Imago Dei
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The Image of God (often appearing in Latin as Imago Dei) is a concept and theological doctrine that asserts that human beings are created in God's image and therefore have inherent value independent of their utility or function.

The term Imago Dei refers most fundamentally to two things: first, to God's own self-actualization through humankind; and second, to God's care for humankind. To say that humans are in the image of God is to recognize the special qualities of human nature which allow God to be made manifest in humans. For humans to have the conscious recognition of their being in the image of God means that they are the creature through whom God's plans and purposes can be made known and actualized; humans, in this way, can be seen as co-creators with God. The moral implications of the doctrine of imago Dei are apparent in the fact that if humans are to love God, then humans must love other humans, as each is an expression of God. The human's likeness to God can also be understood by contrasting it with that which does not image God, i.e., beings who, as far as we know, are without self-consciousness and the capacity for spiritual / moral reflection and growth. Humans differ from all other creatures because of their rational structure - their capacity for deliberation and free decision-making. This freedom gives the human a centeredness and completeness which allows the possibility for self-actualization and participation in a sacred reality. However, the freedom which makes the human in God's image is the same freedom which manifests itself in estrangement from God, as the story of the Fall (Adam and Eve) exemplifies. According to this story, humans can, in their freedom, choose to deny or repress their spiritual and moral likeness to God. The ability and desire to love one's self and others, and therefore, God, can become neglected and even opposed. Striving to bring about the Imago Dei in one's life can be seen as the quest for wholeness, or one's "essential" self, as pointed to in Christ's life and teachings.^[1]

There are three common ways of understanding the manner in which humans exist in imago dei: Substantive, Relational and Functional.

Substantive

The substantive view holds to the idea that there is some substantial characteristic of the human race that is like God. Some may argue that we are in fact an exact physical replica of God in some way. That we are a mirror image of his physical makeup. Other substantive views suggest a physical or spiritual commonality with God. Throughout the ages there have been different interpretations of substantive likeness to God. Irenaeus put forward a distinctive difference between image and likeness. Humankind before the fall was in the image of God through their ability to exercise free will and reason. And we were in the likeness of God through some sort of spiritual endowment lost after the fall. Perhaps this was the ability to walk in God’s presence and converse with him in physical person? Medieval scholars suggested that this was the Holiness of humankind which was lost after the fall, though free will and reason remained. Calvin and Luther agreed that something of the Imago Deus was lost at the fall but that fragments of it remained in some form or another...

Relational

The relational view argues that one must be in a relationship with God in order to possess the ‘image’ of God. Those who hold to the relational image agree that humankind possess the ability to reason as a substantive trait but they argue that it is relationship that brings the true imagio into effect. Later Theologians like Karl Barth and Emil Brunner argue that it is our ability to hold to relationships that make us like God. Unlike animals who cannot hold relationships in the same way we can, it is this characteristic that makes us ‘in God’s image’. We are created in God’s image male and female, Genesis 5:1-2, and therefore it is our maleness and femaleness combined that constitutes the image of God.

Functional

This third view denies the previous two in that it argues that the image of God imprinted on us is in function rather than in form or relationship. This being primarily our function of ruling over earth. In Genesis 1:26 it speaks of humankind being made in the image of God and his allowance for humans to rule over the fish, the sea and animals on land. In this way we would be in God’s likeness in that he rules over all the universe, ourselves included and that we are to rule over the creatures on earth. So it is the ruling or the function of dominion that we have in common.

However it is probably a combination of the above views that present the most accurate description of the concept of imagio dei. That we in some way are substantially similar to God, through physical or spiritual trait, that we are like God in the sense that we can exercise relationship on a higher level than animals and that we are in dominion over earth in the same sense as he is in dominion over all.

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