Humans are created in the image of God, yet by choosing to rebel against God we become unfaithful bearers of his image. But Jesus, who is the image of God, restores the divine image in us. At the intersection of theology and culture, these essays offer a unified vision of what it means to be truly human and created in the divine image in the world today.
In this New Studies in Biblical Theology volume, Richard Lints argues that "idol" language in the Bible is a conceptual inversion of the "image" language of Genesis 1. He shows how the narrative of human identity runs from creation to fall to redemption in Christ, and examines the recent renaissance of interest in idolatry with its conceptual power to explain the "culture of desire."
At a time when the call to imitate Jesus comes loaded with moralistic overtones, Jason Hood offers a refreshing look at imitation on the Bible's terms. Drawing our attention to the practice that Paul taught "everywhere in every church," Hood's study yields insights into Scripture, the church fathers and Christian culture.
Examining the transhumanist movement, biblical ethicist Jacob Shatzer grapples with the potential for technology to transform the way we think about what it means to be human. Exploring the doctrine of incarnation and topics such as artificial intelligence, robotics, medical technology, and communications tools, he guides us into careful consideration of the future of Christian discipleship in a disruptive technological environment.
The doctrine of the imago Dei, that human beings are created in the “image and likeness of God,” is an endlessly fascinating topic. Not only is it a central doctrine to Christian life and practice but also touches, perhaps even helps to form, every other doctrine of the Christian faith in one way or another. We do not think about God, in a Christian sense, as any other than the God who creates humanity in God’s image. However, many of the details of this claim and what it means for human beings are left undefined by Hebrew and Christian Scriptures and it is not even mentioned in the creeds. This space leaves room for exploration. So the quest for what it means for human beings to be made in the image and likeness of God has never ceased to occupy theologians, clerics, and the laity alike. In this Companion, Peppiatt charts the developments of the doctrine through the ages, summarizing each position and perspective up to the modern day. This volume offers a compact but rich overview of the various ways in which this doctrine has been and is understood as well as pointing readers to further questions for consideration.
In this thoroughly revised and updated edition of a classic reference work, topics like Christology, justification, and hermeneutics receive careful treatment by trusted specialists. New topics like politics, patronage, and different cultural perspectives expand the volume's breadth and usefulness for scholars, pastors, and students today.
John H. Walton is a significant voice in Old Testament studies, who has influenced many scholars in this field as well as others. This volume is an acknowledgment from his students of Walton’s role as a teacher, scholar, and mentor. Each essay is offered by scholars (and former students) working in a range of fields—from Old and New Testament studies to archaeology and theology. They are offered as a testimony and tribute to Walton’s prolific career.”
This book demonstrates the promise of Christology for developing Scottish theologian T. F. Torrance’s theological anthropology. T. F. Torrance’s Christological Anthropology: Discerning Humanity in Christ engages with several key themes in Torrance’s theological anthropology and considers how each one of these topics—anthropological method, the metaphysics of human nature, the imago Dei, personhood, vocation, human destiny—can be further developed in light of Christ. Christopher Woznicki argues that Christology not only holds promise for the task of developing Torrance’s insights on humanity but also for developing a constructive account of humanity. The volume is valuable reading for scholars of T. F. Torrance’s theology and for those who are interested in the role of Christology in theological anthropology.
Faithful Learning aims to fill a gap in Christian higher education by providing a theology primer accessible to Christian educators who may not have any formal theological training and by illustrating how Christian doctrine intersects with various academic disciplines. The intended audience for this book is current and future faculty, staff, and administrators in Christian higher education. The author envisions this book as one that directors of faculty development might purchase en masse to give to new and current faculty or use in faculty trainings.
What if everything in the Bible has a larger outer context than is usually accounted for? Missional and biblical theologies suggest that the Bible presents a grand story like a play with multiple acts. The acts typically include creation, fall, redemption, and finally restoration. But what if the whole story itself occurs in another larger setting, occurring within a mission running in the background throughout the whole Bible? How might this aid our research, reading, and application? And why is this being proposed now? This book explores these questions. The larger context is the production of the place of God—a home and homeland wherein God, with his people, dwell on earth. Since place is underdeveloped in biblical studies, the book presents a new method for interpreting place. Then the book lays out the case that a grand mission to produce the place of God becomes the outer context for the whole Bible. Finally, the book defends this proposal with an in-depth placial commentary of the bookends of the Bible, since these bookends provide keys to unlock this message, thereby inviting further study on the rest of the Bible and on the implications for this transformative perspective.
