Chalke Talk 45: What does the "image of God" mean? Part II

What happens when we try to stop ourselves from creating God in our own image? This is Steve’s question, leading on from the previous week where we began thinking about what the ‘image of God’ actually means.

Last week, Steve looked at how “the image of God” has been used as a rhetorical tool by leaders to maintain their authority throughout the history of Western Civilisation. As Steve puts it, “these societies maintained their hierarchical social order; it received religious legitimisation and the poor were oppressed in the name of the local deity.”

However, Steve finds the Genesis narrative to counter this idea that has been proliferated by so many in authority. To say we are “created in the image of God” is to say that EVERY HUMAN is created in the image of God. It’s an extremely pointed statement in favour of equality and human rights; a statement which churches have no place to ignore. Returning to the very point of Chalke Talk, Steve reminds us, “Martin Luther’s original 95 questions – nailed to that door in Wittenberg - were a challenge to the Church of his day about the way they were. The Church in our day faces equally pressing questions.”

So what do you think? So, in the light of this, what does it really mean, in Jesus’ radical words, to ‘Love God and to love others the way you love yourself’?