scholarly journals Bio-etiek sonder grense en menswaardigheid: 'n Gereformeerd-etiese beoordeling

2013 ◽  
Vol 34 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Riaan Rheeder
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Human Dignity ◽  
Image Of God ◽  
Ethical Principles ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Ethical Assessment ◽  
World Community ◽  
The World ◽  
The Image Of God ◽  
Point Of Departure

Bioethics without boundaries and human dignity: A Reformed-ethical assessment. The Universal Declaration of Bioethics and Human Rights (UDBH) seeks to guide the world community in ethical principles with regard to medicine, life sciences and related technologies. Human dignity as a principle was requested by the world community and serves as a point of departure in most human rights instruments, as well as in the UDBH. Human dignity serves as a foundation for ethical principles and human rights. In this article, attention was given to the question of whether human dignity could be accepted as part of the Biblical message. Human dignity as a principle and grounding in the UDBH was accepted by most major religions of the world. There exists today a universal consensus that human dignity is an extremely important concept in bioethics. In light of the Reformed tradition, all human beings have dignity, as they had been created in the image of God. Because God is absolute value, humans have derived, but definite value. Human dignity is not just a status, but also a command. All the ethical principles and human rights in the UDBH should be regarded as a way of giving expression to the dignity of man. When the dignity of the humans beings is infringed upon, an undignified image of God is revealed, and serves as a direct insult to God.

scholarly journals Church and state in South Africa and human rights

2015 ◽  
Vol 49 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Piet J. Strauss
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Human Rights ◽  
Human Dignity ◽  
Church And State ◽  
Second World War ◽  
Image Of God ◽  
World War ◽  
Central Tenet ◽  
The Image Of God ◽  
Second World

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.

The Struggle for Human Dignity in a Consumer-Oriented Culture

2016 ◽  
Vol 98 (1) ◽  
pp. 111-123
Author(s):  
Beverly Eileen Mitchell
Keyword(s):  
Human Dignity ◽  
Image Of God ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Economic Injustice ◽  
Negative Feelings ◽  
The Image Of God

This article addresses the need to ground our discussions and advocacy to rectify economic injustice in the basic affirmation that the most vulnerable victims of injustice are above all full human beings created in the image of God and that their humanness is therefore inscribed with a dignity which we are bound to respect. There are three areas in which we need to be more attentive to the ways in which our discourse and assistance unwittingly reinforce patterns of defacement even as we seek to address economic injustice: (1) addressing our biases and negative feelings about the materially disadvantaged; (2) clarifying who the materially disadvantaged are; and (3) enlisting the aid of the impoverished in seeking the solutions to economic injustice.

THE FIRST WORD: TO BE HUMAN IS TO BE FREE

2015 ◽  
Vol 30 (3) ◽  
pp. 386-390 ◽  
Author(s):  
Desmond M. Tutu
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Human Dignity ◽  
Image Of God ◽  
Human Flourishing ◽  
The Image Of God

AbstractIn this essay, Archbishop Tutu explains how Christianity understands the inherent freedom, dignity, and human rights of each person to be a consequence of being created in the image of God. This idea contains radical liberative potential to challenge oppression and create structures for human flourishing. While Christianity has not always lived up to the liberative potential of its teachings, and too often has contributed to hatred, oppression, and violence, Archbishop Tutu argues, the power of religious voices remains essential in the struggle against oppression and for the protection of human dignity.

Law, Religion and Human Dignity in the Muslim World Today: An Examination of OIC's Cairo Declaration of Human Rights

2008 ◽  
Vol 24 (2) ◽  
pp. 569-597 ◽  
Author(s):  
Abdullah al-Ahsan
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Natural Resources ◽  
Human Dignity ◽  
Civic Life ◽  
Human Being ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Near Eastern ◽  
Intellectual Abilities ◽  
The World ◽  
Human Need

Human dignity is the recognition and respect of human need, desire and expectation one individual by another. This recognition is indispensable because no human being survives alone: Human dignity creates the foundation of society and civilization. Our knowledge of history suggests that religious ideas have provided this basic foundation of civilization. Describing the first recognized civilization in history one historian says, “Religion permeated Sumerian civic life.” According to another historian, “Religion dominated, suffused, and inspired all features of Near Eastern society—law, kingship, art, and science.” Based on these observations while defining civilization Samuel Huntington asserts, “Religion is a central defining characteristic of civilizations.”In Islam, the Qur’an declares that: “We have bestowed dignity on the progeny of Adam.” The verse then continues to remind the whole of mankind of God's special favor unto them with physical and intellectual abilities, natural resources and with superiority over most other creatures in the world. This dignity is bestowed through God's act of creating Adam and breathing into him His Own Spirit. Since all human beings originated from Adam and his spouse, every single human being possesses this dignity regardless of color, race, religion and tribe. The whole of mankind, as khalīfah (vice-resenf) is responsible for establishing peace on earth through divinely ordained values such as amānah (trust), ‘adālah (justice) and shūra (consultation).

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.

scholarly journals The human being and the world as God’s creation: Present-day ethical conflicts and consequences of the doctrine of creation in the perspective of the doctrine of justification

2021 ◽  
Vol 77 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ulrich H.J. Körtner
Keyword(s):  
Practical Knowledge ◽  
Image Of God ◽  
Human Being ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Ethical Conflicts ◽  
The World ◽  
Hermeneutical Theology ◽  
Doctrine Of Creation ◽  
The Image Of God ◽  
Specific Contribution

All the medical and bioethical questions, ranging from stem cell research to converging technologies and synthetic biology, touch on the question regarding the image of human beings and their position in the cosmos, by which we are able to orient ourselves. This article argues that the biblical belief in creation and the discourse about humans as created beings by and in the image of God can still be proclaimed as a viable form of human self-interpretation in the present. The distinction between practical knowledge and knowledge of orientation may be of help here. Guidance for how to live and act is not best found in abstract principles, but rather in meaningful stories, in metaphors and symbols. On this level, too, is also where faith in creation and the certainty of our own creatureliness is located.Contribution: This article interprets the doctrine of creation by a hermeneutical theology. It analyses the interdependence between hermeneutics and criticism in the process of reinterpreting the classical propositions about the human being and the world as God’s creation and the relation of anthropology and ethics. The aim is to show what might be the contribution of Christian faith in creation to the approach of an ethics of responsibility in the field of bioethics and ecology. The specific contribution of this article to current debates on an ethics of creation is the thesis that the key to a well-balanced theological approach to all this is the Pauline doctrine of justification as interpreted by the protestant reformers.

scholarly journals Human dignity in the light of the Constitution, human rights and bioethics

2018 ◽  
Vol 28 (3) ◽  
pp. 283-289 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paulo André Stein Messetti ◽  
Dalmo De Abreu Dallari
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Human Dignity ◽  
The State ◽  
Fundamental Rights ◽  
Universal Declaration ◽  
Social Solidarity ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
The Social ◽  
The World ◽  
The Right

Introduction: Human dignity, as coined by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR / 1948), is an expression social solidarity, which should cement the relations between people. Human dignity is the foundation of all rights, such as freedom, equality, justice and peace in the world, and in Brazil, human dignity was deemed a fundamental pillar of the country’s post-1988 constitutional order. Objective: This article seeks to a deeper investigation about the social nature of human dignity and its definition over time.     Methods: This is an exploratory research meant to unpack the concepts of "human dignity", "bioethics", "human rights" and "constitution". After describing the conceptual evolution of human dignity and the facts relevant to its conceptual formation in world history - as a normative standard and a legal rule -, we address the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR/1948), the Declaration of Helsinki (DH/1964), the Universal Declaration on Bioethics and Human Rights (UDBHR/2005), and the definition adopted in the Constitution of the Federative Republic of Brazil (CFRB/1988). The study was carried out without temporal limitation, and included a review of referenced books, legal doctrines, as well as articles and books in the SciELO database. Results and discussion: The findings ratify that human dignity is the foundation of all rights, including those of freedom, equality, justice and peace in the world, and must also guide the rights and duties of social regulation. Human dignity has changed from a criterion of power attributed to the social position of individuals to a value of the right to freedom, which now goes beyond the right of freedom and is the basis of modern constitutional democracy, which makes possible the realization of solidarity, as well as the duty and purpose of the state and the community. The will of the subject, of society, of the science and of the state, as well as the rules of domination and regulation, must have a limit on human dignity, and human dignity is not just fundamental right, in the sense of the Constitution, and must prevail over the exclusive will of science, the State and society. Therefore, in the making of power decisions and in realization of possible innovations of science involving human beings, human dignity demands the explicit consideration of respect and promotion of it. Conclusion: Human dignity is enshrined in Brazilian constitutional law, as well as in bioethics and in human rights, and it constitutes all the fundamental rights of the human person. It is not merely a rule of autonomy and liberty, and it is an obligatory and non-derogable precept in the making of power decisions, a true main foundation of constitutional democracies.  

scholarly journals Missionale kerkwees en die elektroniese sosiale media

2014 ◽  
Vol 48 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Martin J. Lazenby ◽  
Cornelius J.P. Niemandt
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Image Of God ◽  
Missional Church ◽  
Ethical Principles ◽  
Word Of God ◽  
Interactive Communication ◽  
The Bible ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Image Of God ◽  
Point Of Departure

Die geweldige toename in die benutting van die sosiale media as interaktiewe kommunikasiemiddel wêreldwyd, bied aan die Christelike kerk groot missionale geleenthede, maar stel ook groot uitdagings en eise. Hierdie geleentheid moet benut word om missionaal ’n verskil ten gunste van God se koninkryk te maak. Die inhoud en die kommunikasiestyl kom onder die vergrootglas. Hierdie artikel poog om ’n paar bybels-etiese beginsels aan te dui wat as basis vir die missionale styl van kommunikasie moet dien. As uitgangspunt word die Bybel as die Woord van God gebruik. Daar word geredeneer dat die moreel-etiese beginsels wat in die Bybel aan die gelowige voorgeskryf word, van die grootste belang is om gestalte te gee aan die koninkryk van God in hierdie wêreld wanneer via die sosiale media op horisontale vlak met mense gekommunikeer word. Dit gaan dus vir die gelowige nooit net om humanistiese, sosiale kommunikasie nie, maar altyd dat die beeld van God in hierdie wêreld geëer en sy koninkryk daardeur uitgebou word. Vir die Christen-gelowige gaan dit nooit om die mens nie, maar altyd om God se eer en die manifestasie van sy koninkryk.Being a missional church and the social media. The tremendous increase in using the social media as interactive communication medium worldwide creates the opportunity for the Christian church to make a missional difference in favour of God’s kingdom on earth. It also brings great challenges with it. This means that the way communication via the mass social media is done, becomes of the utmost importance. The content as well as the manner in which the communication is conducted must be considered. This article aims at providing certain basic biblical-ethical principles for communicating in the mass social media that will serve the missional calling of the church. The point of departure is the Word of God. The basic focus of the argument is that the moral-ethical principles given to the believer in the Bible are of the utmost importance to give practical form to the kingdom of God on earth by means of horisontal communication via the social media. For the Christian believer the focus never falls on humanistic social communication as such, but always to glorify the image of God and thereby expand God’s kingdom in this world.

Faith and Morality

1992 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 305-309
Author(s):  
Abdul Khaliq
Keyword(s):  
Jugular Vein ◽  
Religious Faith ◽  
Image Of God ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
The Other ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Religious Person ◽  
First Case ◽  
The World ◽  
The Image Of God

There is a point of view popular with some religious thinkers-amongthem Muslims-that religion and morality are two separate institutions andhave very little to do with each other. This is because the former is centeredin God, while the latter is entirely human in content and approach. Accordingto this view, an individual can be moral without subscribing to anyrecognizable religion. Furthermore, a deeply religious person occupies a stationin life where usual relations with the world, including those with otherpeople, are perceived as being so lowly and mundane that they become irrelevant.This is, to say the least, not the essential Qur’anic standpoint.The Qur'an , as well as a number of sayings of the Prophet, does not envisagean estrangement between God and humanity. Human beings are said tohave been created after the image of God: Who is nearer to each person thanhisher own jugular vein (Qur'an 50:16). They a so close to each other thatthey may possibly enter into a mutual dialogue. There is thus an organicallyintimate relevance of the individual’s religious faith with the subsequent performanceof the corresponding moral actions. In the Qur’an, the word amanu(they held on to faith [in God]) is almost invariably followed by ‘amilu alsalihat (they performed good actions). However, it must be undelstood thatfaith is not an honorific term, a characteristic that may be inculcated into anperson’s character in its own right. It rather refets to a barely psychologicalstate, an attitude of mind A person may have faith in the all-good God or insome evil being(s) (Qur’an 4:31). In the first case, such an individual isnecessarily good, in the other, he/she is bound to be morally bad ...

scholarly journals Alone in the world? Imago Dei from theological anthropology to Christology

2021 ◽  
Vol 42 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Nadia Marais
Keyword(s):  
Theological Anthropology ◽  
Image Of God ◽  
Imago Dei ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Alternative Approach ◽  
The World ◽  
Human Uniqueness ◽  
Science And Theology ◽  
Interdisciplinary Projects ◽  
The Image Of God

In Princeton theologian Van Huyssteen’s (2006) major interdisciplinary work, Alone in the World? Human Uniqueness in Science and Theology, human uniqueness is rhetorically coupled with human aloneness. A comparison with a contemporary theological anthropology, namely Yale theologian Kelsey’s (2009) Eccentric Existence: A Theological Anthropology, shows an alternative approach to the notion or concept of the imago Dei, namely a theological shift from viewing human beings as image(s) of God, to viewing human beings as images of Christ, or images of the image of God. This contribution responds to the invitation implied in Van Huyssteen’s book title – are we alone in the world? – by exploring some of the rhetorical implications of a Christological interpretation of the imago Dei. One such implication may imply a different answer to Van Huyssteen’s question – are we alone in the world?; not yes, but no. Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s idea of Christ’s promeity illustrates how the rhetorical dynamics behind such a move in response – from yes to no – may potentially look, and that a rearticulation of human uniqueness could have direct consequences for how we imagine our human aloneness in the world.Intradisciplinary and/or interdisciplinary implications: This article contributes to a specifically intradisciplinary conversation in Systematic Theology, on reading and interpreting the notion or theological idea of human beings being created in the image of God. This article does this through a close reading and comparison of two interdisciplinary projects on what it means to be human, namely Van Huyssteen’s Alone in the World? and Kelsey’s Eccentric Existence.

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