Re: Ape talk

Keith B Miller (kbmill@ksu.edu)
Mon, 2 Mar 1998 13:53:09 -0600

I will just make a couple comments with regard to the "image of God." I
believe that the image of God is primarily relational in nature - that is,
it consists in our relationship with God, with the non-human creation, and
with each other. Sin has disrupted that image, resulting in broken
relationships. That is why I understand the effects of sin on creation to
involve our broken relationship with the created order, not a structural
change in creation itself.

Secondly, the image, as I understand it, encompasses both our physical and
spiritual natures. We are both made of the dust of the Earth, and enabled
to commune with the divine. Our humaness cannot be defined separate from
our physical natures. This is emphasized in the promise of physical
resurrection. As stated by others, we are both apart of nature (we are
made of the same stuff, and share our evolutionary ancestry with the rest
of living things) and apart from nature. An important part of our being
"image-bearers" is our commission to be God's representatives within His
earthly creation.

Finally, Christ is the true Image of God, the Word made flesh. It is
toward that image that we must be conformed as our broken relationships
with God, others, and creation are restored. For this reason, I taken a
strong servanthood view of our stewardship of creation.

Keith

Keith B. Miller
Department of Geology
Kansas State University
Manhattan, KS 66506
kbmill@ksu.ksu.edu
http://www-personal.ksu.edu/~kbmill/