be, whether rich or poor, learned or ignorant, beautiful or ugly, black or white, man or woman, by the fact of being a human being had these rights. …. As a Christian I would add that each person was of infinite value because everyone had been created in the image of God.  Each one was a God carrier and to treat any such person as if they were less than this was blasphemous, a spitting in the face of God.2 Human Rights and the continuous transformation thereof in a Bill of fundamental enforceable rights have changed the face of South African society forever.  These rights guarantee each citizen equality, freedom and human dignity irrespective of race, colour, sex and the fact that they may be rich or poor.  The Constitution contains a Bill of Rights that addresses both civil and political rights as well as socio-economic rights.  Socio-economic rights in laymen's terms are rights placing an obligation on the state to act positively in favor of its citizens. These rights are also known as second generation -, welfare – or (and) red rights. They are specifically aimed at realizing the rights to access to housing, health-care, sufficient food and water, and social security of those in need.  

scholarly journals The Doctrine of Imago Dei and the Challenge of Euthanasia

2020 ◽  
pp. 158-168 ◽  
Author(s):  
Isaac Boaheng
Keyword(s):  
Human Life ◽  
Image Of God ◽  
Imago Dei ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Assisted Death ◽  
Cultural Worldview ◽  
Contextual Framework ◽  
The Face ◽  
The Image Of God

The issue of acceptance of euthanasia (assisted death) in the face of affirming human dignity as the preservation of the image of God in human beings is fiercely debated over the world. Different (Christian and non-Christian) ethicists hold different positions in the debate. Some of the key questions in the debate include how moral is it to legalize euthanasia in the face of the doctrine of Imago Dei? Should the quality of a person’s life overrule the sanctity of human life? This paper examines the arguments for and against the legalization of euthanasia and then considers how the doctrine of the Imago Dei should inform one’s decision to accept or reject euthanasia. With the African religio-cultural worldview as a contextual framework, the study contends that even though the preservation of physical life is not the ultimate goal of Christianity (since physical death is inevitable), human life should not be shortened deliberately for any reason. Therefore, it is morally wrong to take anybody’s life under any circumstance.

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.

Gandhian Method of Conflict Resolution: Perception of Educated Youths

2017 ◽  
Vol 1 (6) ◽  
pp. 1 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dr. P. K. Kar
Keyword(s):  
Conflict Resolution ◽  
Image Of God ◽  
Integral Approach ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Life Itself ◽  
The Image Of God ◽  
Negative Concept

Gandhiji’s method of conflict resolution was based on truth and non-violence. Truth was for him the image of God. He did not believe in personal God. For Gandhi truth is God and God is truth. Life is a laboratory where experiments are carried on. That is why he named his autobiography “My Experiment with Truth”, without these experiments truth cannot be achieved. According to Gandhi, the sayings of a pure soul which possesses nonviolence, non-stealing, true speech, celibacy and non-possession is truth. The truth of Gandhiji was not confined to any country or community. In other words , his religion had no geographical limits. His patriotism was not different from the service of human beings but was its part and parcel(Mishra:102). Gandhiji developed an integral approach and perspective to the concept of life itself on the basis of experience and experiments. His ideas ,which came to be known to be his philosophy, were a part of his relentless search for truth(Iyer:270). The realization of this truth is possible only with the help of non-violence The negative concept of Ahimsa presupposes the absence of selfishness, jealousy and anger, but the positive conception of ahimsa demands the qualities of love ,liberalism, patience, resistance of injustice, and brutal force.

scholarly journals COVID-19 in the International Year of Plant Health

2022 ◽  
Vol 39 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
José Jorge Gutiérrez-Samperio
Keyword(s):  
Life Forms ◽  
Plant Health ◽  
World Health ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Pests And Diseases ◽  
The Bible ◽  
United Nations General ◽  
The World ◽  
The Face ◽  
Health Organization

<p>Pests, in their broad sense, have played an important part in the history of humankind. We could say that humans, crops and pests have walked together through life. Codices, glyphs, paintings and countless ancient documents, including the Bible and the Koran, bear witness to this. Humanity has been attacked by its own diseases, but also by those that limit them from obtaining food and deteriorate the environment. COVID-19, which is now troubling us and was declared a pandemic by the World Health Organization in March of 2020, became a part of the list of experiences we have suffered in the past, with pests or epidemics that caused millions of deaths by diseases or famines. It is paradoxical that this health contingency occurs when the United Nations General Assembly, on December 20th, 2018, in its resolution A/RES/73/252 decides to declare 2020 the International Year of Plant Health in order to “highlight the importance of plant health to improve food security, protect the environment and biodiversity and boost economic development” according to the pronouncement by the FAO. For the first time, in an era with great technological and scientific breakthroughs, humanity was aware of its vulnerability against the inevitable evolution of life forms in the face of dilemmas global impact caused by human beings. Thus, the pest or parasite makes its own declaration of existential preeminence through SARS-CoV-2 to remind us that the health of humans or plants is the essence of life and its continuity. But perhaps absolute health is not enough. It is necessary to find a balance in a world overwhelmed by giving so much in return for almost nothing to everyone living on it. If the sensor of our anthropocentric intervention of the world is climate change, then biological chaos is a masterpiece. The reemergence of pests and diseases considered eradicated, or those of zoonotic origin that had never accompanied our existence is a surreal dystopia that we will never be able to deny again.</p>

scholarly journals Karl Barth’s male-female order: A kingpin of dogmatic disparity

2007 ◽  
Vol 63 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Yolanda Dreyer
Keyword(s):  
Gender Disparity ◽  
Image Of God ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Reformed Theology ◽  
Gender Perspective ◽  
Early Christian ◽  
The Enlightenment ◽  
Genesis 1 ◽  
Gender Perspectives ◽  
The Image Of God

Karl Barth’s gender perspective is often analysed with reference to his so-called “theoethics” or “creational theology”. This perspective perpetuates an asymmetry in gender relations that was prevalent in Biblical times, throughout Christianity and to some extent still is visible today. He based his view on the subordination of women on an exegesis of Genesis 1:27 as “intertext” of Ephesians 5:22-23. Barth’s asymmetrical gender perspective is a product of his embedment in Western Christian tradition which in turn, is rooted in early Christian patriarchal theology. The aim of this article is to focus on Barth’s ontological reframing of the traditional understanding of the Biblical notion of human beings as created in the “image of God”. The article consists of four sections: (a) Luther’s and Calvin’s gender perspectives; (b) the Enlightenment failure to achieve emancipation; (c) gender disparity in Reformed theology; and (d) a feminist alternative.

scholarly journals The use of Imago Dei as a pastoral healing vision against women killings in the South African context

2012 ◽  
Vol 33 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Elijah M. Baloyi
Keyword(s):  
South African ◽  
Image Of God ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Gender Based Violence ◽  
Images Of God ◽  
The Status ◽  
African Context ◽  
The Government ◽  
Gender Based ◽  
The Image Of God

The exploitation and killings of women in South Africa are a concern not only for the government, but also for pastoral caregivers as well. Although the government has introduced institutions like the Commission for Gender Equality with responsibilities to ensure that there is equality between genders, it seems that the supposed patriarchal masculine superiority continues to demonstrate its dominance through the abuse, as well as the killings of women. Assigning women to the status of secondary citizens who are tortured and exposed to gender-based violence is not only unconstitutional, but also biblically wrong, as we can see from the biblical message of the creation of human beings. The goal of this article is to use the premise of �the image of God� to argue that women also are created in the image of God and hence they are worthy to be treated as such, from sexual harassment, sexual abuse and violence to murder. This is my personal observation as women of this country are being killed by their husbands and boyfriends. This article will use case studies to argue that women (just like men) deserve, as images of God, to live freely without fear of being killed by their husbands and boyfriends for whatever wrongdoing.

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