INTERNATIONAL THEOLOGICAL COMMISSION
COMMUNION AND STEWARDSHIP:
Human Persons Created in the Image of God *
4. It was not until the eve of Vatican Council II that theologians began to rediscover the fertility of this theme for understanding and articulating the mysteries of the Christian faith. Indeed, the documents of this council both express and confirm this significant development in twentieth century theology. In continuity with the deepening recovery of the theme of the imago Dei since Vatican Council II, the International Theological Commission seeks in the following pages to reaffirm the truth that human persons are created in the image of God in order to enjoy personal communion with the Father, Son and Holy Spirit and with one another in them, and in order to exercise, in God’s name, responsible stewardship of the created world. In the light of this truth, the world appears not as something merely vast and possibly meaningless, but as a place created for the sake of personal communion.
INTERNATIONAL THEOLOGICAL COMMISSION
COMMUNION AND STEWARDSHIP: Human Persons Created in the Image of God *
INTRODUCTION
See also Cardinal Ratzinger’s (Pope Benedict XVI) Commentary on Genesis
CHAPTER ONE
HUMAN PERSONS CREATED IN THE IMAGE OF GOD
- As the witness of Scripture, Tradition and the Magisterium makes clear, the truth that human beings are created in the image of God is at the heart of Christian revelation. This truth was recognized and its broad implications expounded by the Fathers of the Church and by the great scholastic theologians. Although, as we shall note below, this truth was challenged by some influential modern thinkers, today biblical scholars and theologians join with the Magisterium in reclaiming and reaffirming the doctrine of the imago Dei.
1. The imago Dei in Scripture and Tradition
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With few exceptions, most exegetes today acknowledge that the theme of the imago Dei is central to biblical revelation (cf. Gen 1:26f; 5:1-3; 9:6). The theme is seen as the key to the biblical understanding of human nature and to all the affirmations of biblical anthropology in both the Old and New Testaments. For the Bible, the imago Dei constitutes almost a definition of man: the mystery of man cannot be grasped apart from the mystery of God.
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The Old Testament understanding of man as created in the imago Dei in part reflects the ancient Near Eastern idea that the king is the image of God on earth. The biblical understanding, however, is distinctive in extending the notion of the image of God to include all men. An additional contrast with ancient Near Eastern thought is that the Bible sees man as directed, not first of all to the worship of the gods, but rather to the cultivation of the earth (cf. Gen 2:15). Connecting cult more directly with cultivation, as it were, the Bible understands that human activity in the six days of the week is ordered to the Sabbath, a day of blessing and sanctification.
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Two themes converge to shape the biblical perspective. In the first place, the whole of man is seen as created in the image of God. This perspective excludes interpretations which locate the imago Dei in one or another aspect of human nature (for example, his upright stature or his intellect) or in one of his qualities or functions (for example, his sexual nature or his domination of the earth). Avoiding both monism and dualism, the Bible presents a vision of the human being in which the spiritual is understood to be a dimension together with the physical, social and historical dimensions of man.
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Secondly, the creation accounts in Genesis make it clear that man is not created as an isolated individual: ‘God created mankind in his image, in the image of God he created them, male and female he created them’ (Gen 1:27). God placed the first human beings in relation to one another, each with a partner of the other sex. The Bible affirms that man exists in relation with other persons, with God, with the world, and with himself. According to this conception, man is not an isolated individual but a person – an essentially relational being. Far from entailing a pure actualism that would deny its permanent ontological status, the fundamentally relational character of the imago Dei itself constitutes its ontological structure and the basis for its exercise of freedom and responsibility.
Peace to all,
Logically to understand the Image of God on has to understand the Family of God becoming again in all Creation One Holy Spirit Family One God in being, OMNiLogically.
Logically we can tell the Aquinians and The Einsteins and all finite disciplines of earth and all philossphers and theologians, priests, preachers and disciples of Christ we become again statically undefiled timelessly unfailing and dynamically pulsing through two natures in One God in being fulfilled through His Passion becoming for all Creation becoming again in One Holy Spirit Family One God in being, I believe.
Gods conceive through created flesh transformed becoming One Body becoming again immortally glorified and incorruptibly transfigured in One Holy Spirit Family One God in being.
The Word is The “Sophia” Wisdom of the Holy Family One God in being becomes from The Mind of The Family of Gods become flesh through The Christ.
From created failed from the corrupt spirit for the created souls of all through mortal failed flesh in the Bodies From Adam and Eve we become through Immaculate Immortality from Holy Spirit Incorruption through the New Eve From the New Adam becoming for Jesus Virgin Born through the Christ in all mankind becoming again for all Creation in One Holy Spirit Family One God in being.
We become all mankind created through Two Natures from the Faith of Abraham becoming from three powers preexisting in One Holy Family become again for all Creation in One God in being, OMNiLogically.
Peace always,
mystic Stephen