The Development of Humanity in Imago Dei Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

The Development of Humanity in Imago Dei - Essay Example Human-Kind's knowledge of God or the theorization of Imago Dei ultimately brought about the concept of humanity, as was hinted at in the initial phase of this research (Meta Press 2006). When God created man kind, following Imago Dei, humanity was undoubtedly born but man-kinds ability to hold onto that form of humanity has been sorely tested throughout history. Furthermore, this ideology of humanity was conceptualized by the fact that human beings are the more vulnerable of God's creations and therefore there is a need to try and be humane to one another due to this fact. Also, there is a view that human beings are considered to be the well-being and fate of nature so this is another philosophical reasoning that was born through the concept of Imago Dei and of which stretched into the philosophy of humanity (Fern 2002). This makes perfect sense as the true meaning of "Imago Dei" is actually an interpretation of a mirror image of God. In fact, the terminology in itself is uniquely meant for the human race, as history has shown through biblical times up to present day even. The way in which humanity did actually form has been already stated to be from man-kind's religious perspective and their creation but there is a direct relation to this theory from a passage in the bible which states, "God created man in his own image" (Meta Press 2006). It was of course this pertinent passage which had an incredible influence on man-kind's interpretation of what goodness and humanity should be and they oftened turned to God to guide them and help them in making the right choice to stay on the correct path. Because man-kind developed the rationalization that they were created in God's image they realized that all that they had been endowed with had a form of goodness and humanity about it. For example their freedoms of "self-centeredness, creative freedom, and the option of self-actualization" led them to come to an understanding that having good qualities within their being and expressing a sincere sense of humanity to one another was important in order to stay in God's image (Meta Press 2006). However, human beings can not be equal to God because they are not wholly perfect, although they try to overcome those tendencies that bring in the adverse elements into the human race which affects the idea of humanity (Fern 2002). Karl Barth was an existentialist who believed that humanity developed by man-kinds way of trying to exhibit an idea of goodness in order to be one with God. However, the human race already had an idea of humanity due to the fact that they were created through the theology of Imago Dei. This has been emphasized in this literature and found to hold factual truth throughout periods of history. Furthermore, this is pointed out because Barth taught that man-kind developed a responsibility towards God, again through the ideology of Imago Dei. Also, the freedoms born for man were directly from the idea that God granted them these various freedoms due to the human goodness that they exhibited (Cochrane 1956).However, when man sinned they lost some of the ability to be good due to the fact that the concept of religious belief and the essence of God does not contain the idea of sin, and therefore it was and is an