#imagodei

[esandersonucc]

Whose Image?

Then [Jesus] said to them, “Give therefore to the emperor the things that are the emperor’s, and to God the things that are God’s.” – Matthew 22:21 Nobody asked, “What things are God’s?”for fear, perhaps, you’d speak the answer then:“All things belong to God; all things, including you.” Two millennia we’ve focused our attentionon the first, imperial, clause, debating whatthe monarch, governor,…

[gmworking]

"Joey" Ride to OneTribe 

Unlock the secrets of profound and enduring transformation with The Transformation Equation! Dive into this captivating YouTube video, where you'll discover the 4 simple-yet-powerful steps that pave the way for genuine and lasting change in your life. From unraveling old patterns to igniting a renewed sense of purpose, this insightful guide promises to revolutionize the way you approach personal growth. Get ready to embark on a journey of self-discovery and empowerment that will leave you inspired and equipped to manifest true greatness.

[thelogiciannamedmarcus]

[Monad] (from Greek μονάς monas, "singularity" in turn from μόνος monos, "alone") refers, in cosmogony, to the Supreme Being, divinity or the totality of all things. The monad. It is 1, all contained. It is the indivisible. It is the All! It is when God says I Am. But remember this ONENESS can be expressed in a multiplicity. Everything has come from the singularity, the seed. #theunconscious #Daunconscious #unity #oneness #Allisone #OneisAll #God #Christ #CGJung #Jung #psychology #jungianpsychology #imagodei #psych #spirituality #psychospiritual https://www.instagram.com/p/CRt5-qTDIOx/?utm_medium=tumblr

[imagodeiinitiative]

A good listen when the “wonderful” idea of virtual Eucharists comes up. 

“Are virtual celebrations of the Eucharist a good idea or not?”

[therevlisad]

How do you view spiritual practices? ⁠ As Divine commands?⁠ As “to do’s” on your habit tracker?⁠ As woulda, shoulda, coulda guilt triggers?⁠ ⁠ What if we saw spiritual practices as gifts?⁠ As ways of practicing self-compassion⁠ As learning to love ourselves as God loves us⁠ ⁠ God is Love. ⁠ You are made in the image of Love.⁠ You are love, to love and be loved and be love. ⁠ ⁠ Receive this moment to draw near to God and your true self ⁠ ⁠ Near to the Heart of God by Cleland B. McAfee (1903)⁠ There is a place of quiet rest,⁠ near to the heart of God;⁠ a place where sin cannot molest,⁠ near to the heart of God.⁠ ⁠ Refrain:⁠ O Jesus, blest Redeemer,⁠ sent from the heart of God,⁠ hold us who wait before thee⁠ near to the heart of God.⁠ ⁠ There is a place of comfort sweet,⁠ near to the heart of God;⁠ a place where we our Savior meet,⁠ near to the heart of God.⁠ (Refrain)⁠ ⁠ There is place a place of full release,⁠ near to the heart of God;⁠ a place where all is joy and peace,⁠ near to the heart of God.⁠ (Refrain)⁠ ⁠ Rest in God’s presence for five minutes, or more⁠ ⁠ IN: Jesus, blest Redeemer⁠ OUT: Hold me⁠ ⁠ IN: Jesus, blest Redeemer⁠ OUT: Hold all I love⁠ ⁠ IN: Jesus, blest Redeemer⁠ OUT: Hold all who are suffering⁠ ⁠ IN: Jesus, blest Redeemer⁠ OUT: Hold all who are waiting⁠ ⁠ IN: Jesus, blest Redeemer⁠ OUT: Hold me⁠ ⁠ ⁠ **************************⁠ Welcome to #8 in the series. Breath prayers + old school hymns = something simple and beautiful to help you connect to God.⁠ ⁠ ⁠#godislove #selfcompassion #imageofgod #imagodei #breathprayers #breathprayer #justbreathe #talktoGod #pandemicprayers #soulcare #encounteringgod #spiritualpractice #mindfulnesspractice #spiritualdiscipline #meansofgrace #talkingtoGod⁠ #listeningtogod #godisnear #christianspirituality #slowlivingforlife #restingingod #restingod #trustgod #christianprayer #prayerlife #spirituallife #prayerpractice⁠ (at Sarasota, Florida) https://www.instagram.com/p/CGCoW_jFaK_/?igshid=1sbzvyqodka8q

[blgriffith]

Happy Eastertide! Alleluia, Christ is risen!

[deborahdeshoftim5779]

Vue d’ensemble de la langue géorgienne. À ce moment, j’écoute au chant géorgien orthodoxe, qui est riche d’une harmonie unique. 

[howwerun]

The Imago Dei, the Image of God

Imago Dei is not something I was taught about, as such, but as I am studying it, I realize I have been taught indirectly through the liturgies of the traditions in which I was raised. Somewhere along the way, it was instilled in me that the imago Dei is a reference to the fact that I am human, as opposed to anything else in creation. As with most things in Churches of Christ (CoC), this was conveyed through negative comparisons. Just as we were CoC because we were not denominational and not Catholic, we were human because we were not dogs or cats or rocks, etc. Just as we were CoC because we did not have a written creed, we were human because we were not merely instinctual but intellectual.

To be the imago Dei is to be human, and to be human is to be physiologically and intellectually human. Therefore, all humans are necessarily bearers of the imago Dei, regardless of what they do or what they believe. It is an inherent, human quality that cannot be lost or gained. It simply is, because in the beginning, God made us so.

This essay will explore an alternative understanding of the imago Dei, one that challenges the traditions in which I was raised in increasingly complex ways and calls into question what it is that truly defines the imago Dei.

Defining Imago Dei

The short of it is this: I no longer believe that the imago Dei is found in our appearance, nor is it found in our being physiologically different from the rest of creation, nor is it found in our being intellectually “superior” to the rest of creation. The imago Dei does set us apart as humans from the rest of creation, but it is in a particular capacity that we find our “holiness” as the image of the one true God: we have been blessed with the capacity to participate willingly, however imperfectly, in the missio Dei. The divine work of the creator is open to us in a conscious, willful way, and that is not something I think anything else in all of this physical creation can claim.

This is, admittedly, a rather abstract interpretation, and it seems even more so when compared to the definitions I was taught growing up. Perhaps that is because it was necessary for me, personally, that I might “shift to the left a bit” and examine the imago Dei with fresh eyes. Regardless, I think it would serve all of us well who grew up in conservative CoC to stretch our imagination of Genesis (and all of scripture) a bit abstractly.

Imago Dei and the Trinity

A big part of this shift in the imago Dei is rooted in a consideration of the Trinity. I am assuming as a foundational posture that God operates out of, and in line with, God’s nature, and that nature is rooted in God’s Trinitarian identity. Because I hold that the Trinity is engaged in a constant and reciprocal, self-denying hospitality toward one another, creation, too, not only as an act but also in relation to the missio Dei, is rooted in self-denying hospitality. God is making room at God’s table for creation, and in Christ, creation is brought up to share in the life of the Divine.

The imago Dei, therefore, finds its roots in that same hospitable nature. More precisely, God has placed in creation a created being capable of expressing the nature and mission of God toward creation. It is not in humanity that God is manifest; it is through humanity that God is manifesting God’s image in creation. To be the imago Dei, we must engage in the missio Dei so that God’s image is made manifest among us and through us (and, I think Smith would argue, to us).

Imago Dei and Scripture

Initial hints of this Trinitarian, missio Dei-imago Dei are seen in Genesis 1, where God creates humans as male and female, precluding a gender-specific definition of the imago Dei and expressing a communal definition of being human (“male and female God created them”). God instructs them to have dominion over the earth and to be fruitful, and Genesis 2 tells us that God’s intention was for Eden to be tilled and kept, and it was not good that man should do this alone. Already, God’s Trinitarian nature is manifest in humanity, but not in their physical image. Rather, it is in their communal and hospitable identity toward creation (and one another) that shines forth the imago Dei.

As the story of God unfolds throughout human history, God continually invites people into deeper and deeper participation. God’s covenant with Abraham was aimed at the benefit of all peoples, and we see prophets essentially sitting at the decision-making table with God. They stand in the breach on behalf of the righteous and unrighteous, alike, and have “authority” to reason with God about the future of humanity. Even before Christ, humanity engages in the missio Dei; from the beginning of creation, humanity has the capacity to be the imago Dei.

Enter: Jesus. God reveals the heart of the missio Dei in the power of the cross. In conservative, CoC tradition, Jesus is the imago Dei in his being the physically manifested Son of God, but under this newer exploration of the imago Dei, it is, perhaps, in something else that we see the truest manifestation: “the Kingdom of God has drawn near.” Jesus’s life and ministry is the purest revelation of God’s Trinitarian nature, not only in his relationship with the Father and the Spirit, but also in his relationship with creation and humanity. Jesus is God incarnate, yes, but as a human, Jesus bears the imago Dei in his submitted participation in the work of God and his determined, self-denying, hospitable nature both toward and with his disciples and all those who come to him. The drawing near of the Kingdom might not be simply God come to earth (Jesus) but the imago Dei being lived out among those who follow Jesus.

Imago Dei and Human Identity

Another major shift in my imagination of the imago Dei comes from my understanding of what it means to be human. Rooting the imago Dei in human physiology or intellect places humanity at the center of the story; God’s image is rooted in us rather than in God. This takes a lot of the pressure off humanity by making God look like us from the get-go. Without any work, we start off connected to the divine in a majestic and glorifying way— we are made in the image of God.

Part of being human, though, is being a created being. If I see myself as created and God as divine, then I can no more bear the image of God inherently than can anything else in creation. Perhaps that is why it is so tempting to imagine that the imago Dei has to do with being a human as opposed to a dog or cat. It is simpler and cleaner and roots our inherent value in created nature.

When we allow ourselves to identify with creation, as creatures who are other than divine, we must find our inherent value in God’s undeserved love. The imago Dei, then, necessitates something beyond human nature, because God is beyond human nature. Thus, it is in our imitation of God that we begin to bear the image of God and not otherwise.

Imago Dei and Smith

Imaging God thus involves representing and perhaps extending in some way God’s rule on earth through ordinary communal practices of human sociocultural life.

This is perhaps the most succinct summary I have seen of the imago Dei, which I am attempting to describe. Smith continues, “The imago Dei is not a thing or property that was lost (or retained); it was a calling and a vocation that Adam and Eve failed to carry out.”

The significance in Smith’s argument is that he adds another characteristic to human identity, which I had neglected: embodiment. It is important to articulate that aspect of humanity, because, for Smith, the imago Dei is an embodied calling, and I agree. I have danced around the characteristic, thus far, but Smith attacks it head-on: “the shape of such image-bearing will be cruciform,” and the cross is an embodied act.

I think there is a tension, here. I have argued that the imago Dei is not a physical characteristic or trait, and Smith makes the same argument, but because embodiment is part of being human, any participation in the missio Dei is necessarily going to be embodied. The cross demonstrates that. Thus, while the imago Dei is not a physical characteristic, it is inextricable from our being physical. It must be made manifest in our very bodies. I believe this is what Paul means when he says we are

...always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be made visible in our bodies. For while we live, we are always being given up to death for Jesus’ sake, so that the life of Jesus may be made visible in our mortal flesh.

Ministry and the Imago Dei

If the imago Dei is an embodied participation in the missio Dei— a physical, sociocultural, communal practice— there is a fundamental shift in my pastoral paradigm. For most of my life, I saw humans as individuals whose ultimate goal was to transcend physical suffering to attain spirituality. We were each spirits with bodies, and true maturity was to focus entirely on the spiritual. In that paradigm, physical actions could only ever be means to an end; they were inroads to helping people see what was truly important. If, however, the imago Dei is an embodied practice rooted in the hospitable nature of the Trinity, the embodied practices are not simply hooks to draw people in.

Smith makes a compelling argument that we are not simply “thinking things” but being things. We are shaped primarily by doing and experiencing, not primarily by rationalizing and studying. It is precisely because of that distinction that the imago Dei challenges the old pastoral paradigm; embodied practices do not simply lead to pursuits of the mind. Rather, the embodied practices, themselves, are forming and transforming moments when the imago Dei is powerfully manifest.

The overriding goal of pastoral work, then, is to participate in the missio Dei in one’s congregation and communities such that the imago Dei is “made visible in our mortal flesh.” This means that evangelism is not just preaching and teaching. Nor is leadership simply telling people what to do, where to go, or what to believe. Worship is not just singing words or remembering Jesus by ourselves, in our own minds. Rather, evangelism necessitates sharing life with people— embodied participation in the realities of humanity that we might be cruciform in both mourning and rejoicing. Leadership necessitates communal discernment; what is the Spirit doing so that we might participate? Worship necessitates intentional, liturgical practices that are rooted in Trinitarian hospitality.

Conclusion

There is no room for buffered individuals in the imago Dei. I cannot reflect the Trinity on my own. I require embodied persons to interact with and dance with. Shared lives are required. Communal discernment is required. A sense of the calling is required. I keep hearing Matthew over and over in my mind: “For where two or three are gathered in my name, I am there among them.” God has invited us to the table of the Divine, and it seems the one requirement to stay is that we turn and do the same with a cruciform, embodied love.

Reference

Smith, James K. A. Desiring the Kingdom: Worship, Worldview, and Cultural Formation. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2009.

[daniruypereira]

From Thomas à Kempis, “The Imitation of Christ”. This is specially useful for teachers, since “peace” is something that either we lack, or some of our pupils in their lifes or the classroom because of our individual lack of peace. Learnig to bear those who are not in peace may cause suffering, but according to Kempis that is precisely what we need to keep on top of things.” #teachingideas #imagodei #thomasakempis #dailyquotes #christianclassics #immitationofchrist #lent #lent2019 https://www.instagram.com/p/BvTNkEBJpcL/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=1booupao9g8ch

[imagodei-romans13-10-blog]

Jesus was a friend of all. He stood by those who did not have a voice. He showed love to everyone regardless of their disposition. This is the God I serve, the God of love. We, as Christians, are called to love. Love God, and Love Others, in doing this we fulfill the sum of the law. We are to love everyone, regardless of their sin. Many Christians believe that being LGBTQ is sin, others do not. The Bible isn’t as clear on this subject as it is with others, so some Christians fall in a grey area and don’t know what their stance is, Either way, we are to love people in the LGBTQ community just as we love everyone else.  They are each made and loved by God, therefor we are to love them as well. 

[livingpurposefullyco]

Perspective. . . . #Faith #Christian #Gospel #Devotion #ImagoDei #LivingPurposefully #perspective #tgif #PilgrimsDisciples (at Wake Forest, North Carolina) https://www.instagram.com/p/BojblTFjxs5/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=1hgw77lxh449f

[thelogiciannamedmarcus]

It is of no coincidence that the symbol of the serpent has been a common theme in the past of our race to express a spiritual cosmogony. They always a referred to the dragon/snake as some sort of dual intermediary and adversary. Out of the “body” of this dragon, serpentine thing material is formed. This beast is chaos. Not in the conventional sense of evil, but in that it has no one form. It is formless, undivided and all containing. It has many names. It is known by the void, cosmic womb, Ain, and Prima Materia (first matter). These are the first waters. #TheUnconscious #Daunconscious #unity #oneness #Alchemy #Allisone #OneisAll #God #Christ #CGJung #Jung #psychology #jungianpsychology #imagodei #psych #psyche #spirituality #psychospiritual #astropsychology https://www.instagram.com/p/CSNnTs9DUnR/?utm_medium=tumblr

[shalome7]

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A post shared by Marie V Hall (@shalome7mvh)

Love And Appreciation For @marqjohnsontv Thank You #MarqJohnson We Love You! #ImagoDei IMAGO DEI!!! I Am The Image Of GOD!!! #SongWriter #RecordingArtist #TalkShowHost #TalkShow #CrossTalk #dTuneThursday #Life #BlackBeauty #GODBless #GoHard #BlackLivesMatter #TonOfSteel #ShineBright #TransformationalSpeaker #BeDoGo #Jamaica #TeamJamaica #Gratitude #GiveThanks #Empowerment #EmpowermentZone #MontegoBayJamaica #NuffLove #WeLoveYou #ShareTheLove https://www.instagram.com/p/CS90cK3nadS/?utm_medium=tumblr

[imagodeiinitiative]

What is truly involved?

Writing on the English Reformation period: "The enormous convulsion in English society, political and cultural life that came to be know as 'the Reformation' was a long collective argument about what was truly involved in the imitation of Christ; about what people needed to do, or avoid doing, in order to achieve salvation.”*

Reading this, I can’t help but think that most all of our inter-religious Christian conflict stems from honest people trying to figure out “what was truly involved in the imitation of Christ” gone too far. Our all-to-human hubris ends up living in denial of the very image that Christ set for his followers to exemplify.

*From, “Heretics and Believers,” Peter Marshall, pg. 5.

[blgriffith]

God so loved us that for our sakes he, through whom time was made, was made in time; older by eternity than the world itself, he became younger in age than many of his servants in the world; God, who made man, was made man; he was given existence by a mother whom he brought into existence; he was carried in hands which he formed; he was nursed at breasts which he filled; he cried like a baby in the manger in speechless infancy - this Word without which human eloquence is speechless.

Augustine (354-430)

[blulightningstudios]

A commission for my High school’s sophomore retreat #imagodei #artistsoninstagram https://www.instagram.com/p/CYALbtiPvJG/?utm_medium=tumblr