scholarly journals The privatised self? A theological critique of the commodification of human identity in modern technological age in an African context professing Ubuntu

2019 ◽  
Vol 75 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Collium Banda
Keyword(s):  
Human Life ◽  
Modern Technology ◽  
Image Of God ◽  
Main Question ◽  
Human Identity ◽  
Self Sufficiency ◽  
African Context ◽  
Technological Age ◽  
Theological Critique ◽  
The Image Of God

Modern technology has significantly improved human life. However, its serious negative element in Africa is fostering human self-sufficiency and independence that ultimately subvert human solidarity and interdependence that are highly valued by ubuntu philosophy. The main question of this article is: From the perspective of the African communal tenet of ubuntu that places human identity within communal solidarity and interdependence, how can we theologically respond to the commodification of human identity in the modern technological age? Consequently, a description is made of how modern technological age promotes human self-sufficiency that leads to the commodification of human identity. Further, the link between the commodification of human identity and privatisation of self is described. The challenge of ubuntu philosophy expressed by the Nguni proverb umuntu ngumuntu ngabantu is unpacked, and its challenge to the human self-sufficiency promoted by the technological age is explored. The image of God is proposed as an important theological tool of responding to the commodification of human identity. Finally, some steps that the churches can use to mitigate the commodification of human identity are presented. Technology is here to stay; rather than resist it, Christians must embrace it from a perspective informed by the image of God.

Naive Experience, Religious Root Unity, and Human Identity

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-26
Author(s):  
James W. Skillen
Keyword(s):  
Cosmic Time ◽  
Image Of God ◽  
The Other ◽  
Common Denominator ◽  
Human Identity ◽  
Human Community ◽  
To Come ◽  
The Image Of God ◽  
The Way

Abstract Resolving Dooyeweerd’s temporal/supratemporal dialectic opens the way to a deeper appreciation of naive experience and human identity as the image of God. This essay makes a case for that proposition, building on my critique of Dooyeweerd’s idea of cosmic time published previously in this journal. There I hypothesized that time—temporality—should be recognized as the first modal aspect rather than as a transaspectual common denominator of the other aspects. The religious root unity of the human community is not a supratemporal, spiritual concentration point but rather humans themselves in their generations answering to God in all that they are and do. Humans are not temporal bodies directed by imperishable souls but whole persons-in-community, subject to all the modal laws and norms (including the temporal), living by faith in the true God or in false gods throughout this age, which opens to creation’s fulfillment in the age to come.

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.

Man in the Image of God: The Disagreement Between Barth and Brunner Reconsidered

1986 ◽  
Vol 39 (4) ◽  
pp. 433-459 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joan E. O'Donovan
Keyword(s):  
Human Life ◽  
Image Of God ◽  
Christian Theology ◽  
Human Being ◽  
Reproductive Process ◽  
Recent Developments ◽  
Complex Forms ◽  
The One ◽  
And Control ◽  
The Image Of God

The task of understanding the uniqueness of human being which underlies the obligations obtaining among men in distinction from all other creatures, is a perennial task of Christian theology. The one complete and final revelation of God in Jesus Christ has planted this task firmly and unalterably at the centre of theological reflection rather than at its periphery. In our generation the search for theological clarity on this matter receives heightened urgency from the pervasive assault on dignity of human being coming from recent developments in the modern sciences and technologies. This assault is conducted simultaneously in the theoretical and practical realms, armed by the increasing coalescence of the two realms in advanced scientific method.1 Today the most consequential knowledge of human life is produced by the most exact, intricate, and complex forms of manipulation and control. In the enthralling feats of biochemical technology the coming–into–being of individual human life is now the object of experimental making.2 Whetheror not our mastery of the reproductive process will ever lay bare the mystery of human generation, it certainly throws open to an unprecedented degree the question of what human being is, and by what its uniqueness is constituted.

Embracing Our Interdependence on God and Others

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jennifer Beste
Keyword(s):  
Popular Culture ◽  
Social Status ◽  
Sense Of Self ◽  
Image Of God ◽  
Committed Relationships ◽  
Self Sufficiency ◽  
Self Worth ◽  
The Image Of God ◽  
High Social Status ◽  
Shed Light

The first aspect of Johann Metz’s account of becoming fully human is to honor how deeply our sense of self and capacity to flourish depend on a network of relationships with God, others, and the rest of creation. Students’ reflections demonstrate that, in order to become fully human, we must let go of the belief fueled by popular culture that self-worth, success, and happiness result from a lifestyle marked by self-sufficiency, competition, perfectionism, wealth, materialism, and high social status. Instead, recalling our special dignity as persons created in the image of God, we must reclaim a vision of our intrinsic self-worth and embrace our interdependence on God and others. Both my students’ and Johann Metz’s analyses of Western culture shed light on why hookups appear psychologically safer and more “reasonable” than committed relationships.

Helmut Thielicke (1908-1986)

2021 ◽  
Vol 30 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Henk C. van der Meulen
Keyword(s):  
Human Life ◽  
Image Of God ◽  
Karl Barth ◽  
Paul Tillich ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Christian Mission ◽  
Short Biography ◽  
Close Relationship ◽  
Two Kingdoms ◽  
The Image Of God

Summary The German theologian Helmut Thielicke (1908-1986), whose books were translated into many languages, is still relevant, for example because of his ideas on the essence of religion, on sin and on the value of human life. After a short biography, this article discusses Thielicke’s conservatism and his relationship to the theologies of Karl Barth and Paul Tillich. Martin Luther was most important for him and the article considers three Lutheran topics at the centre of his thinking: the doctrine of the Imago Dei (the image of God), the relation between law and gospel, and the doctrine of the two kingdoms. Thielicke advocated a close relationship between Church and theology, in particular between preaching and theology, and he saw dialogue as a ‘prolegomenon phase’ of Christian mission. During the ‘roaring 60s’ he realised that societal structures do need to be considered critically.

Dancing the Animal to Open the Human: For a New Poetics of Locomotion

2010 ◽  
Vol 42 (1) ◽  
pp. 3-11 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gabriele Brandstetter
Keyword(s):  
Sigmund Freud ◽  
Image Of God ◽  
Human Identity ◽  
The Bible ◽  
Nature Versus Nurture ◽  
History Of ◽  
Self Discovery ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
The Image Of God ◽  
Made In

Animals have provided a theme and a model for movements in dance from time immemorial. But what image of man do danced animal portrayals reflect? What questions of human identity and crisis do they reveal? Do the bodies of animals provide symbolic material for the ethical, political, and aesthetic questions raised by man's mastery of nature?The exploration of the boundary between man and animal—in myths and sagas, in the earliest records of ritual and art, and in the history of knowledge—is part of the great nature-versus-nurture debate. In the Bible the relationship is clear: Adam, made in the image of God, gives the animals in Paradise their names. In this way he rules over them—but Thomas Aquinas's commentary on this biblical text makes clear that the act of naming animals in Paradise is a step toward man's experiential self-discovery. Since then the hierarchy seems to be beyond doubt.Homo sapien, as theanimal significans, is distinguished from other animals by his ability to speak, his upright gait, the use of his hands, and the capacity to use instruments and media—man as what Sigmund Freud called the “prosthetic god” (1966, 44).

Protest Views of Singer

PEDIATRICS ◽  
1984 ◽  
Vol 73 (2) ◽  
pp. 260-261
Author(s):  
ALBERT S. CALLIE
Keyword(s):  
Quality Of Life ◽  
Special Form ◽  
Human Life ◽  
Image Of God ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Philosophical Foundations ◽  
Sanctity Of Life ◽  
The Image Of God ◽  
Made In

To the Editor.— Singer, in his article "Sanctity of Life or Quality of Life?" (Pediatrics 1983;72:128-129) has rejected the "sanctity-of-life view"—as he defines it. He calls it "the obsolete and erroneous notion of the sanctity of all human life." He states that "the philosophical foundations of this view have been knocked asunder." He adds "We can no longer base our ethics on the idea that human beings are a special form of creation made in the image of God."

The Perennial Either/Or

2021 ◽  
pp. 67-92
Author(s):  
Timothy P. Jackson
Keyword(s):  
Natural Law ◽  
Human Life ◽  
Image Of God ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Moral Norms ◽  
Will To Power ◽  
Men And Women ◽  
The Image Of God ◽  
Survival Of The Fittest

I argue that the objective contrast between Judaism and Nazism is the perennial either/or between love and hate, humanity and inhumanity, a contrast that Hitler recognized in outline. The foremost natural law for Hitler was Darwinian survival of the fittest, but the basic divide between the biblical God and Hitler’s pantheism resonates through five related pairs of axiological poles and is applicable to both men and women: (1) a transcendent Creator who governs human life with love and justice versus an immanent creator that governs human life with survival of the fittest and will to power; (2) human solidarity based on sharing the image of God versus a master race destined to subordinate and/or eliminate inferiors; (3) universal moral norms binding on all human beings versus elitist privileges applicable only to the dominant few; (4) the relativizing of tribe and bodily instinct versus the valorizing of tribe; and (5) the treasuring of life, especially for the weak and vulnerable versus the celebration of death, especially for the weak and vulnerable.

The Law of Homicide

2011 ◽  
pp. 97-112
Author(s):  
David Novak
Keyword(s):  
Death Penalty ◽  
Social Life ◽  
Human Life ◽  
Image Of God ◽  
The Political ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Rabbinic Judaism ◽  
The Law ◽  
The Individual ◽  
The Image Of God

This chapter argues that the law prohibiting murder is the Noahide commandment most immediately and rationally evident. The rabbis considered its prohibition from two distinct points of view, the theological and the political. In theological terms, murder is the intentional taking of another human life, a life created in the image of God. In political terms, murder wrecks social life. Regarding murder at the individual level, the rabbis differentiated criteria for the punishment of Jews and gentiles. For Jews who commit murder, the death penalty is employed only under the strict standard of “hatra'ah,” or forewarning. Such a dispensation was not available to non-Jews. The law of homicide also deals with the morally knotty issue of abortion. Rabbinic Judaism permitted abortion only when the mother's life was in danger, but for Noahides, abortion was proscribed in every case.

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