The Doctrine of Humanity (Contours of Christian Theology)
Overview
At the end of the twentieth century the forces of race, gender, ethnicity, culture, social status, life-style and sexual preference threaten to disassemble any notion of universal “human nature” or “human condition.” In light of this historical moment, the Christian doctrine of human nature is ripe for rethinking and reformulation. Charles Sherlock sees this theological task as demanding a “double focus.” To reflect on the subject of human nature, he says, is like “moving around the different areas of an ellipse with two focal points”: humans as made in the image of God and the particular realities of human existence. Both must be brought into sharper, more detailed focus in our quest to understand human nature. The result of Sherlock’s “double focus” is The Doctrine of Humanity. Sherlock notably engages the communal dimension of humanity in its social, creational and cultural aspects before examining the human person as individual, as male and female, and as whole being. He offers a timely and engaging look at what it means to be human on the continuum between our creation in the divine image and our recreation in the image of Christ.
Top Highlights
“Let me emphasize once more that nowhere are we told precisely what the image of God is. Rather, we have shown to us something of what it means to be made in the image of God. We are given a dynamic model of what being made in the image of God involves, not a static picture of its essence. It entails being called, as members of the human race (corporately male and female, and personally male or female), to live by obedience to God in human community, through creative stewardship. Thus the image of God can be seen only as we live it out, both as persons in community (chapter 4), and as individual people (chapters 7–10), and in both respects as those who are to grow up into the life of God.” (Page 41)
“This, it seems to me, is one aspect of what Jesus was getting at in his famous phrase, ‘Render … unto Caesar the things which are Caesar’s, and unto God the things that are God’s’ (Mt. 22:21; Mk. 12:17; Lk. 20:25).9 He had asked for a coin, and pointed out that it was stamped with Caesar’s likeness and inscription. The coin is made in the image of Caesar, but human beings are made in the image of God. Jesus is not here asking for money, or seeking respect for religious sites as ‘God’s property’ (as Ambrose later took him to imply), but calling for men and women to give their wholehearted allegiance to the One in whose image they are made.” (Page 33)
“In the ancient world, as Westermann puts it, humans are made by the gods to ‘relieve the gods of the burden of daily drudgery’. In the biblical account, however, ‘Man is created not to minister to the gods but to civilize the earth.’ The command to ‘be fruitful’ is God’s blessing, not an automatic reality, and reinforces the kinship of humanity with the animals: ‘the blessing … is something that binds man and beast together’.” (Page 36)
- Title: The Doctrine of Humanity
- Author: Charles Sherlock
- Series: Contours of Christian Theology
- Publisher: IVP
- Print Publication Date: 1996
- Logos Release Date: 2017
- Era: era:contemporary
- Language: English
- Resources: 1
- Format: Digital › Logos Research Edition
- Subjects: Man (Christian theology); Image of God
- ISBNs: 9780830815357, 083081535, 083081535X
- Resource ID: LLS:DCTRNHMNTSHRLCK
- Resource Type: Systematic Theology
- Metadata Last Updated: 2022-09-29T23:14:03Z