Theological glossary · FaithLogic

Image of God (imago Dei)

The Genesis teaching that human beings are made 'in the image of God' — the ground of universal human dignity and vocation.

Latin imago Dei; from Hebrew tselem ('image') and demut ('likeness'), Genesis 1:26–27.

Genesis 1:26–28; 5:1–3; 9:6; Psalm 8:5–8; 1 Corinthians 11:7; James 3:9; and, of Christ as the true image, 2 Corinthians 4:4; Colossians 1:15; of believers renewed in it, Romans 8:29; Colossians 3:10.

Three historic readings: structural (a capacity — reason, will, morality), relational (being made for relationship with God and others), and functional/royal (the vocation to represent God and rule the earth, on the ANE model of a king's 'image'). Most modern treatments integrate them.

The image is defaced but not destroyed by the fall — Genesis 9:6 and James 3:9 still ground the sanctity of persons in it after Eden. It is fully realised in Christ and being restored in those united to him.

Which reading is primary; whether the image is possessed equally by all at all times or is partly a goal; how it relates to human evolutionary origins.

Open in the glossary for related terms and the doctrines this concept appears in.