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.

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 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 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.

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.

Christianity and Democracy

2009 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
pp. 143-152
Author(s):  
Jacques Maritain ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Image Of God ◽  
Moral Law ◽  
Human Race ◽  
Jacques Maritain ◽  
Moral Principles ◽  
Substantive Content ◽  
The Poor ◽  
Temporal Consciousness ◽  
Good And Evil ◽  
The Image Of God

In this engaging APSA address, Jacques Maritain outlines the essential relationship between Christianity and democracy. In Maritain's view, it is the Gospel or the Christian leaven which has awakened the secular, temporal consciousness to supreme moral principles and the real content of democracy understood as the earthly pursuit of Gospel truths conceming the transcendent origins and destiny of man and society. Christianity teaches the inalienable dignity of every human being fashioned in the image of God, the inviolability of conscience, the unity of the human race, the natural equality of all men, children of the same God and redeemed by the same Christ, the dignity of labor and the dignity of the poor, the primacy of inner values and good will over external values, universal brotherhood, love, and justbe. Maritain distinguishes between the procedural aspects and the substantive content of democracy, but anchors the Gospel vision in the free exercise of rational and moral faculties as key to democratic self-government. He cautions that without a superior moral law by virtue of which men are bound in conscience toward what is just and good, the rule of the majority runs the risk of being raised to the supreme rule of good and evil, and democracy is liable to tum to totalitahanism, that is, to self-destruction. Maritain concludes that what has been gained for the secular consciousness, if it does not veer to barbarism, is the sense of freedom consonant with the vocation of our nature.

Creata ad Imaginem Dei, Licet Secundo Gradu: Woman as the Image of God According to John Calvin

1988 ◽  
Vol 81 (2) ◽  
pp. 125-143 ◽  
Author(s):  
John L. Thompson
Keyword(s):  
Image Of God ◽  
Imago Dei ◽  
John Calvin ◽  
Rorschach Test ◽  
Adam And Eve ◽  
Ink Blot ◽  
The Image Of God

To say that Adam and Eve were created in the image of God ought to answer a host of questions, but the historian of exegesis finds that it raises more questions than it answers, since any given interpretation of the image of God reveals as much about the interpreter as it does about the image itself. It would be a bit melodramatic to describe Gen 1:26 as an exegetical Rorschach test, a literary “ink blot” which means only what the interpreter thinks it means. But Gen 1:26 does, in fact, serve usefully as a “weathervane.’ An interpreter's explanation of the imago dei often points to his or her larger theological agenda.

imago dei in Genesis: Speaking in the Image of God

2005 ◽  
Vol 116 (8) ◽  
pp. 259-262 ◽  
Author(s):  
Graeme Auld
Keyword(s):  
Image Of God ◽  
Imago Dei ◽  
The Image Of God

scholarly journals Orthodox Cosmology and Cosmography

Eikon / Imago ◽  
2014 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 77-94
Author(s):  
Rotislava Todorova
Keyword(s):  
Image Of God ◽  
Imago Dei ◽  
The World ◽  
Creatio Ex Nihilo ◽  
Ex Nihilo ◽  
Symbolic Images ◽  
The Mind ◽  
The Image Of God ◽  
The Invisible

Orthodox iconography is focused on the idea of representing the cosmos, the essence of God’s creatio ex nihilo, thus serving as a visual cosmology and thence - as a cosmography of all being. Icons depict the image of the archetypal world in its integrity, unachievable for the limited human abilities, and are ontologically inseparable from this archetype. Therefore, iconography has been always related with the idea of representing the world trough symbolic images. In this context, it becomes a visual cosmology, and hence - a kind of cosmography of all being. Although not identical to cartography, Orthodox iconography creates symbolic images that can be interpreted as an image of the whole world – oikoumene. One particular example in this respect relates with the semantics and usage of mandorla symbol. In the Orthodox iconography, the mandorla has its function as a vision of Divine. It can be called even Imago Dei, expressing the invisible to the eyes and incomprehensible to the mind essence of God. However, in a number of iconographic scenes the image of God is related theologically and artistically with the cosmological perceptions of Christianity about the theocentricity of cosmos. Thus, mandorla as Imago Dei often plays the role of a symbolic Imago Mundi.

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.

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