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 The 'Christian Living' section of canadianchristianity.com seeks to address everyday issues that complement the local church ministry.
We are able to call upon some of Canada's best Christian teachers and therapists and address for some everyday issues in Christian's lives that may likely not be touched upon, even in a healthy local church. In coming weeks we will be exploring issues related to our bodies and self-esteem. We start with a biblical view of what it means to be made in the image of God - cc.com
• The body and self esteem
How are Christians to think about issues surrounding bodily health?
Everyday issues like fitness, exercise, and nutrition? How are we to respond to the growing number of psychological disorders associated with body image and self esteem when we may, for instance, be chronically overweight?
Unfortunately, there is a common misunderstanding which can be detrimental. A kind of background belief. It is the assumption that there are two parts to human beings: a physical body and a spiritual soul. Since the soul is spiritual, it is this part of humanity that is "made in the image of God" (Genesis 1:27) The body is simply the dwelling place of the soul. The soul is what matters. Thus, activities associated with the soul are considered more important; activities associated with the body are diminished. This leaves one open for two opposite tendencies. 'Spiritual people' devalue the body whereas the culture falls into an obsession with the body
Christians can take biblical verses out of context to support this the unimportance of the body. "For bodily exercise profiteth little: but godliness is profitable unto all things, having promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to come." (1Timothy 4:8 KJV)
Specifically, what does it mean to be created in the image of God? as it is stated in Genesis 1:
26 Then God said, "Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth,and over all the creatures that move along the ground."
27 So God created man in his own image,
in the image of God he created him;
male and female he created them.
28 God blessed them and said to them, "Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and over every living creature that moves on the ground." (NIV)
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It has been recognized for centuries that this passage is critical to Christians understanding themselves. But just what does it mean? In the rest of the Bible there is not much about the 'image of God.' What did the author of Genesis mean in its original context?
Throughout the history of the church such questions have been mainly discussed by theologians. Only in the last century have experts (Old Testament scholars) looked at the original ancient near eastern culture and context and helped us try and understand this foundational passage about ourselves.
• Soul as image of God
Plato was a pagan philosopher who divided the world in two: a spiritual and physical world. He also divided human beings in two: a spiritual soul and physical body. The rational soul belongs to the spiritual realm which is good; the body belongs to the physical realm which is bad. The body is a prison house for the soul. Salvation will come when the soul is released from this prison to return to a spiritual realm. In the first centuries of the church a Platonic view of humanity was adopted. The gospel was first expressed in pagan Greek culture. God is invisible so it must be our soul that is God's image. Christians tended to think that it was the soul that was considered to be the image of God. God's good creation was considered inferior. It didn't matter that He had said it was 'very good.' According to Plato it was at best inferior.
This pagan view has corrupted much Christian thinking right to the present day.
What is it about the soul that is similar to God? It is rational, free, creative, etc. It is these qualities that make us like God.
There were at least two big problems that Old Testament scholars pointed out.
1. There is no body-soul distinction anywhere in the Old Testament. This was imported into the Bible from pagan philosophy.
2. Hebrew words used in Genesis 1:26-28 'image' and 'likeness' have precisely to do with visibility! That is, the body is essential in what it means to image God. As one scholar puts it "The customary view . . . tends to down-grade the role of man's body in the idea of the image. The more's the pity, for it is precisely in the body where the imaging occurs. There the invisible God takes on visible form."
This is the first part of an ongoing biblical study.
Mike Goheen, Ph.D., is the Geneva Chair in Reformational Worldview Studies at Trinity Western University, Langley, B.C.
September 20/2007
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