What is the Christian concept of the imago dei? How might it be important to healthcare, and why is it relevant?
What is the Christian concept of the imago dei? How might it be important to healthcare, and why is it relevant?
Shelly, J. A., & Miller, A. B. (2006). Called to care: A Christian worldview for nursing (2nd ed., Rev. and expanded.). Downers Grove, Ill.: IVP Academic/InterVarsity Press.
The postmodern argument with viewing persons as the image of God (imagoDei) takes a different tack. Drawing from an eclectic array of ancient and newly constructed religions and philosophies, as we have seen, many are beginning to view the earth as a living organism. Kleffel explains, “Humans are one functioning part of the totality and act in harmony within the organism.”2 In otherwords, human life is no more valuable than a rock or a raccoon. The philosophy reveals itself in the T-shirt slogan borne by Margie, a junior student: “Save therats, experiment on people. “Recognizing the imago Dei in each human being does suggest that we havea special place in God’s plan, with serious moral consequences. We can own dogs, cats and cattle, but not human slaves. We eat chickens and pigs for dinner, but not people—even our enemies. We shoot lame horses, but not disabled veterans. It was the imago Dei that drove Mother Teresa to care for the sick and dying in Calcutta, as it has motivated Christians throughout the centuries to care for the poor, the sick and the disenfranchised. Whenever a society ceased to recognize the image of God in human beings, whether in the name of science, political ideology, religion or simply greed, serious moral decay soon followed. What Does It Mean to Be Human?77have only to look at the Nazi Holocaust, the decline of compassionate healthcare under the Communist regimes and our own profit-driven health care sys-tem for vivid illustrations. What is the imago Dei? The concept begins in Genesis 1:26:Then God said, “Let us make humankind in our image, according to our likeness; and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the wild animals ofthe earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth. “This single verse delivers a powerful threefold message. First, we are created and thus distinct from the Creator. Second, we somehow reflect the nature of this God. And finally, God gives us a position of responsibility and authority over the rest of creation. To be created in the image of God means that we must look to God for our meaning, purpose and direction. It also makes us thinking, feeling, willing, re-lational creatures who reflect these attributes of our Creator. In order to under-stand ourselves in any depth, we must first look to God to know what he in-tended us to be. The late theologian Paul Jewett explains:The truth that we have our being as human only in a fellowship of an Iand a thou in no way impugns the distinction between them. True, I can-not rightly understand myself apart from God who gave me my existenceand my neighbor with whom I share that existence.
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