Messages That Matter By Dr. Andrew Corbett

The doctrine of the imago Dei is grounded on one verse in Genesis chapter 1. From Genesis 1:27, Brent Strawn observes, “The image of God (Latin imago Dei) is a familiar, even fraught, biblical notion because it has served as something of an empty cipher that countless interpreters have sought to fill.” Strawn continues to highlight how much of a lacuna there is in trying to define and explain the Genesis 1:27 reference to imago Dei: “Despite a great deal of spilled ink, what, exactly, the imago Dei is remains no small mystery because the notion goes largely undeveloped and underdeveloped in the Bible.” Despite Strawn’s highlight of the lack of biblical development of this motif, he is not suggesting that it cannot be developed from the scant biblical data we do have. This is where biblically informed philosophy can be helpful.