Likeness of God

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Michelangelo : The Creation of Adam

The image of God ( Hebrew צֶלֶם אֱלֹהִים, tzäläm elohim; Greek εἰκὼν τοῦ θεοῦ, eikōn tou theou and Latin imago dei) is a religious tradition, see z. B. the Bible , according to which man was created as “ God's image” and as man and woman. This tradition occupies a central position in several religions.

In the course of the history of its impact, many interpretive approaches developed. One difficulty in Christian theology lay in combining the doctrine of being in the image of God with that of the human fall . In the theological tradition since the patristic era, a lost resemblance to God, but at the same time an existing inner-soul image of God, has been assumed. In the Reformation, on the other hand, the image of God was seen as "corrupted" as a result of the Fall. Since the Renaissance humanism to this day, the image of God is often regarded as the theological justification of human dignity . In the modern age , as a result of secularization, there was a "decline" in the idea of ​​being in the image of God.

Modern theology is based on the relationship between the divine likeness in man and the “parental” God from an essential statement. Being in the image of God enables man to rule over nature , see Dominium terrae .

In rebellion against the church's explanatory models, the image of God was the first to experience violent criticism from Ludwig Feuerbach . In the context of his projection theory he took the view that man creates a god in his own image. In the 20th century, some naturalists saw the cause of the exploitation of nature in the mandate to rule closely linked to being in the image of God. On the other hand, there is a statement of theology, according to which man cannot create any fantasy of a god without himself having a share in the “parental” God through his inner likeness of God.

Ancient oriental and Egyptian royal ideology

In Mesopotamia

In Akkadian texts, the idea of ​​the king being in the image of God is documented several times. The oldest evidence of this can be found in the Central Assyrian victory hymn to Tukulti-Ninurta I (1244–1208 BC). This describes the king as a "permanent image of (God) Enlil ". Most of the evidence, however, comes from the Neo-Assyrian period, from the 7th century BC. Chr.

In the Gilgamesh epic , the creation of the human Enkidu takes place as follows: The mother goddess Aruru forms an image of the god Anu in her heart and then draws this in clay. The creature is therefore the image of a deity after which it was created.

In Egypt

In ancient Egypt, the king in particular is referred to as both God's son and God's image. The many different terms that can be found for “illustration” can be divided into two main groups.

The king as a concrete image of God

Great Temple of Abu Simbel

On the one hand, the king is referred to as a concrete image of God, his passive representative and ruler. The words twt.w , ḥntj and šzp stand for this specific image . The words in their context denote similar facts. On the one hand, these words can represent statues of kings in temples, statues that were carried and venerated in processions, statues of private individuals in the temple and grave statues of private individuals. The person represented by the statue becomes present at the location of the statue. This is what it says on a statue of Ramses II erected in Nubia :

"His [the king's] living image in the land of Nubia"

- Egyptian statue inscription in Nubia

So, although the king is not in Nubia, he is still present there.

On the other hand, the king himself is also referred to as the “image of God”. The earliest evidence of this is found in the Second Intermediate Period , approx. 1648–1550 BC. The king is referred to as the image of the gods Re , Aton , Amun and Chepre . All of these gods are some form of the supreme sun god . The first component of the king's name Tutankhamun , twt , can also be derived from twt.t , which speaks for the king's likeness to God.

The aforementioned relationship between a statue and what is depicted is transferred to the relationship between the king and God: Although the god is not “carnal” present, he is present through the image: the God is therefore present in the king on earth .

The function of this likeness of God consists in the exercise of rule by the king on earth. This divine mandate to exercise rulership comes, for example, at a point in Amenhotep III. to expression. There the god Amun-Re-Kamutef speaks to the king:

“... You cultivate it [the land] for me with a loving heart.
Because you are my beloved son who came out of my body,
my image that I have placed on earth "

Another term for picture, sšm.v emphasizes the hiddenness of God. Here again the king is referred to as the “living sšm.w image of the Lord of the Gods”. The king conducts his government in the seclusion of the palace. At the same time the king gives oracles as sšm.w-picture, as it is said in the eulogy of a king:

"I am the herald of your word, the sšm.w-image of your oracle that comes out of your majesty's mouth"

- A king's eulogy

As like God

Furthermore, man and especially the king as God is viewed similarly in his actions. Another series of words, znn , mi.ti , mi.tt and ti.t, designates the king less as a concrete image of God, but rather as similar to God in his being and actions. As more like God , he has the necessary prerequisites to be an image of God. A private person can also be called godlike. However, there is a very strong difference in degree between king and private person : The king stands out as being more similar to the sun god among all people.

In the Hebrew Bible

Detail from Michelangelo's " Creation of Adam "

In the Hebrew Bible , statements about being in the image of God can be found at a central point, namely in the priestly written creation story at the points

  1. Gen 1,26f  EU : And God said: Let us make a picture like us, who rule over the fish in the sea and over the birds under the sky and over the cattle and over all the animals of the field and over all worms that crawl on earth. 27 And God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; and created them male and female.
  2. Gen 5,1  EU : This is the book of Adam's generation. When God created man, He made him in God's image.
  3. Gen 9,6  EU : Whoever sheds human blood, his blood should also be shed by people; for God made man in his own image.

In addition, there is the 8th Psalm ( Ps 8,6  EU ):

You made him little less than God, crowned him with glory and honor.

Otherwise, no further statements are made in the Tanach about man's image in the image of God.

Literary context

The priestly statements about being in the image of God each fall in the context of a statement about the creation of man by God:

  • Gen 1  EU : Creation of man and rule of man over animals
  • Gen 5  EU : Remembrance of the day when God created man
  • Gen 9  EU : Creation of man by God as a reason for the prohibition of murder

Linguistic observations

The passage Gen 1,26f  EU in particular poses the lexical problem of the meaning of the nouns ṣäläm and demût. While ṣäläm means a concrete plastic replica - a portrait , a statue or a statue - (e.g. 2 Kings 11.18  EU ), demût means rather "equality", even if it can be used as an expression for form and appearance ( e.g. 2 Chr 4,3  EU ). Ultimately, both words have almost the same meaning. Both terms are provided with prepositions, namely interchangeable with b e or k e ( Gen 1.26  OT and 5.1-3 OT ). Both aim at a comparison. The teaching found in Gen 1.26f  EU can therefore hardly be systematized linguistically.

The use of the plural “let 's ...” (נעשה אדם) is also striking . Today's exegesis sees three possibilities here:

  1. The "heavenly beings of YHWH's court" are included.
  2. It is a sovereign plural - the pluralis majestatis .
  3. A pluralis deliberationis is meant, ie a plural of the expression of intent in the “style of self-solicitation”.

In the New Testament

In addition to the scriptures in the Old Testament, there are statements relevant to Christianity in the New Testament . This relates statements about being in the image of God - for this the term εἰκών ( eikōn , image ) is used - especially to Jesus Christ , and the term is also extended to eschatology .

The text documents can be divided into three types.

Christ in the image of God

Such christological statements about Christ as the image of God can be found in the following places:

  • In 2 Corinthians ( 2 Cor 4,4  EU ): To the unbelievers, for whom the God of this world has blinded the mind that they do not see the bright light of the Gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.
  • In the Letter to the Colossians ( Col 1.15  EU ): He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn before all creation.
  • In the Letter to the Hebrews ( Hebrews 1,3  EU ): He is the reflection of his glory and the likeness of his being and bears all things with his strong word and has accomplished the cleansing from sins and has sat at the right hand of the majesty on high.

Man's likeness to God or Christ

There are also anthropological statements about Christian people as the image of God or Christ, namely in the following places:

  • In First Corinthians ( 1 Cor 15.49  EU ): Just as we were shaped according to the image of the earthly, so we will also be shaped according to the image of the heavenly.
  • In the Second Letter to the Corinthians ( 2 Cor 3,18  EU ): we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into his likeness, from glory to glory, by the Spirit of the Lord.
  • In the Letter to the Colossians ( Col 3,10  EU ): ... and you have become a new person who is renewed in the image of his Creator in order to recognize him.
  • In the second letter of Peter ( 2 Petr 1,4  EU ): Through them the precious and extremely great promises were given to us so that you can escape the pernicious desires that reign in the world and share in the divine nature.

The natural man as the image of God

Occasionally there are also statements about the natural human being as the image of God:

  • In 1 Corinthians ( 1 Cor 11.7  EU ): The man must not cover his head because he is the image and reflection of God; but the woman is the reflection of the man.
  • In the Letter of James ( Jak 3,9  EU ): With her (the tongue) we praise the Lord and Father, and with her we curse the people who are created in the image of God.

History of impact in Judaism

Pre- and Extra-Rabbinical Judaism

Ethical-anthropological interpretation

The pre- and extra-rabbinical interpretation sees the knowledge of good and evil as well as the possibility of an ethical life in the image of God. Because man was created according to God's order, he is also able to be an image of this order and to live according to it according to the law. The human responsibility resulting from such a spiritual and ethical interpretation means that human beings have to answer for their works before a divine final judgment . Furthermore, being in the image of God is particularly understood as Israel's inheritance from Adam .

In the Hellenistic-Jewish writings - in particular the book of " Wisdom of Solomon " written in Alexandria - this ethical interpretation is combined with the Greek idea of ​​the immortal soul , in that the image of God is equated with the immortality of the soul. Eternal life results from a "life with God". As a result of the Fall, the immortality of the soul is an eschatological-transcendent gift that is only available to those who lead a life according to God. Whoever wants to preserve "true life" in the hereafter has to prove himself in this life. The likeness of God exists independently of the physical condition of the human being and finds its final fulfillment only in being with God after physical death. Nevertheless, likeness is dependent on human behavior, insofar as immortality is not a possession of man, but can be acquired through a virtuous life. Here, the human being is dependent on a "divine wisdom", which takes on the function of the "mediator" between God and human beings.

Image of the divine logo

Scheme of the mapping relationships according to Philon
God Logos human
Archetype ← Representation according to the picture
← image
Model →
Archetype →

For the Jewish-Hellenistic religious scholar Philon of Alexandria , the human likeness of God can be found in the Logos of man - a potential ideal that man carries within himself. The divine logos, who is the direct image of God (Greek εἰκών τοῦ θεοῦ), represents this “reason” of man, as an “ archetype ”. Man is only created according to this image (Greek κατὰ τὴν εἰκόνα), and not himself an image of God. Man has the potential to realize the correspondence of his logos with the divine logos. This correspondence could come about through self-knowledge , docility, intuition or the exercise of virtue.

Furthermore, with Philo, the human likeness of God is based on the equipment given by God with a power corresponding to the divine Logos.

Rabbinic Judaism

For Rabbinic Judaism, the main difficulty was to be able to maintain the claim to monotheism despite the plural “Let us …” in Gen 1.26  EU . For this purpose, the rabbinical interpretation envisages the existence of "service angels" with which YHWH speaks in the plural form. After their protest with reference to the godlessness of the people according to Ps 8,5  EU , God alone ( Gen 1,27  EU ) creates the people.

The rabbinic literature sees the meaning of the image of God in the effort of man to harmonize his actions to God. She sees the meaning of man's likeness to God and the resulting special position not in an intellectual ability, but in the ability to act ethically. There are numerous documents in which man is compared with an icon, the statue of a king. This comparison is always combined with the call for the preservation and protection of fellow human beings, for justice and honesty.

middle Ages

Platonic-Aristotelian characteristics

The late medieval philosophy of religion and with it the early Kabbalists define people as intellect or “rational soul” as a result of the Aristotelian intellectual doctrine linked with the Neoplatonic conception of the soul, whereas the body is only its temporary carrier. The image of man can therefore be described as "spiritualized".

In contrast to the older rabbinical interpretation, the Jewish Aristotelians no longer represent an ethical and moral conception of the image of God, but see it in the developed intellect. Man imitates angels , so-called “separate intelligences”, by being gifted with reason.

The medieval philosopher Maimonides begins his main philosophical work Guide of the Indecisive with explanations on the term image of God , which is used in the history of creation . Maimonides rejects the argument that God must also have a body, since man was created in the image of God. The author shows that the Hebrew term zelem ("image, image") always indicates a spiritual quality, an essence . That is why the image of God in man is the human essence - that does not mean physical equality, but human reason.

Kabbalah: involvement of the physical

In particular, the later Kabbalah - in contrast to the philosophical restriction to the intellect - turned back more to the physical and defined the human being as a physical and mental composition. Increasingly, you can see an analogy between the human body characteristics and sephirothisch -göttlichen world - for example, that the ten fingers of the people were related to the ten Sephiroth. The human body is also an image of the “divine world”.

Modern

"I-you" relationship

Leo Baeck , Jewish religious philosopher of the modern age, regards man as a “special revelation” of God because of his image in the image of God. God is “ I ” and “ You ” in man at the same time . That is why man finds his reason and goal in God. Ultimately, the decisive core for Jewish anthropology is the equality and, at the same time, the individuality and dignity of every human being:

"No matter how great the difference from person to person, being in the image of God is a character to all of them, it is common to all of them: it is what makes people human, what makes them human."

- Leo Baeck : Essence of Judaism (1905)

History of impact in Christianity

In both Catholic and Protestant theology, the doctrine of being in the image of God is an essential part of theological anthropology throughout the history of its impact .

Patristic

Differentiation between image and similarity

The Greek father of the church Irenaeus of Lyon

Since the Greek church father Irenäus von Lyon , a sharp distinction has been made between the terms "image" or "image" (εἰκών eikōn , Latin imago ) and "similarity" (ὁμοίωσις homóiōsis , Latin similitudo ). While “image” is a permanent and inalienable quantity that belongs to the natural possession of man, the “likeness” has been lost: the progenitor Adam was created to represent and resemble God. Due to the Fall, however, man lost his resemblance to God and distanced himself very far from divine perfection and immortality. The possibility of a “return” to God is possible only through the grace of Christ. A likeness to God can already begin in the present, although the ultimate becoming God-likeness lies in the future.

For Irenaeus, being created in the image of God means on the one hand that man is in a state of immaturity, but on the other hand he can also assimilate himself to God through constant growth.

This distinction was adopted by Clement of Alexandria and Origen . The later church father, Augustine of Hippo, also differentiates between image and likeness. While the image only cover a part of man, namely its trinitarian structured mens refer and was always present and unchanging is the "similarity" can with God, influenced by the conduct, be correspondingly much less pronounced or.

Man as an image of the Trinity

Augustine's doctrine of the depiction of the Trinity in the three soul faculties of man was formative for the following theology . In his main work “ De trinitate ” (On the Trinity) he pays special attention to the image of God. For him man is the image of God in the mens rationalis (rational spirit) and not in the form of the body. Furthermore, the trinity of the human soul's faculties reflect the divine trinity (Trinity):

This reflection also occurs within the mens :

  • memoria (memory) ≈ God the Father
  • intellectus (insight) ≈ Son of God, Jesus Christ
  • amor (love) or voluntas (will) ≈ Holy Spirit

Every part of the spirit therefore corresponds, albeit insufficiently, to a person of the divine Trinity.

Furthermore, being in the image of God, although it is distorted by the fall, makes people “receptive to God”. With this idea he will have a decisive influence on the later theological tradition.

scholasticism

Means of knowledge of God

Large parts of the scholastic tradition see man's image in the image of God as a stage of realization on the ladder to the knowledge of God.

The early scholasticist Petrus Lombardus had a significant influence on scholasticism with his sentences . These sentences were able to maintain their influential position throughout the rest of the Middle Ages and into the 16th century. So it was the rule that every doctor of theology wrote a commentary on the Lombards' sentences. With them he gave the systematic place of discussion as well as the topics and aspects to the subsequent theologians. That is why a large number of scholastics agree with him in terms of content - including the fact that being in the image of God is a prerequisite for knowledge of God. Since Petrus Lombardus, scholasticism has emphasized the prominent role of being in the image of God for the knowledge of God.

A fresco by Albertus Magnus (1352)

For example, the high scholastic and Dominican Albertus Magnus deals in his "Summa theologiae sive de mirabile scientia dei" (sum of theology or in the wonderful knowledge of God) as well as in seven articles of his sentence commentary with the question of the image of God as part of the question of the medium the natural knowledge of God.

First of all, there is the “trace” in creation. The trace of the Creator in his creatures is a sign through which “something” can be known by God. However, the trace can only vaguely reproduce reality and the underlying cause. That is why this knowledge by means of the "trace" takes a back seat to the knowledge of the likeness.

The “image” is thus the other “medium” for the knowledge of God. Here Albertus takes on the Augustinian division of the soul into three parts: memoria , intelligentia and voluntas and builds up a sequence within this that is parallel to the sequence in the divine trinity: Memory forms knowledge and both together form the will - just like God the Father, the Son of God communicate his essence and the Holy Spirit follow from both together. Correspondingly, the various potencies of the soul are each assigned to a part of the Trinity. Albertus emphasizes that human beings have a habitual knowledge of God and themselves “by nature”. In the second Augustinian ternary mens , notitia and amor , the likeness is reproduced, as is the soul's knowledge of God and itself This knowledge leads to an original love.

Albertus then differentiates between direct and indirect images. While he speaks of an immediate image, when the spirit is shaped like truth and good, which is the triune God himself, through the likeness, he designates that which is similar to God as an "mediate" image. The human being is not created in the actual sense of the image (imago), but only indirectly according to the image ( ad imaginem , cf. Gen 1.27  VUL ). Accordingly, Albert also distinguishes imago from similitudo : The imago consists in the natural faculty of the soul, while the similitudo refers to the “graceful equalization”.

Finally, Albertus also refers to the creation of man in the image of God and the distinction between man and woman. To this end, he states that men and women were both created equally in the image of God. Nevertheless, based on 1 Cor 11.7  EU  , women are subordinate to men.

The Franciscan scholastic Bonaventure , based on Petrus Lombardus, also emphasizes the togetherness of the image of God and the knowledge of God: The similarity of the human spirit with the divine archetype is a prerequisite for a knowledge of God. He even takes the thoughts about the knowledge of God much further than given in the sentences of Petrus Lombardus. For him, the path to knowledge of God is at the same time the spiritual path on which man comes to himself and to God as the all-fulfilling content of his longing. He graded the path to the knowledge of God as follows:

  1. Contemplation of God through the traces in creation
  2. Contemplation of God in his footsteps
  3. Contemplation of God through his image in the faculties : Here an attempt is made to discover the triune God within. This knowledge is achieved through the perception of the three Augustinian soul faculties.
  4. Contemplation of God through his image in his graciously renewed image : With this Bonaventure anchors the Christ event in the "pilgrimage" to God. Without the “mediation” through Christ, walking the path on the “ladder” is not possible.
  5. Contemplation of the divine unity through its noble name, which is being

However, this “way to God” is so darkened by the Fall that man can only regain his focus on the divine original ground with the help of the grace of Jesus Christ.

Origin of Free Will

The formative scholastic Thomas Aquinas concentrates in the Aristotelian tradition on statements about humans as "spiritually gifted creatures". In this way, being in the image of God becomes the leitmotif for his entire morality. He regards man - as a result of his likeness to God - as the origin of his works and endowed with free will . So he says:

"... ut consideremus de eius imagine, idest de homine, secundum quod et ipse est suorum operum principium, quasi liberum arbitrium habens et potestatem."

- Thomas Aquinas : Summa Theologica , Prima Secundae, Proemium

"... that we treat his image, namely the image of man, insofar as man is the principle of his own actions, that is, has free will and exercises dominion (over his actions)."

- Thomas Aquinas : Sum of theology, first half of the second part, foreword

The image of God in man is found fundamentally in the acts of understanding ( intelligere ) and of willing ( velle ), since these acts come closest to the type of the divine Trinity. In everything, however, the likeness of man to God denotes a goal towards which he was created, and not man's being.

Renaissance humanism: human dignity

The Renaissance humanism considered especially since Giovanni Pico della Mirandola determining the image of God in the special dignity of man . God has placed people at the center of the world and he can transform them according to his will. Man is therefore the image of God because he is capable of free action, represents the center of the world and reflects the creator of God.

This notion, which is directed towards human subjectivity, is continued in the Enlightenment .

reformation

Corruption of likeness (Luther)

Martin Luther, portrait by Lucas Cranach the Elder

Martin Luther sees - like Augustine - the image of God in relation to the divine Trinity. However, he does not continue Augustine's doctrine of the reflection of the Trinity: After the fall, man is so "weakened" that he can no longer perceive the image of God without the help of a mediator (Jesus Christ). In the same way, he does not continue the scholastic distinction between image and likeness - rather, being in the image of God is an "indivisible state of affairs".

Luther made a sharp distinction between people before and after the Fall. Before the fall of man, in the status originalis , Adam had habitual likeness in his “substance” and his life was completely oriented towards God and determined by him. His life was in accordance with the life of God, free from fear, danger and death. His likeness to God was therefore completely identical in the original with his nature. After the Fall, however, in the status peccatoris , the image of God was completely lost as a result of the original sin . Accordingly, the nature itself of man is completely shattered, and man is instead determined by fear of death, desire, hatred, etc. - the image of the devil has taken the place of being in the image of God, as it were. Therefore, the Reformation tradition since Luther rejects the patristic- scholastic distinction between natural image and supernatural, lost resemblance. Yet man has not lost his relationship to God.

Furthermore, there are important statements about Luther's idea of ​​being in the image of God in his disputation “De homine” . Luther emphasizes two aspects in the 21st thesis:

  1. Ab initio (from the beginning): The likeness is not something additional to the human being, but the epitome of it.
  2. sine peccato (without sin): The original man is according to creation without sin.

According to the protological statements, he adds an eschatological dimension in the 38th thesis:

"This is how man relates to his future form in this life, until the image of God is restored and completed"

- Martin Luther : Disputatio de homine, thesis 38

Only in this “future form” is man finally “complete” the image of God. In relation to the image of God Jesus Christ, this process of realization is carried out in a hidden way, but man is only in the image of God in revelation beyond earthly things.

From this understanding of Luther's Imago Dei, a number of anthropological problems arose for the subsequent Lutheran Orthodoxy , since it tried to apply the terminology of Aristotelian school metaphysics to the representation of Luther. This practically equates the terms “ substantia ”, “natura” and “ essentia ”. If one assumes the loss of the likeness of God with a simultaneous equation of nature and Imago Dei, this practically results in the "substantial annihilation" of man.

Remnants of likeness (Calvin and Melanchthon)

The reformers Johannes Calvin and Philipp Melanchthon - both more strongly influenced by humanism than Luther - still considered "remnants of the image of God" to be present in humans. These showed in the intellectual faculties and in the capabilities of humans compared to animals.

German idealism

In German idealism , especially with Johann Gottfried Herder and Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, the idea of ​​a not static, but dynamic image of God develops: The meaning lies in a "resemblance" to God, in man working up to a higher level, whereby the image of God is ultimately the goal is. This connects the idea of ​​being in the image of God with the Enlightenment idea of ​​the perfectibility of human nature.

Modern

As a result of secularization , there is a "decline in the image of God". Together with the withdrawal of religion from large parts of society, Christian anthropology no longer has the function of developing the identity of the individual. Although the Christian image of man is not deliberately rejected, the individual hardly understands his origin any more than it is based on a divine Creator and does not see himself as the image of God.

In the late modern era , the concept of being in the image of God is hardly to be found in non-theological human-scientific discourses.

Likeness as a relationship

The personalistic thinking of the 1930s - and especially Karl Barths  - determined the relationship between man and fellow man as a relationship ("analogia relationis"). This relationship is characterized by the fact that it does not compare two types of being with one another (" analogia entis "), but rather two relationships.

Barth translates the decisive passage on the image of God in the creation report, Gen 1.26  EU , as:

"Let's make people, in our archetype according to our example!"

- Karl Barth : Church Dogmatics III / 1, 205

Barth interprets the plural in verse 26a (Latin “faciamus”) to mean that God's being is fundamentally relational. Ultimately, this is where the creative ground of man lies.

Barth now recognizes the subscription ratio from verse 26b. The “ in our archetype ” establishes the relationship or the covenant of man with God. But “ according to our model ” justifies the relationship of man to the world and to himself, insofar as the structure of man's creature is modeled on the divine structure. So the relationship of man to God and his relationship to fellow human beings correspond.

With this interpretation, Karl Barth significantly influenced subsequent theology - the discussion about his approach was very controversial.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer takes up Barth's analogia-relationis thinking and places the emphasis on the determination to freedom. Bonhoeffer sees the basic determination of being in the image of God in the freedom of a person. However, this freedom is not - as assumed by scholasticism and Neuthomism , particularly represented by the Jesuit Erich Przywara - to be understood in terms of substance ontology as a relationship of being, analogia entis . So she does not mean a quality peculiar to man or a property peculiar to him. Instead, it is a relationship ( analogia relationis ) and a "freedom for God and the other". This relationship is established by Jesus Christ : The freedom of God, which consists in the self-commitment of this freedom in Jesus Christ to God's creatures, has to correspond to the freedom of man through being free to bond to his neighbor.

The image of God does not exist as a substance ontological quality in human nature - it is not a human property. Such equality with God was lost as a result of the fall. Man, as God's image, lives “from the origin of God” - but through the fall of man man has “split” from this origin. This division manifests itself particularly in the endeavor of man to put himself in the place of God - to achieve “equality with God”. According to Bonhoeffer, the likeness of God is to be sharply separated from this equality of God: The prerequisite for being in the image of God is the fundamental difference between God and man.

The Second Vatican Council

Council Fathers

In the Second Vatican Council , the authors of the elaboration were very keen to paint a positive image of man and not to see man as “fallen” from the outset. Finally, in order to affirm human dignity and inalienable human rights in the pastoral constitution Gaudium et Spes, the motif of being in the image of God was used. This likeness of God also enables social existence and the "knowledge and love of the Creator". Furthermore, through Jesus Christ, the image of God was restored, which was "wounded" by the fall. By being in the image of God, man would be enabled to fulfill the commandment of love.

Functional determination to be a representative

Today's research mostly assumes that the Old Testament documents do not make a statement about the nature of humans, but about their function. If one transfers the essence of the ancient oriental royal ideology, that the king is the representative and deputy of a deity , to Old Testament statements, it follows that man now has the function of being God's representative on earth. This interpretation approach therefore considers Gen 1.26 f. EU as a kind of "democratized royal ideology".

Criticism and controversy

The human image of God

Ludwig Feuerbach - and with him the " Young Hegelians " - criticized in his work " Das Wesen des Christianentums ", which is critical of religion, the abolition of the difference between God and human beings and consequently God as a projection of human beings. Man cannot imagine any other being as divine than himself. That is why Feuerbach speaks pointedly of the “likeness of God”, which precedes man's likeness of God. His criticism is also directed against Christology : God incarnate is "only the appearance of man incarnate".

The roots of this projection thesis can be found in Xenophanes in the 6th century BC. It says in one of the surviving fragments:

"But if oxen and horses and lions had hands or could paint with their hands and work like humans, then the horses would paint horse-like, the ox ox-like god-figures and form such bodies as every species would have its own shape."

- Xenophanes : 15th fragment

In contrast to Feuerbach, Xenophanes does not make an external, but an internal criticism of religion. That is, he wants to clear the image of God from features of anthropomorphism . The Polish philosopher Kazimierz Łyszczyński also anticipated the projection thesis 200 years before Feuerbach in his work De non existentia Dei .

Evolution theory

In the course of the 19th century, the doctrine of man's image in the image of God was also exposed to criticism from biology, particularly through Charles Darwin's theory of evolution . Darwin answered the question about the origin and descent of man with his classification in the genealogy of animal species and thus also severely shook the “dignity of man” as the image of God. Man is no longer understood as the “ crown of creation ”. In Germany, Ernst Haeckel stands out as a critic with his expansion of Darwinism into a worldview. He opposes the “anthropistic megalomania” and sees the designation of man as the image of God as a consequence of the “limitless self-arrogance of vain man”.

Proponents of theology counter that - if at all - only the mortal and biologically transferable characteristics in humans can be explained with the theory of evolution. The image of God is based on the characteristics “breathed in” by God, such as love and altruism . A special reference to God is specifically human; the religious search for God is found in all of humanity. The ability to communicate extensively about (immaterial) facts is also specifically human. What is specifically human is protected by people - not just religious ones - by special laws, so that there is freedom of expression, science and art, as well as the press.

Rule ideology

In view of the increasing domination of nature by man and the problems resulting from it, a criticism of man's mandate to rule - closely linked to the doctrine of being in the image of God - was often made . This criticism of the mandate to rule is particularly pointed by Lynn Townsend White in 1967, who tried to pin the cause of the exploitation of nature to the roots of Christian anthropology. He accuses them of the “de-divinization of nature” and of anthropocentrism .

In German-speaking countries, Carl Amery White's theses were adopted in his book "The End of Providence: The Merciless Consequences of Christianity" (1972) and triggered a broad discussion. On the grounds of a special election - the likeness of God - man withdrew from the ecological context and received the "mandate of total domination".

On the part of the Old Testament exegesis, however, defensive attention is drawn to possible misinterpretations of gene 1.28  EU . The Hebrew verb כבש (kabasch) means a shepherd-like “to lead”. In addition, the purpose of the Dominium terrae is not to be found in the unrestricted exploitation of nature , but rather in the obligation to deal responsibly with it, in "preserving and cultivating" ( Gen 2.15  EU ).

feminism

The New Testament passage ( 1 Cor 11.7  EU ) describes the man as an image and reflection (Greek εἰκών καὶ δόξα) of God, whereas the woman is only a reflection of the man. With reference to this point, the image of God women was often denied in church history - especially in canonical sources, for example in the Decretum Gratiani  - or at least severely restricted - for example in scholastic theology, especially in Thomas Aquinas. This was also seen as the reason for the inability of women to hold sacred offices and public offices in general. Bible passages such as 1 Cor 11.11f. EU and Gal. 3.28  EU , on the other hand, show that the New Testament is by no means misogynistic, especially if you take the historical context into account.

Basis of human dignity

The view that God created man in his own image and that every person deserves dignity can be regarded as one of the roots of the history of ideas for the emergence of human rights . However, this view is not undisputed. For example, the Protestant theologian Walter Sparn says:

“There is… no theological justification of human dignity . ... It is misleading when Christian theology interprets the secular concept of human dignity solely or even primarily with the idea of ​​being in the image of God. "

This contrasts with the opinion that in the period from the 16th to the 18th century, when human rights and modern democracy were created in the Protestant area , the terms human dignity, freedom , equality , the right to life , the obligation to fraternity and other human and civil rights were by no means secular in nature, but theonomic ideas. So John Locke directed human equality, including gender equality from Gen 1:27 f. EU from, the basis of the doctrine of likeness to God. This principle of equality - the basis of a constitutional democracy ( legal equality, etc.) - establishes the individual's rights to freedom and participation. Life, freedom, equality, human dignity, charity, property - Locke and other philosophers of the Enlightenment and subsequent epochs defined the essential terms for their social and state theories and filled them with biblical content.

The political doctrines of Milton, Locke, and Pufendorf were decisive in shaping the American Declaration of Independence , the United States Constitution, and the Bill of Rights . Still influenced by the strong religious activity as a result of the First Great Awakening , the Declaration of Independence established the inalienable human rights, which include "life, freedom and the pursuit of happiness", not philosophically-secular, but theological: They are the people of their " Schöpfer “(Creator) was awarded.

The French Revolution released human rights from their biblical-theonomic anchoring and replaced them with the Volonté générale in the service of the utilitarian doctrine of “common use” (utilité commune). This made civil and human rights manipulable insofar as the respective group of revolutionaries in power determined what the "common benefit" was. Mainly for this reason criticized z. B. Jacob Grimm in the Frankfurt National Assembly in 1848 the French attitude and called for a return to "the religious foundations of brotherhood and freedom of all people" ( Imperial Constitution of March 28, 1849). The Basic Law of the Federal Republic of Germany followed this tradition: Human dignity is primarily assumed to be “inviolable” and only secondarily its observance is legally ordered. Furthermore, it is often assumed that the German constitution is based on ideas of natural law - the opening words of the preamble to the Basic Law , "Conscious of one's responsibility to God and people [...]", even show a direct reference to God . "Thus Art. I appears as a consequence of the invocation of God the Creator of the person (created ad imaginem Dei [in the image of God])."

Today's legal philosophers like Ronald Dworkin and John Rawls have, like Immanuel Kant before them, derived human and civil rights from secular premises, for example from the autonomy of the person, the ability to think rationally or the “moral personality”. These approaches assume the existence of basic rights, as they have been developed since the 16th century, especially in the Protestant part of the West. The deduction of human and civil rights from secular images of man must be designed in such a way that it “fits” the already existing basic rights.

The decisive decisions that led to human and democratic civil rights were not of a secular but of a theological nature, whereby the doctrine of the image of God was only one aspect of many. "The egalitarian universalism, from which the ideas of freedom and solidarity coexistence, of an autonomous lifestyle and emancipation, of individual conscience, human rights and democracy arose, is a direct legacy of the Jewish ethics of justice and Christian love," said the philosopher Jürgen Habermas .

In the bioethical discussion

Since the uniqueness of human beings, their personhood and their relationship to creation and the Creator come to the fore in the doctrine of being in the image of God, the churches nowadays like to use it as an ecumenical foundation for answering bioethical questions, for example in the problem of modern intervention possibilities Biomedicine .

In the fourth part of the joint declaration of the Council of the Evangelical Church in Germany and the Secretariat of the Catholic German Bishops' Conference “God is a friend of life”, a section is devoted to the consequences of being in the image of God. a. called:

“In the spiritual world of Christianity, the image of God therefore becomes a central concept in the description of the special dignity of human life. […] The qualification as “God's image” does not only apply to the human species, but to every single person. Individual peculiarity is an essential characteristic of being human. Every person is unique as such, [...] "

- EKD and German Bishops' Conference : Joint declaration "God is a friend of life"

literature

Lexicon article

Overall representations

  • Albrecht Peters : Der Mensch (=  manual of systematic theology . Volume 8 ). 2nd Edition. Gütersloher Verlagshaus, Gütersloh 1994, ISBN 3-579-04923-2 .
  • Annette Schellenberg : Man, the image of God? On the idea of ​​a special position of man in the Old Testament and in other ancient oriental sources (=  treatises on theology of the Old and New Testaments . Volume 101 ). Theological Publishing House Zurich, Zurich 2011, ISBN 978-3-290-17606-8 .
  • Gerald Kruhöffer : Man, the image of God (=  biblical-theological focus . Volume 16 ). Vandenhoeck and Ruprecht, Göttingen 1999, ISBN 3-525-61361-X .

Ancient Orient and Egypt

  • Erik Hornung: Man as the 'image of God' in Egypt . In: Oswald Loretz (Ed.): The image of God in man . Kösel-Verlag, Munich 1967, p. 123-156 .
  • Boyo Ockinga: The image of God in ancient Egypt and in the Old Testament . Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden 1984, ISBN 3-447-02513-1 .

Church history

  • Jacob Jervell: Imago Dei. Gen 1.26 f. in late Judaism, in Gnosis and in the Pauline letters (=  research on religion and literature of the Old and New Testaments . Volume 76 ). Vandenhoeck and Ruprecht, Göttingen 1960.
  • Stefanie Lorenzen: The Pauline Eikon concept . Mohr Siebeck, Tübingen 2006, ISBN 978-3-16-149650-9 .
  • Peter Schwanz: Imago Dei as a christological-anthropological problem in the history of the ancient church from Paul to Clemens of Alexandria . Vandenhoeck and Ruprecht, Göttingen 1979, ISBN 3-525-55368-4 .
  • Klaus Krämer : Imago trinitatis: The likeness of man to God in the theology of Thomas Aquinas (=  Freiburg theological studies . Volume 164 ). Herder, Freiburg im Breisgau 2000, ISBN 3-451-27803-0 .
  • Christine Axt-Piscalar: The image of God on earth. On Dietrich Bonhoeffer's doctrine of man's image in the image of God . In: On the phenomenology of belief. Festschrift for Heinrich Ott. Theological journal . Volume 55, 1999, p. 264-270 .
  • Thorsten Waap: Image of God and Identity: On the relationship between theological anthropology and human science in Karl Barth and Wolfhart Pannenberg (=  research on systematic and ecumenical theology . Volume 121 ). Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 2008, ISBN 978-3-525-56949-8 .

Remarks

  1. ↑ Walter Groß: Gen 1,26.27; 9.6: Statue or image of God? Task and dignity of man according to the Hebrew and Greek wording . In: I. Baldermann u. a. (Ed.): Human dignity (=  JBTh . Volume 15 ). Neukirchener, Neukirchen-Vluyn 2001, p. 15 ff .
  2. ↑ See Peter Machinist: The Epic of Tukulti-Ninurta I. A Study in Middle Assyrian Literature . 1978, p. 67-71.174-209 .
  3. ^ Hugo Gressmann: Old Oriental texts on the Old Testament . Berlin 1965, p. 151 .
  4. ↑ Ockinga 1984 p. 10.
  5. ↑ a b Ockinga 1984 p. 19.
  6. ↑ Ockinga 1984 p. 7 f.
  7. ↑ Ockinga 1984 p. 133.
  8. ↑ Ockinga 1984 p. 44
  9. ↑ Ockinga 1984 p. 47.
  10. ↑ Samuel Vollenweider: The incarnate as the image of God. On the early Christian understanding of the Imago Dei . In: Hans-Peter Mathys (ed.): Image of God - ruler over the world. Studies on Human Dignity and Mission . Neukirchen-Vluyn 1998, p. 123 .
  11. ↑ See Schellenberg 2011 , p. 72
  12. ↑ a b c Cf. Jacob Jervel, TRE, Art. Image of God I. Biblical, early Jewish and Gnostic views, p. 492
  13. ↑ See, for example, Andreas Schüle: Die Urgeschichte (Genesis 1–11) . Zurich 2009, p. 42 .
  14. ^ So Gerhard von Rad: The first book of Moses: Genesis . In: The Old Testament German . Teilband 2/4, 1987, p. 38 . However, since the court has no creative power, a reference to the Trinity can be seen here.
  15. ^ For example, Claus Westermann : Genesis (=  Biblical commentary: Old Testament . 1st volume: Genesis 1–11). Neukirchen-Vluyn 1974, p. 200 f .
  16. ↑ Jesus Sirach 16:24 f., 17.7, Ethiopian Book of Enoch 65.2. See Jervell 1960 , p. 27.
  17. ↑ See e.g. B. Testament of Nephtali 2,3; Ethiopian Book of Enoch 72.2. See Jervell 1960 , p. 30.
  18. ↑ For example, Jesus Sirach 16:26; 4. Book of Ezra 7.70-72. See Jervell 1960 , p. 31.
  19. ↑ 4th Book of Ezra 6.56 f. See Jervell 1960 , p. 34 f.
  20. ↑ Sap Sal 2.23b. The real essential trait of mankind's likeness to God is his eternity, cf. Jervell 1960 , p. 28.
  21. ↑ Accordingly, a material idol worship, "illusion", and leads, like the turning away from divine justice, to "spiritual death", cf. Lorenzen 2006 , p. 25 ff.
  22. ↑ Sap Sal ​​3.15; 4.1. See Jervell 1960 , p. 28.
  23. ↑ Lorenzen 2006 , p. 74 f.
  24. ↑ a b After Jervell 1960 , p. 55.
  25. ↑ Jervell 1960 p. 61
  26. ↑ Lorenzen 2006 , p. 69 ff.
  27. ↑ Jervell 1960 , p. 76, Schwanz 1970 , p. 22.
  28. ↑ Pesiqta 4.34a; Tanch Bechokot 4; B San 38b; Gene R 17.4; Num R 19.3; Koh R 7.23 §1; Midr Ps 8,2; Targ Jer I Gen 1.26. See Jervell 1960 , p. 83, Schwanz 1970 , p. 22
  29. ↑ Cf. Karl-Erich Grözinger: Jewish thinking: theology, philosophy, mysticism . tape 1 . Campus Verlag, 2005, p. 281 f . See also Abrahan J. Heschel: What is Man? In: FA Rothschild (ed.): Between God and Man: An interpretation of Judaism . New York 1998, pp. 234 .
  30. ↑ a b Cf. Karl-Erich Grözinger: From the God of Abraham to the God of Aristotle . In: Jewish Thought: Theology - Philosophy - Mysticism . tape 1 . Campus Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 2005, p. 417 f .
  31. ↑ This is how Abraham ibn Daud puts it , cf. S. Weil: The Book of Emunah Ramah or: The Supreme Faith . Berlin 1919, p. 83 .
  32. ↑ a b cf. Karl-Erich Grözinger: From the medieval Kabbalah to Hasidism . In: Jewish Thought: Theology - Philosophy - Mysticism . tape 2 . Campus Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 2005, p. 145 f .
  33. ↑ See for example on the Catholic side Georg Langemeyer : Theologische Anthropologie . In: W. Beinert (Ed.): Lexicon of Catholic Dogmatics . Freiburg, Basel, Vienna 1987, pp. 503 . On the evangelical side, Eberhard Jüngel is an example : The man corresponding to God Remarks on man being made in the image of God as a basic figure in theological anthropology . In: Correspondences: God - Truth - Man. Theological Discussions . Munich 1980, p. 290-317 . In general, cf. Schellenberg 2011 , p. 68.
  34. ↑ a b In the Christian world, this distinction is expressly found for the first time in Irenaeus. The doctrine probably has its origin in Valentinianism , cf. Tail 1979 p. 121 f.
  35. ↑ See Schwanz 1979 p. 134 f.
  36. ↑ See Peters 1994 p. 121 and Henri Grouzel, TRE, Art. Image of God III. Old Church, pp. 499–502.
  37. ↑ Cf. Johannes Brachtendorf: The structure of the human spirit according to Augustine. Self-reflection and knowledge of God in “De Trinitate” . Hamburg 2000, p. 204, 230, 240 . Also Robert Austin Markus: "Imago" and "similitudo" in Augustine . In: Revue des études augustiniennes . tape 10 , 1964, pp. 125-143 .
  38. ↑ Cf. Aurelius Augustinus: De trinitate , u. a. Book XII, 7; Book XIV, 8; Book XV, 22
  39. ↑ Cf. Augustine: De trinitate , Book XII, 7, 12
  40. ↑ Cf. Augustine: De trinitate , Book XV, 6, 10 - 7, 11
  41. ↑ Augustine: De trinitate , Book XV, 22, 42
  42. ↑ a b Augustine: De trinitate , Book XIV, 8
  43. ↑ Cf. Augustine: De trinitate , Book XV, 23, 43
  44. ↑ See, for example, Petrus Lombardus : Sententiae  II, d. 16 c. 3.
  45. ↑ cf. Albertus Magnus: Summa theologiae  I, t.3, q.15; t.8, q.35; t.11, q.64; t.12, q.71
  46. ^ Albertus Magnus: Summa theologiae  I, q.15, c.2, art.3
  47. ↑ Albertus Magnus: Summa theologiae  I q.15, c.2, a.1,1, sol.
  48. ↑ Albertus Magnus: Summa theologiae  I, q.15, c.2, a.2,1, b, sol.
  49. ↑ Krämer 2000 p. 195.
  50. ^ Albertus Magnus: Summa theologiae  II, q.71, quaest.3, ad.obi.1; 2 Sent. d.13, a.5
  51. ↑ Albertus Magnus: Summa theologiae  II, q.64, ad. quaest.7
  52. ↑ a b c Krämer 2000 p. 497 f.
  53. ↑ Bonaventure: Itinerarium mentis in Deo , Cap. IV. Each level of knowledge of God is presented in a chapter. See Krämer 2000 p. 218 ff.
  54. ↑ Krämer 2000 p. 216 f.
  55. ^ Thomas Aquinas: Summa theologica I, 2, prooem. In addition, the title of S. th. I, 93,6: "Utrum imago Dei invenitur in homine solum secundum mentem". Cf. Wilhelm Metz: The architecture of the Summa Theologiae of Thomas Aquinas: To the overall view of the Thomasischen thought . Meiner Verlag, Hamburg 1998, p. 239 .
  56. ↑ Maximilian Forschner: Thomas Aquinas . 2006, p. 203 f .
  57. ^ Thomas Aquinas: Summa theologica I, 93.7. Cf. Wilhelm Metz: The architecture of the Summa Theologiae of Thomas Aquinas . Meiner Verlag, Hamburg 1998, p. 240 .
  58. ↑ Thomas z. B. to the preposition ad in the expression “ad imaginem dei” (S. th. I, 93,1). Cf. Wilhelm Metz: The architecture of the Summa Theologiae of Thomas Aquinas . Meiner Verlag, Hamburg 1998, p. 239 .
  59. ^ Renaissance and early modern times . In: Stephan Otto (ed.): History of philosophy in text and presentation . tape 3 . Stuttgart 1984, p. 347 f .
  60. ↑ See Waap 2008 , p. 48.
  61. ↑ Accordingly, the Genesis lecture of 1536 says “ These creators are three different persons in one divine being. We are the image of these three people "(" Hi factores sunt tres distinctae personae in una divina essentia. Harum trium personarum nos sumus imago ", WA 42, 42, 10)
  62. ^ Gerhard Ebeling: Luther Studies. Vol. 2. Disputatio de homine. Part 3. The theological definition of man. Commentary on thesis 20–40 . Tübingen 1989, p. 102 .
  63. ↑ Theodor Jørgensen: Man before God in Luther's Genesis lecture . In: Luther after 1530, Theology, Church and Politics . S. 133 ff .
  64. ↑ WA 42, 47, 8 f: in sua substantia habuerit .
  65. ↑ WA  42, 47, 14 f.
  66. ↑ WA 42, 123 f.
  67. ↑ WA 24, 153, 14: "But the same image has now perished and corrupted and erected instead of the devil's image".
  68. ↑ Here one can see a contradiction to the "devil image", cf. Theodor Jørgensen: Man before God in Luther's Genesis lecture . 2005, p. 136 .
  69. ^ A b Gerhard Ebeling: Luther Studies. Vol. 2. Disputatio de homine. Part 3. The theological definition of man. Commentary on thesis 20–40 . Tübingen 1989, p. 99 .
  70. ↑ WA 39 I, 177.7-10; Translation after Gerhard Ebeling: Luther studies. Vol. 2. Disputatio de homine. Part 1. Text and tradition background . Tübingen 1977, p. 23 .
  71. ↑ See Waap 2008 , p. 46.
  72. ↑ Cf. Anselm Schubert: The end of sin. Anthropology and Original Sin between Reformation and Enlightenment . Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 2002, p. 36 f .
  73. ↑ See Albrecht Peters: Man . 2nd Edition. Gütersloher Verlagshaus, Gütersloh 1994, p. 59-96 .
  74. ↑ a b Anselm Schubert: The end of sin: anthropology and original sin between the Reformation and the Enlightenment (=  research on the history of the church and dogma . Volume 84 ). Vandenhoeck and Ruprecht, Göttingen 2002, p. 125 .
  75. ↑ Waap 2008 , pp. 74-76.
  76. ↑ Cf. Michael Moxter: Man as a representation of God. On the anthropology of the image of God . In: Gesche Linde (ed.): Theology between pragmatism and existential thinking. Festschrift for H. Deuser (=  Marburg theological studies . Volume 90 ). Marburg 2006, p. 271 . and Waap 2008 , p. 21.
  77. ↑ See KD III / 1, 207.220.
  78. ↑ KD III / 1, 205. Thorsten Waap calls this the "non-loneliness of God" ( Waap 2008 , p. 229.)
  79. ↑ KD II / 1, 207, 220; II / 2, 261 f., 384-391; See Waap 2008 , pp. 230-232. According to Barth, the second relationship is found particularly in that of the man to the woman ( Gen 1.28  EU ), KD III / 1, 208.
  80. ↑ The assessment ranges from strong rejection by Leo Scheffczyk to critical appreciation by Johann Jakob Stamm. See Waap 2008 , p. 228, note 151.
  81. ↑ So in his 1933 - after he had given several lectures on the subject as a private lecturer in Berlin - published treatise "Creation and Fall".
  82. ^ Dietrich Bonhoeffer: Works . Ed .: Martin Rüter, Ilse Tödt. tape 3 . Munich 1989, p. 59 .
  83. ↑ Piscalar 1999 , p. 269.
  84. ↑ Dietrich Bonhoeffer: The love of God and the decay of the world . In: Ethik (=  Dietrich Bonhoeffer Werke . Volume 6 ). 3. Edition. Gütersloh 2010, p. 20 ff .
  85. ↑ Cf. Friederike Barth: The Reality of the Good: Dietrich Bonhoeffer's "Ethics" and their philosophical background (=  contributions to historical theology . Volume 156 ). Mohr Siebeck, 2011, p. 65 .
  86. ↑ Helmut Krätzl: Opening the Church to the World - New View of Man, Marriage and Earthly Reality. Notes on Gaudium et Spes, especially Articles 12–17; 22; 36; 40-45; 47-52 . In: Alfred E. Hierold (Ed.): Second Vatican Council - End or Beginning? 2004, p. 28 f .
  87. ^ Gaudium et Spes, 12
  88. ↑ International Commission, Community and Service , accessed September 7, 2010
  89. ↑ This word is common in the usage of the constitution, cf. Gaudium et Spes, 14, 17 and 78
  90. ↑ Walter Groß in particular. See Schellenberg 2011 p. 70.
  91. ↑ Schellenberg 2011 p. 116 f.
  92. ↑ Waap 2008 , p. 54 f.
  93. ↑ Ludwig Feuerbach: The essence of Christianity . Stuttgart 1998, p. 400 .
  94. ↑ Ludwig Feuerbach: The essence of Christianity . Stuttgart 1998, p. 192.326 .
  95. ↑ Ludwig Feuerbach: The essence of Christianity . Stuttgart 1998, p. 102 .
  96. ↑ See Wolfgang Drechsler, Rainer Kattel: Mensch und Gott bei Xenophanes . In: Markus Witte (Ed.): God and Man in Dialogue: Festschrift for Otto Kaiser for his 80th birthday. Part 1 (=  Journal for Old Testament Science, supplements to the Journal for Old Testament Science . Volume 345.1 ). Berlin 2004, p. 117 f .
  97. ↑ Diels-Kranz, Fragments of the Pre-Socratics , fr. 21 B 15
  98. ↑ Klaus von Stosch: Introduction to Systematic Theology (=  UTB . Volume 2819 ). 2., through Edition. Schöningh, Paderborn 2009, p. 31 .
  99. ↑ Poland analyzes on laender-analysen.de
  100. ↑ See Waap: God image and identity , 2008, p. 60 f.
  101. ↑ See Waap: God image and identity , 2008, p. 62.
  102. ↑ Ernst Haeckel: The world riddle . Common studies on monistic philosophy. Berlin 1960, p. 26 . - See Waap: God image and identity , 2008, p. 63 f.
  103. ^ As explained by Franz Graf-Stuhlhofer : Basis preach. Foundations of the Christian Faith in Sermons . Nuremberg 2010, chap. 7 (pp. 72–77: “Living under the Breath of God”).
  104. ↑ Lynn Townsend White: The Historical Causes of Our Ecological Crisis . In: Michael Lohmann (Ed.): Endangered Future. Forecasts by Anglo-American scientists (=  Hanser-Umweltforschung . Volume 5 ). Munich 1973, p. 20-28 .
  105. ↑ Carl Amery: The End of Providence: The Merciless Consequences of Christianity . In: The ecological opportunity . Munich 1985, p. 17 .
  106. ↑ Cf. Michael Schlitt: Environmental ethics: Philosophical-ethical reflections - Theological foundations - Criteria . Schöningh, 1992, p. 137 ( digitized version [accessed April 1, 2012]).
  107. ↑ This interpretation can be found especially with Klaus Koch: Shape the earth, but nurture life! A clarification on the dominium terrae in Genesis 1 . In: Hans-Georg Geyer u. a. (Ed.): If not now, then when? Neunkirchen-Vluyn 1983, p. 32 .
  108. ↑ See Waap 2008 , p. 71.
  109. ^ Gratian , Decretum Gratiani, Causa 33, Quaestio 5, c. 13: " Mulier ... non est gloria aut imago Dei " ("The woman is ... neither the glory nor the image of God").
  110. ↑ Cf. Helen Schüngel-Straumann: The question of the image of women in the image of God . In: Manfred Oeming (Ed.): Theology of the Old Testament from the perspective of women . 2003, p. 64 .
  111. ↑ Cf. Elisabeth Gössmann: What does today's woman in the church have to do with Popess Johanna? In: Anne Jensen , Michaela Sohn-Kronthaler (Hrsg.): Forms of female authority: Income from historical-theological research on women . Vienna 2005, p. 54 .
  112. ↑ See Wolfgang Huber:  Human Rights / Human Dignity . In: Theologische Realenzyklopädie (TRE). Volume 22, de Gruyter, Berlin / New York 1992, ISBN 3-11-013463-2 , pp. 577-602.
  113. ↑ cf. Klaus Tanner: On the mystery of man. Ethical judgment at the intersection of biology, law and theology . In: Ulrich HJ Körntner, Reiner Anselm (Ed.): Disputes Biomedicine: Finding a judgment in Christian responsibility . Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2003, p. 147 .
  114. ↑ Walter Sparn: "Upright gait" versus "crooked cross". Human dignity as a topic of Christian enlightenment . In: Ingo Baldermann (Ed.): Human Dignity (=  JBTh . Volume 15 ). Neukirchen 2002, p. 244 .
  115. ↑ Thus the Reformation priesthood of all believers can be understood as a democratic approach that was reinforced by John Calvin and the Huguenots . With Luther's doctrine of two kingdoms and the separation of state and church practiced by the Huguenots since the 16th century , the prerequisites for the human right to religious freedom were laid. The Anabaptists and the resulting Baptist churches in England advocated full freedom of belief and conscience (Henrich Bornkamm:  Tolerance. In the History of Christianity . In: Religion in Past and Present (RGG). 3rd edition. Volume VI, Mohr- Siebeck, Tübingen, Sp. 937.). From the Calvinist federal theology , the Congregationalists drew the conclusion that democracy was the "God-conforming form of government" and partly practiced the separation of powers ( M. Schmidt . In: Religion in Geschichte und Gegenwart (RGG). 3rd edition. Volume V, Mohr-Siebeck, Tübingen, Col. 384 - Pilgrim Fathers), for which Calvin had already pleaded. Like Luther, they all derived their convictions not from secular premises, but from their understanding of the Christian faith (Karl Heussi: Kompendium der Kirchengeschichte, 11th edition, p. 387). The discussion of the right of resistance in different theories of natural law was also triggered by the Reformation - especially by Calvin's view of the right and duty to resist against tyrannical rulers (Ernst Wolf:  Resistance . In: Religion in Geschichte und Gegenwart (RGG). 3rd edition. Volume VI , Mohr-Siebeck, Tübingen, Sp. 1687.). In addition, Hugo Grotius, Samuel Pufendorf and John Locke wrote the biblical revelation - for example the creation stories (Gen 1 and 2), the Ten Commandments , the conduct and teaching of Jesus (e.g. Good Samaritan , Love Commandment , Golden Rule ) or the Admonitions in the Pauline letters - regarded as identical with natural law (cf. Jeremy Waldron: God, Locke, and Equality: Christian Foundations in Locke's Political Thought . Cambridge University Press, 2002, pp. 97.101.155.192.194.207.208.217.230) . The Presbyterian John Milton founded in particular the freedom of belief and conscience with Christian and Protestant principles and therefore called for the separation of state and church ( Heinrich Bornkamm . In: Religion in Geschichte und Gegenwart (RGG). 3rd edition. Volume VI, Mohr-Siebeck , Tübingen, Sp. 937 – Tolerance.).
  116. ^ Robert Middlekauff: The Glorious Cause. The American Revolution 1763-1789. Oxford University Press, Revised and Expanded Edition (2005), pp. 51-52, 136-138. Clifton E. Olmstead: History of Religion in the United States . Prentice-Hall, Englewood-Cliffs, NJ (1960), 89.
  117. ↑ See Clifton E. Olmstead: History of Religion in the United States , pp. 208, 211, 216.
  118. ^ Paul R. Hanson: Historical Dictionary of the French Revolution. France: Scarecrow Press (2004); Hugh Gough: The Terror in the French Revolution (1998), 77; Jacques Hussenet (dir.): “Détruisez la Vendée!” Regards croisés sur les victimes et destructions de la guerre de Vendée. La Roche-sur-Yon, Center vendéen de recherches historiques (2007), p. 148.
  119. ↑ W. Wertbruch . In: Religion Past and Present (RGG). 3. Edition. Volume IV, Mohr-Siebeck, Tübingen, Sp. 869-870 - Human Rights.
  120. ↑ Jeremy Waldron: God, Locke, and Equality, pp. 2 ff, 235 ff
  121. ↑ Jürgen Habermas: Time of Transitions. Edition Suhrkamp Taschenbuch (2001), p. 175
  122. ↑ Cf. Diradur (Levon) Sardaryan: Bioethics from an ecumenical perspective: official statements of the Christian churches in Germany on bioethical questions about the beginning of human life in dialogue with Orthodox theology . Berlin 2008, p. 99 .
  123. ↑ Evangelical Church in Germany and German Bishops' Conference: God is a friend of life. (No longer available online.) 1989, archived from the original on May 17, 2012 ; Retrieved April 13, 2012 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.ekd.de