Messages That Matter By Dr. Andrew Corbett

The Latin term 'imago Dei' means "the image of God". It is considered one of the most influential anthropological concepts about what it means to be human. It occurs in various forms only four times in the first nine chapters of Genesis but is considered the chief reason for the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights declaring the inherent equality of all human beings, and the reason that human life is treated as exceptional by all nations around the world. This important motif is introduced in Genesis 1:26-27 without definition or explanation, yet it has spawned hundreds of thousands of books and articles exploring its consequences and significance. In this episode I focus on three fallacies that are actually distortions of the 'imago Dei' teaching: (i) Chauvinism - leading to women being oppressed; (ii) Racism - leading to slavery and unfair discrimination and worse; and (iii) Ableism - treating the physically and intellectually disabled as if they also were not image bearers of God.