scholarly journals Will Cyborgs Ever Be Humans in the Image and Likeness of God?

Religions ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (10) ◽  
pp. 850
Author(s):  
Krzysztof Krzemiński
Keyword(s):  
Genetic Engineering ◽  
Human Brain ◽  
Image Of God ◽  
Personal Relationship ◽  
Human Being ◽  
Holy Trinity ◽  
Christian Anthropology ◽  
Relationship Of ◽  
The Image Of God

Advances in technology and genetic engineering have rekindled the hopes of some communities for human immortality on earth. Projects aimed at copying the human brain for the purpose of enabling humans to achieve “cybernetic eternity” are emerging. From the perspective of Christian anthropology, it is advisable to ask the following question: is a cyborg a human being in the image of God? It boils down to the criteria for being in the image of God. The first of these is creativity, understood as the actualized relationship of the human with their Creator. For the human is not a product of even the most brilliant minds and technologies, but a creature for whom a personal relationship with the Persons of the Holy Trinity is constitutive in nature.

scholarly journals Synthetic biology ethically evaluated: The creating God and co-creating human

2014 ◽  
Vol 48 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Riaan Rheeder
Keyword(s):  
Synthetic Biology ◽  
Image Of God ◽  
Human Being ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Absolute Value ◽  
God's Image ◽  
The One ◽  
Relationship Of ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
The Image Of God

God did not create once and then put an end to it. Testimony from Scripture shows that God continuously establishes or creates new things. Humans can therefore expect to always see and experience new things in creation. With this pattern of reasoning, one can anticipate that the human being as image of God will continuously establish new things in history. Although nature has value, it does not have absolute value and therefore it can be synthesised responsibly. The thought that humans are stewards of God is no longer adequate to, theologically put into words, the relationship human beings have with nature. New biotechnological developments ask for different answers from Scripture. Several ethicists are of the opinion that the theological construction of humans and created co-creators can help found the relationship of the human being to nature. Humans developed as God’s image evolutionary. On the one hand, this means humans themselves are a product of nature. On the other hand, the fact that humans are the image of God is also an ethical call that humans, like God, have to develop and create new things throughout history. Synthetic biology can be evaluated as technology that is possible, because humans are the image of God. However, it should, without a doubt, be executed responsibly.Sintetiese biologie eties geëvalueer: Die skeppende God en medeskeppende mens. God het nie net eenmaal geskep en daar gestop nie. Uit Skrifgetuienisse kan afgelei word dat God voortdurend nuwe dinge tot stand bring of skep. Daarom kan die mens verwag om gedurig nuwe dinge in die skepping te sien en te beleef. Hiermee saam kan verwag word dat die mens as beeld van God voortdurend nuwe dinge in die geskiedenis tot stand sal bring. Alhoewel die natuur waarde het, het dit nie absolute waarde nie en kan dus verantwoordelik gesintetiseer word. Die gedagte dat die mens rentmeester van God is, is nie meer voldoende om die mens se verhouding tot die natuur teologies te verwoord nie. Nuwe biotegnologiese ontwikkelinge vra na ander antwoorde vanuit die Skrif. Verskeie etici is van mening dat die teologiese konstruksie van die mens as geskepte medeskepper kan help om die mens se verhouding tot die natuur te begrond. Die mens het deur ’n evolusionêre proses tot God se beeld ontwikkel. Aan die een kant beteken dit dat die mens self ’n produk van die natuur is. Aan die ander kant is beeldskap ook ’n etiese oproep dat die mens, soos God, nuwe dinge in die geskiedenis moet ontwikkel en skep. Sintetiese biologie kan gesien word as tegnologie wat moontlik is omdat die mens na die beeld van God geskape is. Sonder twyfel moet sintetiese biologie egter verantwoordelik beoefen word.

scholarly journals HOMO CULTURALIS VERSUS CULTURA ANIMI

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 51-58
Author(s):  
Patrik Maturkanič ◽  
Ivana Tomanova Cergetova ◽  
Peter Kondrla ◽  
Viktoria Kurilenko ◽  
Jose Garcia Martin
Keyword(s):  
Two Dimensions ◽  
Image Of God ◽  
Fundamental Aspect ◽  
Cultural Dimension ◽  
Human Being ◽  
Human Thinking ◽  
Level Of Thinking ◽  
Relationship Of ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
The Image Of God

Aim. Presented study deals with the cultural dimension. It analyses external and internal human activities, that are creating the polarity develop values. The aim of the study is to clarify and connect the theoretical level of thinking with the reality of life practice, which shows the true meaning of human existence. Concept. The study highlights the importance of human thinking and decision making. Through the actions, one develops and creates the values of human dignity. The study focuses on the importance of two dimensions (horizontal and vertical dimensions of man), the relationship of man to God. Human culture includes behavior that can be learned and is shaped by the environment in which one lives. This contribution is  to clarify a culture of thinking that is a reflection of the soul of human being. Since culture is not only a matter of individual dispositions but also of social reality, it is right to underline this dual aspect of the plurality dimension (Binetti et al., 2021).             Conclusion. The study identifies a fundamental aspect of the culture's values, which show the potential of the soul of every human being. Human values influence thinking and actions of human being, thus creating the image of God.

Insights from Christian anthropology for a water-related technoethics

Water Policy ◽  
2012 ◽  
Vol 14 (S1) ◽  
pp. 41-51 ◽  
Author(s):  
José M. Galván
Keyword(s):  
Common Good ◽  
Image Of God ◽  
Human Being ◽  
Christian Anthropology ◽  
The Creation ◽  
Good For ◽  
The Image Of God ◽  
Artificial Water

The personal dimension of the divine creation, the creation of a human being as the image of God and its consequences, particularly the constitution of mankind as ‘lord’ of the rest of creation with the duty of manifesting Love in this lordship, and finally the total inclusion of the material dimension of creation in the original divine design, can be seen as the main points to consider to establish biblical guidelines for a water-related technoethics. The relevance of these aspects in the modern and postmodern paradigms is discussed, pointing to the causes of the negative modern crisis, and proposing an integration between the concepts of natural, cultural and artificial (‘artificial water’) in order to improve the use of water as a common good for the whole of humanity.

Summaries of Doctoral Dissertations

2011 ◽  
Vol 104 (4) ◽  
pp. 489-505
Keyword(s):  
Integral Relation ◽  
Image Of God ◽  
Human Being ◽  
Philosophical Discourse ◽  
Human Subjectivity ◽  
Theological Discourse ◽  
In Christ ◽  
The Creation ◽  
Doctoral Dissertations ◽  
The Image Of God

THOU ART is an interdisciplinary and christological aesthetics that theorizes an integral relation among Christ, representation, and the formation of human subjectivity. Through a critical poetics it addresses the space of difference between a theological discourse on the creation of human being in the image of God—understood as creation in Christ, Word (logos) incarnate—and a philosophical discourse on the constitution of human subjectivity.

scholarly journals The Image of God in Reformed Orthodoxy. Soundings in the Development of an Anthropological Key Concept

Perichoresis ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 14 (3) ◽  
pp. 81-96
Author(s):  
Gijsbert van den Brink ◽  
Aza Goudriaan
Keyword(s):  
Natural Law ◽  
Theological Anthropology ◽  
Image Of God ◽  
Imago Dei ◽  
Human Being ◽  
Close Proximity ◽  
The Image Of God

Abstract One of the less well-researched areas in the recent renaissance of the study of Reformed orthodoxy is anthropology. In this contribution, we investigate a core topic of Reformed orthodox theological anthropology, viz. its treatment of the human being as created in the image of God. First, we analyze the locus of the imago Dei in the Leiden Synopsis Purioris Theologiae (1625). Second, we highlight some shifts of emphasis in Reformed orthodox treatments of this topic in response to the budding Cartesianism. In particular, the close proximity of the unfallen human being and God was carefully delineated as a result of Descartes’s positing of a univocal correspondence between God and man; and the Cartesian suggestion that original righteousness functioned as a barrier for certain natural impulses, was rejected. Third, we show how, in response to the denial of this connection, the image of God was explicitly related to the concept of natural law. Tying in with similar findings on other loci, we conclude that Reformed orthodox thought on the imago Dei exhibits a variegated pattern of extensions, qualifications, and adjustments of earlier accounts within a clearly discernable overall continuity.

scholarly journals MAN AND HIS QUALITY AS AN IMAGE OF GOD IN PATRISTIC THINKING

2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (14) ◽  
pp. 92-97
Author(s):  
Edvica POPA ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Human Nature ◽  
Holy Spirit ◽  
Image Of God ◽  
Human Being ◽  
Church Fathers ◽  
Patristic Literature ◽  
The Holy Spirit ◽  
The One ◽  
The Image Of God ◽  
The Church

The notion of divine image is generously described by the patristic literature, each of the authors trying to identify the content of this special characteristic of human being, considered (in different positions) the defining element of the created rational being, indicating the possibility of opening to God not through something external, but from the inside of the human being. Since when they speak of God, the Church Fathers do not consider the reality of the one being, but that of the three persons, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, as well as when the question of the image of God is raised, they emphasize that this the image by which human nature is conformed is the image of the Son, or the image of the Word. In this article I set out to draw some points on this patristic feature of the Eastern Fathers.

scholarly journals The Understanding of God’s Image by Anthony Hoekema

2019 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 2084-2089
Author(s):  
Reymand Hutabarat ◽  
Franklin Hutabarat ◽  
Deanna Beryl Majilang
Keyword(s):  
Distinctive Feature ◽  
Image Of God ◽  
Reformed Theology ◽  
The Core ◽  
Christian Anthropology ◽  
The Bible ◽  
Functional Aspects ◽  
The Future ◽  
God's Image ◽  
The Image Of God

Introduction : Anthony Hoekema was active in his works as a preacher, teacher, and writer.[1] He is one of the most outstanding reformed theologians which authored several books such as Created in God’s Image, The Four Major Cults, What About Tongue-Speaking? The Bible and the Future, and Saved By Grace.   Method : Hoekema’s theology as a whole is a reformed theology. The core and the very foundation of reformed theology is the sovereignty of God. Hoekema sees that the creation of man in God’s image is “the most distinctive feature of a biblical understanding of man.” This is why he understands that “the concept of the image of God is the heart of Christian anthropology.”   Result & Discussion : His concept of the image of God in man is examined in this section, which is divided into the following five parts: the meaning of being created in the image of God, the structural and functional aspects of God’s image, Jesus as the true image of God, the image of God in man’s threefold relationship, and the image of God in four different stages.    

scholarly journals The theological ethics of human enhancement: Genetic engineering, robotics and nanotechnology

2018 ◽  
Vol 52 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Manitza Kotze
Keyword(s):  
Genetic Engineering ◽  
Human Enhancement ◽  
Image Of God ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Theological Ethics ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Theological Perspective ◽  
Church And Society ◽  
Technological Developments ◽  
The Image Of God

The recent advances made by biotechnology have been swift and sundry. Technological developments seem to happen sooner than they can be ethically reflected upon. One such trend is the endeavours launched to try and enhance human beings and what it means to be human with movements such as transhumanism, advocating strongly that we should overcome our natural limitations by any means available. With both critics and advocates utilising the expression ‘playing God’, the question of human enhancement is one in which the interplay between church and society comes compellingly to the fore. In this contribution, I wish to examine the bioethical challenges that technologies such as genetic engineering, robotics and nanotechnology raise, specifically from a theological perspective on human enhancement and indicating some paths that future research might take. Christian anthropological views on what it means to be human, especially to be created imago Dei [to the image of God] will provide the doctrinal and theological support to this contemplation.

Man in the Image of God: The Disagreement Between Barth and Brunner Reconsidered

1986 ◽  
Vol 39 (4) ◽  
pp. 433-459 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joan E. O'Donovan
Keyword(s):  
Human Life ◽  
Image Of God ◽  
Christian Theology ◽  
Human Being ◽  
Reproductive Process ◽  
Recent Developments ◽  
Complex Forms ◽  
The One ◽  
And Control ◽  
The Image Of God

The task of understanding the uniqueness of human being which underlies the obligations obtaining among men in distinction from all other creatures, is a perennial task of Christian theology. The one complete and final revelation of God in Jesus Christ has planted this task firmly and unalterably at the centre of theological reflection rather than at its periphery. In our generation the search for theological clarity on this matter receives heightened urgency from the pervasive assault on dignity of human being coming from recent developments in the modern sciences and technologies. This assault is conducted simultaneously in the theoretical and practical realms, armed by the increasing coalescence of the two realms in advanced scientific method.1 Today the most consequential knowledge of human life is produced by the most exact, intricate, and complex forms of manipulation and control. In the enthralling feats of biochemical technology the coming–into–being of individual human life is now the object of experimental making.2 Whetheror not our mastery of the reproductive process will ever lay bare the mystery of human generation, it certainly throws open to an unprecedented degree the question of what human being is, and by what its uniqueness is constituted.

Racism as a challenge for church and society in democratic South Africa: Human dignity perspective

2020 ◽  
Vol 44 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Leepo J. Modise
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Human Dignity ◽  
Image Of God ◽  
Human Being ◽  
Human Relationship ◽  
Physical Organic ◽  
Philosophical Interpretation ◽  
Church And Society ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
The Image Of God

The image of God has been vandalised by racism in South Africa, which it is argued is a sin. It is an ecclesiological responsibility to address the vandalised image of God in South Africa. The author will argue from the human relationship as a build-up to the Theanthropocosmic principle. This principle denotes the relationship between God (theos) the human being (anthropos) and the physical-organic environment (cosmos). For addressing this responsibility, the grounds of internal racism are exposed using a philosophical interpretation. According to the author, there is a correlation between sin and racism. The latter is viewed as multidimensional from a Theanthropocosmic perspective.The theoretical framework will be within hamartiology and soteriology. The philosophical interpretation will be utilised to broaden the understanding of the theological problem of the vandalised image of God.

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