I. ATTENTION: What Does It Mean to Be Made in the Image of God?
We hear this phrase often, but we are not always sure what it means. At a conference like this, we tend to think of the creativity that we have and how it is a reflection of the Creator-God. That is certainly true.
Let’s look briefly at three ways the image of God has been talked about theologically:
- Function: This approach sees the image of God in us in the things we are capable of doing, particularly our ability to be imaginative and employ our creativity.
- Substance: This approach sees the image of God in us as a part of our very essence. It is from this view that we gain the notion of human dignity.
- Relationship: This approach begins with the Triune God and sees the human longing to be known and loved as part of this desire and capacity for community.
There is truth to each of these ways of speaking of the image of God in humans. But there is another way to look at this. The Swiss theologian Karl Barth begins and ends his theology of the imago Dei with Jesus. For Barth, any discussion about our being in the image of God must begin with the recognition that Jesus alone is the perfect image of God.
When we want to know what it looks like to be fully human, we look to Jesus. Jesus shows us how we were created to be.
This has resonances with C.S. Lewis’ famous words about Jesus being the only truly and fully human the world has seen since the first man and woman. The rest of us are “subhuman.” So, when we fail, Lewis remarks that this is not because we are “only human,” but because we are less than human.
To be created in the image of God, then, is to be created to be like Jesus.
I think of Dallas Willard’s definition of discipleship as “learning from Jesus to lead my life the way He would lead my life if He were me.” It is the imago Dei that makes us capable of living and loving and giving and forgiving like Jesus.
But, wait …
II. TENSION: What About Sin and the Fall?
Ah, yes. Here’s the uncomfortable truth: We can’t just “live like Jesus.”
Whether your view of the “fall” is that the image of God is obscured (Eastern Orthodox?) or obliterated (Reformed?), we have lost the capacity to be fully human, to live out the imago Dei.
III. PARTICIPATION: What Does This Mean for Our Technology?
This fallenness has implications for how we use or misuse our technology.
But first, we need to define “technology.”… Let’s define it broadly, as British theologian Elaine Graham does:
Technology is “both a body of knowledge … and the material instruments and machines through which such knowledge is practiced.” —Elaine Graham
