Imago Dei: The Foundation of Human Dignity

What does it mean to be God’s image bearers and how does that truth inform how we treat others? Taken from Esau McCaulley’s "66 Verses to Explain the Bible" series, Esau explains why a right understanding of Genesis 1:26-27 is vital to human flourishing. Check out the full episode here: https://www.patreon.com/posts/123618326?collection=1367040

Esau McCaulley: Probably one of the most important teachings in the Bible is found in Genesis 1:27—that God made humankind in his own image. What does that mean? Scholars and theologians have debated for millennia about what it actually means to be the image of God. Is it our intellectual ability? Is it our ability to love? Is it our ability to answer back to God? Is it our ability to represent God in the world? I’m not going to go into all the details of what the fullness of the image of God might mean, but I will note at least one thing: it is not simply about intellectual ability. You don’t become more the image of God as you age or as you grow. An adult is not more in the image of God than a child or an infant. The image of God is a gift given to us as created beings. And for people who might be differently abled, being differently abled does not mean that God has not made you in his image. All of us—young or old, rich or poor, male or female—have the divine stamp of the image of God implanted upon us.

One thing the image of God does mean, and something that has been especially important in the context of the Black church, is that because we all bear God’s image, we are all worthy of dignity and respect. When you attack or abuse a human being, you are attacking and abusing the image of God in that person. To treat someone in a less-than-human way denies the very dignity that God gave them. That means even if you commit a crime and go to jail, you still deserve dignity and respect. It means that if you are an immigrant or a migrant—regardless of your nation of origin—you bear the image of God. It’s not that people in the United States have the image of God while people from foreign countries do not. No matter where you come from, whoever you are in the world, you bear the divine image.

For the Christian, there is no hierarchy of peoples where one group has more of the image of God than another. This is why Genesis 1:26 was crucial in the fight against racism. The Black church’s claim, based on our reading of the Bible, is that the same God who made Black people made the people who now reside in Europe, who made the people from Asia, and who made the First Nations peoples. We all bear the divine image. You cannot create a hierarchy of peoples in the laws of this country if you are going to acknowledge the image of God in all people.

Genesis 1:27 is central to the Christian tradition because it is one of the foundational pillars of our understanding of basic human rights. Our dignity arises from God, and no person can take it away. If you want to understand what Christians believe about the world, about persons, and about people who are suffering, we believe that all people are made in God’s image. And for that reason, they all deserve dignity and respect.