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

2020 ◽  
Vol 44 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Leepo J. Modise

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.

2015 ◽  
Vol 49 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Piet J. Strauss

After the Second World War, there was a universal rise and greater acknowledgement of human rights, which entered churches and ecumenical organisations’ way of thinking. Human rights influenced the church’s understanding of justice and human dignity both internally and externally. The concept of human dignity came from the biblical believe that man is created in the image of God. In South Africa human rights were also increasingly recognised and respected. A charter of human rights was included as chapter 2 of the 1996 Constitution and churches regard human dignity as a central tenet of their approach to members and non-members. Differences between church and state on the issue have arisen as the result of differences on the freedom of religion. Church and state in South Africa can complement each other in the promotion of human dignity.Opsomming: Kerk en staat in Suid-Afrika en menseregte. Na die Tweede Wêreldoorlog is menseregte wêreldwyd erken en aanvaar. Dit was ook die geval in kerke en ekumeniese organisasies. Menseregte het kerke se siening van geregtigheid en menswaardigheid in hulle interne sowel as eksterne optrede beïnvloed. Die begrip menswaardigheid het ontstaan uit die bybelse oortuiging dat die mens na die beeld van God geskape is. In Suid-Afrika is menseregte ook toenemend erken en aanvaar. ’n Verklaring van menseregte is as hoofstuk 2 in die 1996-grondwet ingesluit en kerke beskou menswaardigheid as toonaangewend in hulle benadering van mense binne en buite die kerk. Verskille tussen die kerk en die staat in Suid-Afrika oor menseregte het ontstaan as gevolg van verskille oor die inhoud van die vryheid van godsdiens. Teen hierdie agtergrond kan kerk en staat mekaar egter aanvul in die bevordering van menseregte.


2014 ◽  
Vol 48 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Riaan Rheeder

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.


2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 51-58
Author(s):  
Patrik Maturkanič ◽  
Ivana Tomanova Cergetova ◽  
Peter Kondrla ◽  
Viktoria Kurilenko ◽  
Jose Garcia Martin

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.


2005 ◽  
Vol 77 (4) ◽  
pp. 343-352
Author(s):  
Brian S. Rosner

Whereas knowing God is central to every version of Christian theology, little attention has been paid to the other side of the divine-human relationship. This introductory essay approaches the subject via the brief but poignant remarks of two twentieth-century authors appearing in a work of fiction and in a poem. If C. S. Lewis recognizes the primacy of being known by God, Dietrich Bonhoeffer helps define it and underscores its pastoral value. Both authors accurately reflect the main contours of the Bible’s own treatment. Calvin’s view of the image of God, which T. F. Torrance defines as ‘God’s gracious beholding of man as his child,’ may be of assistance in defining what it means to be known by God.


2011 ◽  
Vol 104 (4) ◽  
pp. 489-505

THOU ART is an interdisciplinary and christological aesthetics that theorizes an integral relation among Christ, representation, and the formation of human subjectivity. Through a critical poetics it addresses the space of difference between a theological discourse on the creation of human being in the image of God—understood as creation in Christ, Word (logos) incarnate—and a philosophical discourse on the constitution of human subjectivity.


Paragrana ◽  
2009 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
pp. 53-63
Author(s):  
Gérard Colas

AbstractDiscussions on the nature of the relationship between a god, his body and his material representation are almost non-existent in the Hindu devotional perspective, where such concerns are superfluous. Hindu theological and ritual Sanskrit texts, on the other hand, applied procedures of reasoning with regard to that relationship. This rationalization however accommodated rather than conflicted with the devotional attitude. Their attempt to clarify their stand vis-à-vis god′s body and material image followed from ideological or technical requirements. This was done sometimes systematically, as in the Viśiṣṭādvaita school of philosophy where the ritual image is declared to be “a divine descent (of God) for the purpose of worship”; sometimes incidentally, as in ritual manuals, where the process of changing statues into divine bodies is described.But why should gods have a body at all? While some contend that they do not possess any body, others assert that they possess several at the same time, yet others infer the necessity of a body for God to create the universe, to reveal sacred texts, etc. These are some arguments and counter-arguments found in theological texts. The nature of the hierarchy between divine descents and images (which may or may not be considered as real bodies of gods) is another aspect of the discussion.Another question is the various ways in which ritual texts consider the relation between a god and his image. While immediacy characterizes the relation between the devotee and the image of god, the relation between ritual and image is far from being spontaneous. Rituals insure the presence of a god in an image through a technico-mystical process consisting of successive stages and involving patrons, astrologers, artists, priests and others. The final product, namely a concrete god-cum-image, is fit for devotion, but remains for ever fragile, dependent on the continuity of rites and on the material preservation of the image. Behind the ritual perspective also lies the notion that this process of creating a body for a god is in keeping with “natural” laws. Hindu ritual prescriptions are applicable only to the religious images which, though man-made, are considered as “natural”. Supra-natural divine images, known as “self-manifested” images, must be worshiped, but are beyond the range of these prescriptions.


Perichoresis ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 14 (3) ◽  
pp. 81-96
Author(s):  
Gijsbert van den Brink ◽  
Aza Goudriaan

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.


2006 ◽  
Vol 55 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Giuseppe Dalla Torre

Dopo essersi rilevato il fenomeno della rinascita del fatto religioso nell’odierna società secolarizzata, grazie anche al massiccio fenomeno immigratorio, si descrive l’impatto del pluralismo etnico-religioso sulle tradizionali realtà degli ordinamenti giuridici statali; impatto reso ancora più problematico per l’ascesa di nuovi poteri, in particolare quello tecnico-scientifico, insofferenti ad una eteroregolamentazione non solo sul piano etico, ma anche sul piano giuridico. Si mette quindi in evidenza una crescente ambiguità che investe la biogiuridica: da un lato la nuova esigenza di riconoscere il rivendicato “diritto alla diversità” da parte delle diverse formazioni etnico-religiose; dall’altro l’esigenza di una regolamentazione giuridica uniforme a garanzia dell’ordinata convivenza attorno ad una scala valoriale che abbia nella “vita” il bene centrale ed ultimo da salvaguardare. Tra le conclusioni cui si giunge è innanzitutto quella per cui la pacifica convivenza in una società multietnica e multireligiosa può essere assicurata, nel rispetto delle diverse tradizioni e culture, attraverso il ricorso a moderati e saggi riconoscimenti di spazio al diritto personale all’interno degli ordinamenti statali, ma nei limiti rigorosi posti dalle esigenze di tutela della dignità umana. Ciò tocca anche la questione dei “nuovi poteri” che, nel contesto di una società globalizzata, impongono una rielaborazione dell’idea di diritto che, partendo dal quadro di un sistema di fonti che tende sempre più ad essere organizzato non secondo gerarchia ma secondo competenza, si ispiri al principio del riconoscimento dell’essere umano nella sua dignità, indipendentemente dall’appartenenza etnico-religiosa. Infine si mette in evidenza l’inaccettabilità di un “diritto debole”, solo procedimentale, perché sostanziale negazione della funzione stessa del diritto, che è quella di prevenire e/o dirimere i conflitti tra interessi in gioco e, quindi, i contrasti tra le parti della società, difendendo nel rapporto i soggetti più deboli; così come si mette in evidenza che il prezioso bene della laicità dello Stato non è – come invece spesso si ritiene – salvaguardato da un “diritto debole”, ma solo da un diritto giusto. ---------- After being noticed the phenomenon of the rebirth of the religious fact in today’s secularized society, it is described also the impact of the ethnic-religious pluralism on the traditional realities of the government juridical arrangements; impact made even more problematic for the ascent of new powers, particularly that technical-scientific, impatient to an heteroregulation not only on the ethical plan, but also on the juridical plan. It is put therefore in evidence an increasing ambiguity that invests the biojuridical: from one side the new demand to recognize the vindicated “law to difference” from different ethnic-religious formations; from the other the demand of a uniform juridical regulation to guarantee of the orderly cohabitation around to a scale of value that has in “life” central and ultimate good to safeguard. Between the conclusions which the author comes it is, first of all, that for which the peaceful cohabitation in a multiethnic and multireligious society can be assured, in the respect of the different traditions and cultures, through the recourse to moderate and wise recognition of space to the personal law into the government arrangements, but in the rigorous limits set by the demands of guardianship of human dignity. This also touches the matter of new powers that, in the contest of globalization, impose a new elaboration of the idea of law that, departing from the picture of a system of sources that extends more and more to not be organized according to hierarchy but according to competence, inspire to the principle of the recognition of the human being in its dignity, independently from the ethnic-religious affiliation. Finally it is put in evidence the unacceptability of a “weak law”, just procedural, as substantial negation of the law function itself, which is that to prevent and/or to settle the conflicts between affairs at stake and, therefore, contrasts between the parts of the society, defending in the relationship the weakest subjects; as it is evidenced that the precious good of laity of the State is not - like instead it is often considered - safeguarded by a weak law, but only by a correct law.


2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (14) ◽  
pp. 92-97
Author(s):  
Edvica POPA ◽  

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.


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