Imago Dei: What it Means for Us

By Rampe Hlobo SJ

Last month the world celebrated the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Ironically, the United Nations General Assembly adopted and proclaimed the Human Rights Declaration while the National Party government in South Africa was busy enforcing the new rule of apartheid and virtually the whole continent of Africa was under colonial rule.

The declaration became one of the most important documents to have emerged from the United Nations. It has become the benchmark of many other documents pertaining to justice and the welfare of the human race.

Recognition of the inherent dignity and of the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family is the foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world.

The declaration opens with those words, highlighting the fundamental and indispensable aspect of this document: human rights are not just legalistic declarations that can be argued and debated under judicial systems. They are intrinsically in harmony with ethical and religious beliefs based on the natural law written in the human heart, as Popes John XXIII and Benedict XVI have argued. Hence they are inalienable – they can never be taken away.

Every human being is created in the image of God. This concept of the imago dei gives us something that is quintessential in human beings. Irrespective of our background faith or none we all have this innate and indestructible image of God. Christianity draws arguments for this from the biblical view that man is made in the image of God and stands at the peak of creation, to support the notion of human dignity. Judaism and Islam also exalt humanity above other creatures with the divine image embedded in humanity.

For Christianity however, it is essential to note that it does not end there. The incarnation has given everyone the dignity that human beings possess. Through the incarnation, our faith informs us, Jesus Christ lowered the divine nature to assume a human form. Consequently, he raised human nature by offering hope of salvation to fallen or sinful human beings.

It is through this understanding that Christianity teaches love or charity for others, irrespective of their social status. Writing on The Person and the Common Good the Catholic philosopher Maritain asserted that the deepest layer of human dignity consists in its property of resembling God. The human person, he concluded, is the image of God.

From this we can also conclude that there is only one proper image in which God manifests himself in the world. That we are told, is in man and woman as human beings. Consequently, every person has this human dignity, thanks to the incarnation and his or her resemblance to God.

As long as we keep this theological foundation in mind, we avoid the danger of turning human rights into pawns in legalistic games.

Considering what the human family has been doing to itself since 1948, one wonders if all human beings are still undeniably deemed to be free and equal in dignity and rights, as stated in Article One of the declaration.