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So What Does the Image Mean?

September 11, 2012 in Theology with 6 Comments

image of God, Adam and eve, creation, GenesisIn the beginning God created man in his image. In the image of God he created him. Male and female he created them.

For the last few weeks, we’ve wrestled with exactly what this challenging and important passage means. And today I’d like to wrap things up.

But this is just the first part of the journey. It’s one thing to understand what it means to be made in the image of God, but it’s something else entirely to wrestle with whether it really matters. That’s where we’re headed next.

But, before we get there, let’s pull everything together.

The Journey So Far

In our journey toward understanding the image of God, I’ve argued that the image is basically about “representation.” In other words, human beings represent God because (for some reason) he’s decided to manifest his glorious presence in creation through us. And, as his representatives, he has given us the responsibility of “ruling” in his place. I have to admit that I still think this was an odd decision given what a mess we’ve made of things, but I’m sure God has his reasons.

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Bill Nye the Humanist Guy vs. Ken Ham the Creationist Man

September 10, 2012 in Culture, Theology with 20 Comments

Two weeks ago, Bill Nye (yes, the Science Guy) created an internet sensation with a You Tube video arguing that creationism is not appropriate for children. Almost 4.5 million views later (as of this morning), that video has certainly made quite the splash.

His basic premise is that since “evolution is the fundamental idea in all of life science,” anyone who teaches their kids that evolution isn’t true is really holding their kids back. As he says,

I say to the grown ups, if you want to deny evolution and live in your world that’s completely inconsistent with everything we observe in the universe, that’s fine. But don’t make your kids do it because we need them.

Now the people from Answers in Genesis have responded. In the video below prominent creationist Ken Ham calls Bill Nye “the Humanist Guy” and critiques him  for having an agenda of his own, creating lots of little humanists. And (big surprise) Ham contends that teaching kids evolution is the truly harmful thing to do.

You can watch the video exchange below. Check it out and let me know what you think.

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Bad Philosophy Needs to Be Answered (C.S. Lewis)

September 6, 2012 in Theology with 0 Comments

“If all the world were Christian, it might not matter if all the world were uneducated. But, as it is, a cultural life will exist outside the Church whether it exists inside or not. To be ignorant and simple now — not to be able to meet the enemies on their own ground — would be to throw down our weapons, and to betray our uneducated brethren who have, under God, no defense but us against the intellectual attacks of the heathen. Good philosophy must exist, if for no other reason, because bad philosophy needs to be answered.”

C.S. Lewis, The Weight of Glory and Other Addresses (MacMillan, 1980), 28.

The Image of God Is a Story

September 4, 2012 in Theology with 1 Comment

Who are you? Tough question. And I’m always intrigued by how people answer it. Some jump straight to their family, others focus on occupation. Some tell me where they live, others what church they go to. Each does it a little differently.

But everyone tells a story.

It’s true. Try it. You’ll have to press a bit to get beyond the surface stuff, like their name. But when they try to tell you who they really are, they always tell their story.

Deep down, we just know that we’re storied people, that our history has meaning. It shapes us.

story, writing, typewriter

But, for some reason, we don’t connect this insight to understanding the image of God. And that’s tragic. Because the imago comes at the beginning of a story. And the only way to understand it fully is to hear the story.

It makes sense. If you’re watching a movie and a character pops in during the opening scene, you’re not going to pause the movie and try to figure out who she is and why she’s important. You’ll watch the movie, finding her identity in the story that unfolds.

It’s the same with the imago. Genesis 1 is just the prologue to a much larger story. So if we really want to know what’s going on, we need to let the movie roll.

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Personal Presence: Another Step toward the Image of God

August 30, 2012 in Theology with 3 Comments

In the last post I argued that the image of God builds off the idea of “representational presence.” To be created in the image of God means to be the ones through whom God manifests his own presence in the world.

dog, poodle, creature, image of godThat’s pretty heady stuff. We don’t just “mirror” God through some attribute we possess (e.g. rationality), but we humans are the means by which God has chosen to manifest his presence in creation. He does this in other ways, of course, but apparently there’s something special about the way in which he has chosen to manifest his presence through us. That’s what makes us image bearers.

But what exactly does that mean? If God is present everywhere, then he’s present in a poodle (hard as that might be to believe). But we don’t say that poodles are in the image of God. (Please, oh please, don’t say that. You’ll create instant atheists.) So what is it about God’s “presence” with humans that makes us image bearers?

I think the key is that the kind of presence God manifests through his people is his personal presence. Let me unpack that a bit.

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There’s a God in There! Moving toward a conclusion on the “image of God”

August 27, 2012 in Theology with 6 Comments

What does it mean to be created “in the image of God”? Over the last few posts, we’ve explored that question and raised some concerns about each of the major approaches. Does that mean we can’t really know what the image means? Should we give up and conclude that it’s just a mystery?

Not yet.

Never cry “mystery” until you’ve wrestled with all the issues. And that includes proposing your own solution. So that’s what I’m going to do.

image of god, Adam and eve, creation, Genesis, Michelangelo, Sistine Chapel

First, let me summarize. We currently have four options on the table: (1) the structural image; (2) the functional image; (3) the relational image; and (4) the multifaceted image. I don’t want to rehearse all the arguments here, so I’ll just say that I think (1) is wrong and (4) is a problem as long as it includes (1). You can go read those posts and find out why. Although (2) and (3) have some problems, I think there’s a lot to be said for both of them. So I’m inclined to think that an adequate understanding of the imago needs to find some way of holding those two together. But you can’t just mush them together like the multifaceted view tends to. You need some explanation that provides a coherent picture.

And that’s just what I’m going to try and do. It’s will take me a couple of posts to lay this all out. But step one is to realize that the imago has to do with “representational presence.” Let me unpack that just a bit.

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All of the Above: Another Approach to the Image of God

August 23, 2012 in Biblical Studies, Theology with 1 Comment

Do you know how to separate good test-takers from bad ones? The bad ones think “all of the above” is their friend, giving them an out when they don’t know the right answer. Good test-takers know better. ”All of the above” is usually a trap.

You see, evil professors know that multiple choice questions can actually be very difficult to answer. Worded properly, the answers all sound pretty good. So the ill-prepared student has a hard time figuring out which one is correct And then the professor slips in “all of the above.” If all the answers sound good, that must be the right choice. It covers all the bases! When in doubt, cover as much territory as possible.

Wrong.

test, multiple choice, answers,

The problem with “all of the above” is that there only needs to be one little mistake in any of the options for your choice to be wrong. A and C could be perfectly true, but if B is a little off, then “all of the above” is flat out wrong. It’s just there to suck you in with it’s seductive promise of all-encompassing thoroughness.

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Sex Is Natural, Sex Is Good: The Image of God as “Relational”

August 14, 2012 in Biblical Studies, Theology with 6 Comments

It’s a boy! I could be wrong, but I imagine that’s the first the the doctor said to my parents when I was born. And I’m sure my parents didn’t find this at all unusual – especially since I am, in fact, a boy. But if you think about it for a moment, why is this always the first thing we think about when a new baby is born? Surely, my sexual genitalia were not my most notable features. The doctor could have made equally objective observations about the size of my head or the tone of my skin. Why does gender get so much attention?

image of god, gender, sexuality, male and femaleAnd the same is true for non-doctors. Tell someone you’re pregnant, and just count the seconds until they ask if it’s going to be a boy or a girl. Look at the baby shower presents and notice how the anticipated gender shaped everyone’s purchases. Dress your new baby in green and watch all the frustrated people try to figure out which gender category to put it in. Before we have even opened our eyes to see the strange new world that lies beyond the safety of our mothers’ wombs, our sexuality has already started to shape who we are and how we relate to the people around us.

Sex matters.

As Robert Jewett said,

Sexuality permeates one’s individual being to its very depth; it conditions every facet of one’s life as a person….Our self-knowledge is indissolubly bound up not simply with our human being but with our sexual being.

So, as we continue our discussion of the image of God, it should come as no surprise that some have considered the possibility that sexuality lies at the heart of the image of God just as the image of God lies at the heart of what it means to be human. But they mean more than just the fact that we were born with certain biological features. For these thinkers, sexuality is really about being in relationship. “Male” and “female” are essentially relational terms–i.e. you can’t really have one without the other. So, by creating humans as gendered creatures, God established us as those who identity is always constituted in relationship to someone else. And it is through these relationships that we we reflect God’s being in the world. The imago is relational.

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Earth’s Crammed with Heaven (quote)

August 10, 2012 in Theology with 1 Comment

Earth’s crammed with heaven,
And every common bush afire with God;
But only he who sees, takes off his shoes–
The rest sit around and pluck blackberries.

Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Aurora Leigh, 1857

The “Image of God” Is a Verb

July 31, 2012 in Theology with 5 Comments

What is a hammer? That may sound like an odd question, but think about it for a second. How would you explain a hammer to someone who’d never seen one? You could try to describe what a hammer looks like, probably saying something about its handle and the shape of its head. But, of course, you’ll immediately run into a couple of problems. First, not every hammer has the same shape. And second, something with the proper shape but made out of shaving cream would hardly qualify as a hammer in any meaningful sense (though it would be fun to watch you try and use it).

Your other option is to focus on what a hammer does, its function. Thus, a hammer is anything that can drive a nail (or similarly pointed object) into something (e.g. your own finger). Granted, this means that a book, a screwdriver, and even a shoe might qualify as “hammers” at various times. Not very effective hammers maybe, but hammers nonetheless.

hammer and nail, image of god

As we work our way through our series on the image of God, the “structural” approach tries to explain the image like the first hammer definition. It locates the essence of the imago in the shape/structure of the human person. And it runs into a similar problem: what do you do with people who don’t have that same shape/structure?

So others have argued for a different approach. Don’t view the image as something that humans have, but look at it as something humans do. This is the “functional” approach to the imago Dei.

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