Photo Credit: Wikimedia/Creation of Adam (Michelangelo) Detail After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high, ( Hebrews 1:3)

He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power. In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. “Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed, for God made man in his own image. Striving to bring about the imago Dei in one's life can be seen as the quest for wholeness, or one's 'essential' self, as pointed to in Christ's life and teachings.Īnd have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator. The ability and desire to love one's self and others, and therefore, God, can become neglected and even opposed. humans can, in their freedom, choose to deny or repress their spiritual and moral likeness to God. However, the freedom which makes the human in God's image is the same freedom which manifests itself in estrangement from God. This freedom gives the human-centeredness and completeness which allows the possibility for self-actualization and participation in a sacred reality. Humans differ from all other creatures because of their rational structure - their capacity for deliberation and free decision-making. The human's likeness to God can also be understood by contrasting it with that which does not image God, i.e., beings who, as far as we know, are without self-consciousness and the capacity for spiritual/ moral reflection and growth. The moral implications of the doctrine of imago Dei are apparent in the fact that if humans are to love God, then humans must love other humans, as each is an expression of God. In other words, for humans to have the conscious recognition of their being in the image of God means that they are the creature through whom God's plans and purposes can be made known and actualized humans, in this way, can be seen as co-creators with God. To say that humans are in the image of God is to recognize the special qualities of human nature which allow God to be made manifest in humans. The term imago Dei refers most fundamentally to two things: first, God's own self-actualization through humankind and second, God's care for humankind. This is a longer definition of “Imago Dei” as provided by pbs.org:

Picture of a bible inside a person