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 Imago Dei og kroppsliggjort væren: En funksjonshemmingsteologi i lys av Thomas Aquinas

2020 ◽  
pp. 269-286
Author(s):  
Therese Marie Ignacio Bjørnaas
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Immanuel Kant ◽  
Thomas Aquinas ◽  
Image Of God ◽  
Imago Dei ◽  
Christian Theology ◽  
Augustine Of Hippo ◽  
God's Image ◽  
God's Grace ◽  
The Image Of God

Theologians and philosophers have historically privileged the faculty of rationality in their exegesis of what it means to be created in the image of God. They have argued that we were made in God’s image when we were endowed with a rational soul. This argument is contested by contemporary disability theologians. They argue that by equating the imago Dei with the faculty of rationality Christian theology effectively strips people with cognitive disabilities of their human rights. It justifies elevating the cognitively able over the cognitively disabled in the same way that it justifies elevating the human species over other species. In this article, I will first show that the contemporary Western conviction that ability and independence are normal while disability and dependence are deviant owes much to definitions of the human first proposed by Augustine of Hippo, Thomas Aquinas, and Immanuel Kant. I will then propose that Aquinas himself offers us a way out of these destructive binarisms. He defines the imago Dei as an embodied soul, an imperfectly intelligent substance that can fulfill its destiny only if it receives the support of society and the intervention of God’s grace. Aquinas’s theology of embodiment does not merely expose false assumptions about ability and disability; it compels us to appreciate the radical dependency and vulnerability of human nature.

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 The Understanding of God’s Image by Anthony Hoekema

2019 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 2084-2089
Author(s):  
Reymand Hutabarat ◽  
Franklin Hutabarat ◽  
Deanna Beryl Majilang
Keyword(s):  
Distinctive Feature ◽  
Image Of God ◽  
Reformed Theology ◽  
The Core ◽  
Christian Anthropology ◽  
The Bible ◽  
Functional Aspects ◽  
The Future ◽  
God's Image ◽  
The Image Of God

Introduction : Anthony Hoekema was active in his works as a preacher, teacher, and writer.[1] He is one of the most outstanding reformed theologians which authored several books such as Created in God’s Image, The Four Major Cults, What About Tongue-Speaking? The Bible and the Future, and Saved By Grace.   Method : Hoekema’s theology as a whole is a reformed theology. The core and the very foundation of reformed theology is the sovereignty of God. Hoekema sees that the creation of man in God’s image is “the most distinctive feature of a biblical understanding of man.” This is why he understands that “the concept of the image of God is the heart of Christian anthropology.”   Result & Discussion : His concept of the image of God in man is examined in this section, which is divided into the following five parts: the meaning of being created in the image of God, the structural and functional aspects of God’s image, Jesus as the true image of God, the image of God in man’s threefold relationship, and the image of God in four different stages.    

scholarly journals Synthetic biology ethically evaluated: The creating God and co-creating human

2014 ◽  
Vol 48 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Riaan Rheeder
Keyword(s):  
Synthetic Biology ◽  
Image Of God ◽  
Human Being ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Absolute Value ◽  
God's Image ◽  
The One ◽  
Relationship Of ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
The Image Of God

God did not create once and then put an end to it. Testimony from Scripture shows that God continuously establishes or creates new things. Humans can therefore expect to always see and experience new things in creation. With this pattern of reasoning, one can anticipate that the human being as image of God will continuously establish new things in history. Although nature has value, it does not have absolute value and therefore it can be synthesised responsibly. The thought that humans are stewards of God is no longer adequate to, theologically put into words, the relationship human beings have with nature. New biotechnological developments ask for different answers from Scripture. Several ethicists are of the opinion that the theological construction of humans and created co-creators can help found the relationship of the human being to nature. Humans developed as God’s image evolutionary. On the one hand, this means humans themselves are a product of nature. On the other hand, the fact that humans are the image of God is also an ethical call that humans, like God, have to develop and create new things throughout history. Synthetic biology can be evaluated as technology that is possible, because humans are the image of God. However, it should, without a doubt, be executed responsibly.Sintetiese biologie eties geëvalueer: Die skeppende God en medeskeppende mens. God het nie net eenmaal geskep en daar gestop nie. Uit Skrifgetuienisse kan afgelei word dat God voortdurend nuwe dinge tot stand bring of skep. Daarom kan die mens verwag om gedurig nuwe dinge in die skepping te sien en te beleef. Hiermee saam kan verwag word dat die mens as beeld van God voortdurend nuwe dinge in die geskiedenis tot stand sal bring. Alhoewel die natuur waarde het, het dit nie absolute waarde nie en kan dus verantwoordelik gesintetiseer word. Die gedagte dat die mens rentmeester van God is, is nie meer voldoende om die mens se verhouding tot die natuur teologies te verwoord nie. Nuwe biotegnologiese ontwikkelinge vra na ander antwoorde vanuit die Skrif. Verskeie etici is van mening dat die teologiese konstruksie van die mens as geskepte medeskepper kan help om die mens se verhouding tot die natuur te begrond. Die mens het deur ’n evolusionêre proses tot God se beeld ontwikkel. Aan die een kant beteken dit dat die mens self ’n produk van die natuur is. Aan die ander kant is beeldskap ook ’n etiese oproep dat die mens, soos God, nuwe dinge in die geskiedenis moet ontwikkel en skep. Sintetiese biologie kan gesien word as tegnologie wat moontlik is omdat die mens na die beeld van God geskape is. Sonder twyfel moet sintetiese biologie egter verantwoordelik beoefen word.

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.

scholarly journals Created in the image of God and sexuality in early-Jewish writings

2017 ◽  
Vol 73 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ernest Van Eck
Keyword(s):  
Sexual Orientation ◽  
Image Of God ◽  
Same Sex ◽  
God's Image ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
The Image Of God ◽  
Point Of Departure

This article pays tribute to the contribution made by Yolanda Dreyer regarding critique on the prevalence of patriarchy in society, as well as her defence of homosexuality as a normal sexual orientation. Taking as point of departure her work on the woman as created in God’s image, it is argued that understanding the metaphor ‘created in God’s image’ as referring to rule over all, and not as created as man and woman, has important implications for the relationship between man and woman, as well as the normalisation of relationships between the same sex.

scholarly journals The The Understanding of the Image of God in the Early and Medieval Church History

2021 ◽  
Vol 1 (6) ◽  
pp. 5-11
Author(s):  
Franklin Hutabarat ◽  
Reymand Hutabarat ◽  
Deanna Beryl Majilang
Keyword(s):  
Church History ◽  
Image Of God ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Early Church ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Church Fathers ◽  
The Bible ◽  
Medieval Church ◽  
God's Image ◽  
The Image Of God

It is only in the Bible whereby precise details in regards to humanity's origin from the conservative Christian point of view, are recorded. The Bible clearly states that in God's image, man was made (Gen 1:27). This statement reflects the belief that the essence of human beings was created in the likeness of God, and demonstrated that man did not merely turn out to be in God's image but was carefully crafted to be so. However, despite the exalted position of man among creatures, theologians still have questions and debates about the image of God is, and what does it consists of. Many scholars have wrestled with the precise sense of the image of God from the time of the Early Church until the Medieval Era. This research uses qualitative method, whereby the early works of the fathers of the medieval church are analyzed. The research is carried out on a descriptive basis. It is the aim of this research to offer a structural and systematic understanding of the image of God, based on the perception of the early church and medieval church fathers. As a result, a conclusion is formed.

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