How can we, in our times, understand the biblical concept that human beings have been created in the image of an invisible God? This is a perennial but increasingly pressing question that lies at the heart of theological anthropology. Humanity in God's Image: An Interdisciplinary Exploration clarifies the meaning of this concept, traces different Jewish and Christian interpretations of being created in God's image, and reconsiders the significance of the imago Dei in a post-Holocaust context. As normative, counter-factual notions, human dignity and the imago Dei challenge us to see more. Claudia Welz offers an interdisciplinary exploration of theological and ethical 'visions' of the invisible. By analysing poetry and art, Welz exemplifies human self-understanding in the interface between the visual and the linguistic. The content of the imago Dei cannot be defined apart from the image carrier: an embodied creature. Compared to verbal, visual, and mental images, how does this creature as a 'living image' refer to God--like a metaphor, a mimetic mirror, or an elusive trace? Combining hermeneutical and phenomenological perspectives with philosophy of religion and philosophy of language, semiotics, art history, and literary studies, Welz regards the imago Dei as a complex sign that is at once iconic, indexical, and symbolical--pointing beyond itself.

About the Author
Claudia Welz is Professor with special responsibilities in Ethics and Philosophy of Religion at the University of Copenhagen.

Reviews
Claudia Welz brings together a staggering array of voices into dialogue on the topic of the imago Dei. ... Welz gives a stereoscopic treatment of human dignity and divine presence that will be a valuable resource for advanced scholars interested in the imago Dei. In the process, she shows how to bring Jewish and Christian voices into conversation in a way that is sensitive and constructive without hedging or getting bogged down in methodology. The book will find a second audience among theologians and philosophers seeking to engage in Jewish-Christian dialogue, a dialogue Humanity in God's Image presents, theorizes, and contributes to. * Russell Johnson, The Journal of Religion *
A remarkable interdisciplinary exploration of the imago Dei, every chapter of Welz's study builds upon her articles in German, Danish, and English previously published in journals and collected volumes. Each reflects careful scholarship on a range of figures, literatures, and disciplines and manifests the fruit of vetting by diverse academic audiences. An exemplary and welcome contribution to contemporary discourses about the imago Dei and human dignity, Welz ventilates a conversation at times dominated by historical, political, analytic, and jurisprudential categories by foregrounding other methodologies: hermeneutical, phenomenological, post-Holocaust theology, and philosophy of religion. This monograph deserves the careful attention of all who would seek to understand the imago Dei and its implications for human dignity today. * Matthew Puffer, Reading Religion *



Book Information
ISBN 9780198784982
Author Claudia Welz
Format Hardback
Page Count 344
Imprint Oxford University Press
Publisher Oxford University Press
Weight(grams) 648g
Dimensions(mm) 237mm * 164mm * 25mm