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 HOMO CULTURALIS VERSUS CULTURA ANIMI

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 51-58
Author(s):  
Patrik Maturkanič ◽  
Ivana Tomanova Cergetova ◽  
Peter Kondrla ◽  
Viktoria Kurilenko ◽  
Jose Garcia Martin
Keyword(s):  
Two Dimensions ◽  
Image Of God ◽  
Fundamental Aspect ◽  
Cultural Dimension ◽  
Human Being ◽  
Human Thinking ◽  
Level Of Thinking ◽  
Relationship Of ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
The Image Of God

Aim. Presented study deals with the cultural dimension. It analyses external and internal human activities, that are creating the polarity develop values. The aim of the study is to clarify and connect the theoretical level of thinking with the reality of life practice, which shows the true meaning of human existence. Concept. The study highlights the importance of human thinking and decision making. Through the actions, one develops and creates the values of human dignity. The study focuses on the importance of two dimensions (horizontal and vertical dimensions of man), the relationship of man to God. Human culture includes behavior that can be learned and is shaped by the environment in which one lives. This contribution is  to clarify a culture of thinking that is a reflection of the soul of human being. Since culture is not only a matter of individual dispositions but also of social reality, it is right to underline this dual aspect of the plurality dimension (Binetti et al., 2021).             Conclusion. The study identifies a fundamental aspect of the culture's values, which show the potential of the soul of every human being. Human values influence thinking and actions of human being, thus creating the image of God.

scholarly journals Om forholdet mellem skabelse og syndefald hos Grundtvig og Luther

2003 ◽  
Vol 54 (1) ◽  
pp. 88-125
Author(s):  
Anja Stokholm
Keyword(s):  
Human Life ◽  
Image Of God ◽  
Human Being ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Proper Form ◽  
The World ◽  
Natural Man ◽  
The Status ◽  
The One ◽  
The Image Of God

Om forholdet mellem skabelse og syndefald hos Grundtvig og Luther[Grundtvig and Luther: on the Relationship Between Creation and Fall]By Anja StokholmTheologically speaking, two circumstances determine human life: on the one side, Creation and the creativity of God, on the other the Fall of Man and human sinfulness. Because God’s good creation is continuous, a positive understanding of the status and existence of natural Man is possible; but because Man is fallen and sin destroys creation, a negative perception of human life must also be acknowledged. Useful comparison may be made between the ideas of Grundtvig and Luther on this ambiguous relationship. One may ask of each: was the image of God in Man destroyed at the Fall or does the likeness of God remain a reality even in the fallen human being? Is it possible for natural Man to understand the Gospel and the Christian life? Can the understanding of the Gospels only have a negative character because it is reached from out of consciousness of sin; or can this understanding have a positive character because, sin notwithstanding, momentary experiencing of the truth of the Gospels may be granted? Are the views of Grundtvig and Luther too divergent to be reconciled?Regin Prenter maintained that their two positions closely corresponded, arguing that Grundtvig consistently developed Luther’s reformatory principles rejecting the possibility of human beings gaining justice or salvation by their own merit, and thereby also accepted that only in consciousness of the fallen condition of the world, the subverted nature of humanity, and sin, could the Gospel’s promises be received. Prenter’s harmonisation of Grundtvig and Luther, however, gives insufficient weight to the differences. Luther contends that the image of God in Man is lost, that Man is wholly sinful and unjustified; that just as inward spirit and outward flesh are discrete and cannot mix so are the justified and the unjustified states; and it follows that the unjustified human being is to be perceived a flesh alone. In so far as continuous creation, and manifestations of the positive such as the human capacity to recognise and comply with the demands of the law, are to be found in the world, these arise not from the inner resources of human beings but from the unmerited gift of God.Grundtvig too emphasises the seriousness and destructive nature of sin; but he insists that a remnant of the image of God persists in humanity - for instance in Man’s capacity to live in faith, hope and love, and to nurture the Word (that is, speech); and that its manifestation is a token of God’s continuing, and good, creation. Crucially important is Grundtvig’s conception that the image of God is located in the human heart, for this implies that goodness and the positive phenomena of creation express human life and nature in their true and proper form, and thus Grundtvig is able to identify natural human life, governed by the heart, as a positive context within which the word of the Gospel is indeed comprehensible. In differentiation, then, from Luther, Grundtvig maintains that natural Man also has a spirit and can be the agent of love and of goodness.Is this position incompatible with Luther’s doctrine on justification? Does the notion of goodness imply that Man can and must contribute to his own salvation? Grundtvig is careful to maintain that positive qualities such as love and goodness are a creation of God in Man, not an autonomous human achievement; and that the grace of God’s continuing creation in Man does not render salvation unnecessary. Man still needs the redeeming creation of Christ.Thus there are considerable differences between Grundtvig and Luther; but Grundtvig’s ideas are to be seen as a renewal and an independent continuation of Luther’s principal doctrine: that God alone can accomplish salvation. Yet acknowledgement and awareness of the differences, which arise in part through the different times and circumstances in which these independent thinkers worked, is conducive to a productive dialogue between the two.

Knowing and Willing in Freedom

2020 ◽  
pp. 45-74
Author(s):  
Richard A. Muller
Keyword(s):  
Image Of God ◽  
Human Freedom ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Faculty Psychology ◽  
The Reformation ◽  
History Of ◽  
Voluntary Choice ◽  
Relationship Of ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
The Image Of God

Perkins’ basic understanding of human freedom drew on the resources of earlier English and continental Protestant thought, including the work of thinkers like Jerome Zanchi and Zacharias Ursinus. Early modern Reformed writers, whether of the Reformation or of the era of orthodoxy, were participants in a long history of conversation and debate over the nature of voluntary choice. This debate was rooted in theological treatments of grace and freedom extending back into the patristic era. Like the earlier English and continental Protestant thinkers, Perkins carefully worked through the traditional faculty psychology, in order to counter the accusation of Roman Catholic polemicists that Reformed theology utterly denied human freedom and responsibility. From the outset, Perkins’ approach rested on an analysis of the interrelationship of intellect and will, the creation of human beings in the image of God, and the relationship of human to divine willing.

Pensare Dio. Spunti di riflessione in dialogo con Anca Vasiliu

Elenchos ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 41 (1) ◽  
pp. 181-194
Author(s):  
Angela Longo
Keyword(s):  
Late Antiquity ◽  
Human Being ◽  
Common Thread ◽  
Critical Issues ◽  
Relevant Topic ◽  
The Common ◽  
The One ◽  
Relationship Of ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
The Trinity

AbstractThe following work features elements to ponder and an in-depth explanation taken on the Anca Vasiliu’s study about the possibilities and ways of thinking of God by a rational entity, such as the human being. This is an ever relevant topic that, however, takes place in relation to Platonic authors and texts, especially in Late Antiquity. The common thread is that the human being is a God’s creature who resembles him and who is image of. Nevertheless, this also applies within the Christian Trinity according to which, not without problems, the Son is the image of the Father. Lastly, also the relationship of the Spirit with the Father and the Son, always within the Trinity, can be considered as a relationship of similarity, but again not without critical issues between the similarity of attributes, on the one hand, and the identity of nature, on the other.

scholarly journals Elementos de uma antropologia religiosa a partir do candomblé

2018 ◽  
Vol 74 (296) ◽  
pp. 847-866
Author(s):  
Volney José Berkenbrock
Keyword(s):  
Human Being ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Western Thought ◽  
Relationship Of ◽  
The Relationship

Na tradição do pensamento ocidental, as diversas ciências que lidam com o ser humano – da filosofia à psicologia, da teologia à medicina – são herdeiras de um conceito dualista: matéria-espírito; corpo-alma; físico-psíquico. O modo de pensar yorubano, que chegou ao Brasil pelos escravos, e sobreviveu, sobretudo na religião do Candomblé, tem um conceito diverso deste dualista. O ser humano é multidimensional e constitui-se a partir da relação harmônica entre as diversas dimensões. Quais são estas dimensões e como elas concorrem para a composição de um conceito de ser humano serão o objeto das considerações desta contribuição.Abstract: In the tradition of Western thought, the various sciences that deal with human beings - from philosophy to psychology, from theology to medicine - are heirs of a dualistic concept: matter-spirit; body-soul; physical-psychic. The thinking of yoruba-people, who arrived in Brazil by slaves, and survived, especially in religion Candomble, have a different concept of this dualistic. The human being is multidimensional and is constituted by the relationship of various dimensions. What are these dimensions and how they contribute to the composition of a concept of human being will be the object of consideration of this contribution.Keywords: Human being. Candomblé. Religious anthropology. 

scholarly journals MAN AND HIS QUALITY AS AN IMAGE OF GOD IN PATRISTIC THINKING

2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (14) ◽  
pp. 92-97
Author(s):  
Edvica POPA ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Human Nature ◽  
Holy Spirit ◽  
Image Of God ◽  
Human Being ◽  
Church Fathers ◽  
Patristic Literature ◽  
The Holy Spirit ◽  
The One ◽  
The Image Of God ◽  
The Church

The notion of divine image is generously described by the patristic literature, each of the authors trying to identify the content of this special characteristic of human being, considered (in different positions) the defining element of the created rational being, indicating the possibility of opening to God not through something external, but from the inside of the human being. Since when they speak of God, the Church Fathers do not consider the reality of the one being, but that of the three persons, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, as well as when the question of the image of God is raised, they emphasize that this the image by which human nature is conformed is the image of the Son, or the image of the Word. In this article I set out to draw some points on this patristic feature of the Eastern Fathers.

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.

Racism as a challenge for church and society in democratic South Africa: Human dignity perspective

2020 ◽  
Vol 44 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Leepo J. Modise
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Human Dignity ◽  
Image Of God ◽  
Human Being ◽  
Human Relationship ◽  
Physical Organic ◽  
Philosophical Interpretation ◽  
Church And Society ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
The Image Of God

The image of God has been vandalised by racism in South Africa, which it is argued is a sin. It is an ecclesiological responsibility to address the vandalised image of God in South Africa. The author will argue from the human relationship as a build-up to the Theanthropocosmic principle. This principle denotes the relationship between God (theos) the human being (anthropos) and the physical-organic environment (cosmos). For addressing this responsibility, the grounds of internal racism are exposed using a philosophical interpretation. According to the author, there is a correlation between sin and racism. The latter is viewed as multidimensional from a Theanthropocosmic perspective.The theoretical framework will be within hamartiology and soteriology. The philosophical interpretation will be utilised to broaden the understanding of the theological problem of the vandalised image of God.

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 Persona, esclavitud y libertad en Gregorio de Nisa

2006 ◽  
Vol 13 ◽  
pp. 11
Author(s):  
Lucas F. MATEO-SECO
Keyword(s):  
Human Nature ◽  
Human Person ◽  
Fourth Century ◽  
Freedom Of Speech ◽  
Image Of God ◽  
Human Being ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Origin Of Man ◽  
The Image Of God ◽  
Made In

Gregory of Nisa was one of the most cultivated men of the fourth century. He reflects the advances that had been made concerning the concept of the person and his/her relatioship with nature. In Gregory’s view, the dignity of the human person is grounded on the fact that the person is the image and likeness of God. This is equivalent to stating that the human being has attributes which no one may deprive him/her of; prominent among these is freedom, which is the crowning glory of his/her personal being, as he/she was made in the image of God, who is a-déspotos, that is, has no master. Rejection of slavery, together with firm defense of parrhesia (freedom of speech), is one of the most suitable perspectives for evaluating Gregory’s concept of human nature and the dignity of the person. Gregory discusses this subject in several places. Here we shall confine our survey to the most important ones: Homily IV On Ecclesiastes, the treatise On the origin of man, and the Great catechetical discourse. According to Gregory, freedom was given to human beings so that they could participate in the divine good. Gregory supported his arguments on the thinking insipired by Plato in which virtue is essentially free and voluntary, and so freedom is an attribute of the dignity of the person that cannot be relinquished.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document