HUMANKIND AS BEING CREATED IN THE "IMAGE OF GOD" IN THE OLD TESTAMENT: POSSIBLE IMPLICATIONS FOR THE THEOLOGICAL DEBATE ON HUMAN DIGNITY

Abstract

This contribution provides a survey of existing scholarship on the nature and extent of the 'image of God/imago Dei' according to the Old Testament. Some of the aspects that will be discussed are: Image in the physical sense with the focus on selem in Genesis 1-humankind as representing the divine. Image in a spiritualized sense with the focus on demût in Genesis 1-humankind as resembling the divine. Image as attribute or relationship-in conversation with Barth and Bonhoeffer. A few concluding remarks will be made about human dignity and Old Testament anthropology as a theological synthesis between the Egyptian emphasis on humankind as a royal being and the Mesopotamian (Assyrian and Babylonian) view of humankind as a slave to do the most menial of work.