BEING GOD’S IMAGE

WHY CREATION STILL MATTERS

CARMEN JOY IMES

foreword by J. RICHARD MIDDLETON

An imprint of InterVarsity Press

Downers Grove, Illinois

©2023 by Carmen Joy Imes

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Figure 1.2: Illustration of ancient Israelite cosmology, by Ben Stanhope. Used by permission.

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Cover design: David Fassett

ISBN 978-1-5140-0021-2 (digital)

ISBN 978-1-5140-0020-5 (print)

For Colton,

the best neighbor,

who has taught me so much

about what it means to be human.

History matters because human beings matter; human beings matter because creation matters; creation matters because the creator matters.… This world is where the kingdom must come, on earth as it is in heaven. What view of creation, what view of justice, would be serviced by the offer merely of a new spirituality and a one-way ticket out of trouble, an escape from the real world?

N. T. Wright

CONTENTS

Foreword by J. Richard Middleton

Introduction

PART 1: HUMANS IN GOD’S WORLD

1 Pattern of Creation

2 Crown of Creation

3 Getting to Work

4 The Human Project

Intermission

Being the Image and Bearing the Name

PART 2: THE WAY OF WISDOM

5 The Human Quest

6 Human Suffering

PART 3: HUMAN IN GOD’S NEW WORLD

7 Jesus, the Human

8 A New Humanity

9 The Beloved Community

10 From Creation to New Creation

Conclusion

Acknowledgments

Appendix: Resources from The BibleProject

Discussion Questions

Bibliography

Scripture Index

FOREWORD

J. Richard Middleton

For a long time now I have been drawn to the idea of humans as the image of God (Latin, imago Dei). As a teenager growing up in the church, I was quite shy and unsure of myself. But I found the idea of being created in God’s image significant for my adolescent development. Even though I wasn’t entirely sure at first what it meant, the very idea of being made in God’s image provided me with a sense of identity; it implied that I was of value to God and had a role to play in the world.

The first interpretation of the image of God that I encountered was what I called the ...