Program / Course 22: Christian Ethics / Lesson 3.1
What you will learn
- Explain the biblical texts on the image of God and the main interpretations of them.
- Distinguish substantive, relational and functional readings of the image.
- Describe how the image grounds claims about equal human dignity and human rights.
- Summarize secular accounts of dignity and the challenges to a religious basis for it.
The big idea
Genesis says that human beings are made in the image and likeness of God. Christians have long taken this as the basis of human dignity: each person has worth that does not depend on usefulness, ability or the opinion of others. Traditions explain the image differently, as reason, as relationship, as a task of ruling, or as a calling to become like Christ. Secular philosophers also defend human dignity on other grounds, and the question of how best to ground it is still debated.
Key terms
- Image of God (imago Dei)
- The biblical teaching that human beings are made in God’s image (Genesis 1:26-27) and so reflect God in a way no other creature does.
- Likeness
- The other word in Genesis 1:26. Some Fathers, such as Irenaeus, distinguished image as given and likeness as to be attained.
- Dignity
- The worth that a person has simply as a human being, which calls for respect and cannot be earned or lost.
- Substantive view
- The view that the image is a quality in human nature, such as reason, will or the soul.
- Relational view
- The view that the image consists in being in relation with God and others, as in Karl Barth’s reading.
- Functional view
- The view that the image refers to the task of representing God’s rule over creation (Genesis 1:26,28).
- Human rights
- Claims that people hold simply as persons, such as rights to life and liberty. Their grounding is debated.
Background
Genesis 1:26-27 says, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness... So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.” The idea appears again after the flood, where murder is forbidden because humans are made in God’s image (Genesis 9:6), and in the New Testament, where James criticizes cursing people who are made in God’s likeness (James 3:9). In the ancient Near East, kings were often called the image of a god. Genesis gives this status to all human beings, male and female, which is a striking claim.
Christian reflection also looks to Christ. Paul calls Christ the image of the invisible God (Colossians 1:15) and says that believers are being conformed to that image (Romans 8:29; 2 Corinthians 3:18). So the image is both a gift of creation and a goal of redemption. The traditions differ on how far the fall damaged or destroyed it, which affects how they speak of human dignity.
Step-by-step explanation
Step 1: Interpretations of the image
The substantive view, common in early and medieval Christianity, locates the image in rational and moral capacities, such as intellect and free will. Augustine saw it in the mind’s ability to remember, know and love God. Aquinas held that the image is found most fully in rational creatures when they actually know and love God. A difficulty is that some human beings, such as infants and those with severe cognitive disabilities, lack some of these capacities in full. Defenders reply that the image belongs to the kind of being a person is, not to what is exercised at a given time.
The relational view stresses that human beings are made for relationship with God and one another. Barth connected the phrase male and female to the relation of persons in God. The functional view, favored by many Old Testament scholars, notes that the context speaks of dominion and sees the image as a role in representing God to creation. Many theologians combine all three: humans have capacities, are made for relation and are given a task.
Step 2: Image and fall
Catholic teaching holds that the image is wounded by sin but not lost. The tradition, following Irenaeus, speaks of the likeness as lost or damaged and the image as retained, though Catholic theologians differ on how sharply to separate them. Aquinas speaks of the image as present in every human being by nature, more fully in the just by grace, and most fully in the blessed.
Lutheran and Reformed theologians have disagreed on the matter. Early Lutherans sometimes said the image was lost in the fall and restored in Christ. Calvin held that the image was grievously deformed but traces remain, so that murder is still a crime against God (Genesis 9:6). The Reformed tradition often distinguishes the image in a broad sense, which remains, from the image in a narrow sense, the original righteousness, which was lost. Orthodox theology holds that the image remains in all people, and that the likeness is the goal of the life of theosis, growth into union with God.
Step 3: From image to dignity and rights
Christian writers have used the image to defend equal worth. The Fathers argued against slavery in places, as Gregory of Nyssa did in a sermon on Ecclesiastes, saying that no one can own a being made in God’s image. Bartolome de las Casas, a Dominican, used the doctrine in the sixteenth century to defend the dignity of Indigenous peoples of the Americas, though the Christian record on this topic is mixed and includes the opposite use of Scripture. The modern church documents, such as Catholic social teaching, base human rights on the dignity that comes from creation in God’s image.
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948) begins with the recognition of the inherent dignity of all members of the human family. It does not give a religious basis for this. Historians debate how much the Christian doctrine of the image shaped the idea of human rights, with some, like Brian Tierney, tracing rights language to medieval canon lawyers, and others, such as Samuel Moyn, arguing that modern human rights had more recent and varied origins.
Step 4: Secular accounts and challenges
Secular philosophers also defend dignity. Kant argued that rational beings are ends in themselves and have dignity, not price. Others ground dignity in the capacity to suffer, in autonomy, in shared humanity or in the claims made in social agreements. Some thinkers, such as Peter Singer, argue that dignity should be tied to capacities, such as self-awareness, and that this would not cover all human beings and would cover some animals. Christians reply that this view leaves the vulnerable at risk and that the image gives a basis for equal worth that does not depend on capacity.
Other critics say that dignity is a vague concept or merely a slogan. A few philosophers, such as Ruth Macklin, argued that it adds nothing to the idea of respect for persons. Defenders reply that the term states what respect rests on. The debate is lively, and Christians and nonbelievers hold varied positions within it.
- Does this view of the image locate it in a capacity, a relationship, a task or a calling?
- What does the view say about people who lack some capacities, such as infants or those with severe disabilities?
- How does the view describe the effect of sin on the image?
- What practical claims about respect, rights or duties follow from it?
- Could a person who does not believe in God accept the conclusion, and on what grounds?
- What is the strongest objection to the view?
Examples
A claim of equal worth
A hospital chaplain explains to a family that their father, who no longer recognizes them, remains a person made in God’s image and is to be treated with the same respect as before. The substantive view must say how this can be so. The relational and Orthodox views answer that the image rests on God’s relation to the person, not on the person’s present powers. (A constructed example.)
Gregory of Nyssa on slavery
In a homily on Ecclesiastes, Gregory of Nyssa objects to the claim of one person to own another, asking what price could be set on one who is the likeness of God. He is generally read as an exceptional voice in his age, since most Christian writers accepted slavery as an institution while urging kindness.
A secular parallel
Kant held that people must never be treated merely as a means. A secular reader who accepts this principle may agree with a Christian about the wrongness of exploitation while giving a different reason for it. The shared conclusion does not remove the difference in foundations.
Different perspectives
Catholic
The Catechism teaches that, being in the image of God, the human individual possesses the dignity of a person, who is not just something but someone, capable of self-knowledge and self-gift. This dignity is inalienable. Catholic social teaching from Pope John XXIII to Pope John Paul II grounds human rights in it. The image is wounded but not destroyed by sin.
Orthodox
Orthodox theology emphasizes that the image of God is the capacity for communion with God, which is retained by all, and that the goal is the likeness, achieved through theosis. Writers such as Vladimir Lossky stress that the person is not reducible to nature, which supports a high view of the dignity of each one.
Protestant
Lutheran, Reformed and other Protestant traditions affirm that all people are made in God’s image and so have dignity, and that this is the basis for the prohibition of murder in Genesis 9:6. They differ on how fully the image was lost at the fall. Many twentieth-century Protestants, such as Barth and Bonhoeffer, stress the relational character of the image and its fulfilment in Christ.
Secular philosophy
Secular philosophers base dignity on rational autonomy, on the capacity to suffer, on shared humanity or on social agreement. Some accept the idea of inherent dignity without theology, as in Kant, others doubt it or tie it to capacities. Many agree with Christians in practice on the equal worth of persons, while disagreeing about foundations.
Jewish
Jewish tradition affirms that human beings are made in the image of God, with the Hebrew phrase tselem Elohim. Rabbinic sources, such as the Mishnah in tractate Sanhedrin, draw from the creation of one man the lesson of the unique worth of each person. Jewish writers read the image with particular emphasis on moral responsibility.
Why it matters
Human dignity is the foundation of most of the moral questions in the rest of this course: marriage, war, wealth, bioethics, technology. How one grounds dignity determines whom it covers and what it demands. A student who understands the main readings of the image can see why Christians speak as they do about the unborn, the dying, the poor and the stranger, and why others reach similar conclusions on other grounds or different ones.
Common misunderstandings
Misunderstanding: The image of God means that human beings look like God physically.
Correction: The Christian tradition has uniformly denied this, since God is spirit (John 4:24). The image is understood as capacities, relationship, task or calling, not bodily form.
Misunderstanding: Only believers are made in God’s image.
Correction: Genesis says all humans are, and Genesis 9:6 and James 3:9 apply it to people in general. Believers are said to be renewed in the image in Christ (Colossians 3:10), which is a further claim.
Misunderstanding: Without belief in God, there is no basis for human dignity.
Correction: Secular philosophers give other grounds, such as Kant’s. Christians argue that the image gives a more secure basis, and critics dispute this. The question is a matter of philosophical argument, not insult.
Misunderstanding: Christians have always applied the image to everyone equally.
Correction: The doctrine has been used both to defend and to deny the equal worth of groups, and the record includes serious failures. This is one reason for the care taken in reading Scripture.
Knowledge check
What are the three main readings of the image of God?
The substantive reading locates the image in human capacities such as reason and will. The relational reading locates it in the relation to God and to other persons. The functional reading sees it as the task of representing God’s rule in creation. Many theologians combine all three.
How do the traditions differ on the effect of the fall on the image?
Catholic teaching says the image is wounded but not lost. Reformed theology distinguishes a broad sense of the image, which remains, from original righteousness, which was lost. Early Lutherans sometimes spoke of its loss and restoration in Christ. Orthodox teaching holds that the image remains in all people, with the likeness to be attained.
What biblical texts connect the image to the wrongness of killing?
Genesis 9:6 says that whoever sheds man’s blood, by man shall his blood be shed, for in the image of God made he man. James 3:9 also treats cursing people as wrong because they are made in God’s likeness. These texts link the image to the protection of human life.
What is one challenge to grounding dignity in the image of God?
Secular critics say that dignity can be grounded without God, as Kant did, and others argue that the idea is vague. Others say the image does not clearly settle questions at the edges of life. Christians reply that the image gives equal worth independent of capacities.
Think it through
- What do you think gives a human being worth? Does your answer cover infants and the dying?
- Why might it matter that Genesis gives the image to all human beings, not just kings?
- How does the idea that Christ is the true image change the meaning of the doctrine?
- How should a Christian speak to someone who accepts human dignity but rejects God?
Independent assignment
Grounding dignity
In your notebook, write 400 to 600 words. Explain the three readings of the image of God in your own words. Then state how a Christian and a secular thinker would each ground the claim that every human being has equal worth. Say which grounds seem strongest to you and name the best objection to your view. Do not send this to anyone or post it anywhere.
Further study
- Irenaeus of Lyon, Against Heresies Read selectively for the distinction of image and likeness.
- Gregory of Nyssa, Dogmatic Treatises, etc. (Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, vol. 5) Read selectively for the Eastern view of human nature and the image.
- Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologiae Read the questions on the image of God in the First Part.
- Catholic Church, Catechism of the Catholic Church Read the section on man in the image of God.
- Genesis 1:27 Created in the image of God.
- Genesis 9:6 The image as the ground of the protection of life.
- Colossians 1:15 Christ the image of the invisible God.
- James 3:9 People made after the similitude of God.