ON IMAGE AND VALUE

“God saw everything that he had made, and indeed, it was very good.”

                                                                     ~  Genesis 1:31

            It is something of a theological commonplace that human beings have a unique inherent value because we are created in the image of God.  So imbedded is this idea, in fact, that it is even right there in Wikipedia:

The Image of God (Hebrew: צֶלֶם אֱלֹהִים; tzelem elohim, lit. "image of God", "image of the Holy Spirit", often appearing in Latin as Imago Dei) is a real image, concept and theological doctrine in Christianity, Judaism and Sufi Islam which asserts that human beings are created in God's image and therefore have inherent value independent of their utility or function.[1]

By way of just a few recent examples of this idea in current theological writing: Dr. Denis Alexander of the Faraday Institute for Science and Religion has explained:

Theologians have spent many centuries mining the rich vein of the 'image of God' metaphor. Central to the idea is humanity with spiritual capabilities and responsibilities, equipped for moral decision-making and a relationally rich life in community. Historically, the idea has contributed to the conviction that each human individual has an absolute value, independent of their ethnicity, educational level, health status or income.

Dr. Art Lindsey of the Institute for Faith, Work, and Economics has likewise stated: 

Note that mankind is made in the image and likeness of God, meaning that human worth is connected to the Creator. If God is of great and inestimable worth, then human beings made in his image must be of great value. Note also that man and woman have equal dignity before God as his image-bearers.

And Dr. Ellen Davis has written:

Before anything else, creation in the image of God indicates that human life has both value and form: inestimable value and a form that is uniquely and richly expressive of divine intentions.[2]

I beg to differ.

           
I find this idea troubling.  If human value derives from our creation in God’s image, what value does the rest of creation, not created in that image, have?  I would argue instead that human value, like the value of the rest of creation, comes from that fact that we are loved by God.  

Our creation in God’s image does not impart some special value not given to the rest of creation, but, as I have discussed here, here, and here, imparts on us special responsibilities and the abilities to carry them out.  In the words of Bruce Birch, our “special role does not mean special valuing by God.  Humanity and all the rest of creation are simply pronounced ‘good’ in the eyes of God.”[3]

            This position does not diminish human value in any way, rather it recognizes that other creatures, and indeed the rest of creation also have value.  It does not diminish the basis for human rights or the argument that all humans, regardless of race, religion, gender, or any other factor, have inherent value before God; rather it argues that humans are not alone in having such value. It recognizes that the lives of animals are not to be taken or abused, and that nature is not to be despoiled or exploited, without counting the cost.  As Christopher Wright has explained, “care for creation . . . has its own mandate and validity.  We care for creation because God has declared its value to himself, and because we have been instructed to do so as part of our kingly function as the species made in the image of God. Creation care is a fundamental dimension of our humanity, not an optional dimension of our Christianity.”[4]

            All of creation has inherent value independent of utility or function because all of creation is loved by God and deemed by Him to be good.  Indeed, it is only when all of creation is viewed together, each aspect in its proper place performing its proper function, that creation is pronounced “very good.” 

 Wright explains, “We care for creation because we love the God to whom it belongs and because we long to see God’s glory enhanced through creation and God’s pleasure in creation served through our loving care.”[5] Human value, therefore, is greatest when humans assume their rightful place in creation, and part of that place is caring, with mercy and compassion, for the animals.  When we step out of that rightful place, assuming all creation is intended for our benefit and exploitation, when we fail to see the animals we affect as individuals capable of happiness and sorrow and when we fail to see the earth as belonging to all creatures and not simply to humans, we undermine that value.

            There are passages of scripture that suggest a higher value for humans than animals, to be sure.  We are told, for example, that humans may (with important restrictions) kill – and eat – animals, but killing humans is prohibited.  Genesis 9:1-7.  We are told that humans are worth “many sparrows,” Matthew 10:13, and that humans are “a little lower than the angels,” Psalms 8:5 and Hebrews 2:7.  But as Richard Bauckham reminds us, we must never forget our “common creatureliness” with the rest of creation, which “levels us all before the otherness of the Creator.”[6]  Scripture tells us that all of creation praises the Creator, and “implicit in these depictions of worship [by] creation, is the intrinsic value of all creatures, in the theocentric sense of the value given them by their Creator and offered back to him in praise.”[7]

            To the extent human value may be deemed to be greater than the value of other creatures, I would suggest that it is like a CEO who is more “valuable” to a company than lower level staff.  This is not because the individual who serves as CEO has greater inherent value than the individuals who comprise the company’s staff.  It is because the CEO has responsibilities, and presumably the skills, to look out for the best interests of the company as a whole and so fills an important role.  When the CEO fails to live up to those responsibilities, perhaps placing his or her own interests ahead of the interests of the company, that “greater value” to the company vanishes. 

To use a more Biblical analogy, as I have discussed in the posts linked to above, the responsibilities given to us as creatures in the image of God is to represent God’s rule to the rest of creation.  As Wright explains:

What sort of kingship does the Old Testament set before us as a model for human exercise of dominion? . . . Mutual servanthood was the ideal.  Yes, it was the duty of the people to serve and obey their king, but his primary duty of kingship was to serve them, to care for their needs, to provide justice and protection, and avoid oppression, violence and exploitation.  A king exists for the benefit of his people, not vice versa. . . . [A] metaphor for kingly rule was that of the shepherd.[8]

The Good Shepherd, the true Image of God, has shown us what that means.  To the extent we fail to follow that model, serving ourselves instead of caring for God’s creation, I would argue, any “inherent value” we may claim as creatures in the image of God is diminished, if not forsaken. Given how poorly we have fulfilled our obligation to care for the rest of creation – and especially the animals – I, for one, prefer not to link my value to my creation in God’s image – although I will always strive to live more fully into that image and calling.

The good news is, of course, that God loves us in spite of our shortcomings.  The inherent value we have as creatures of God endures because God’s love endures, even as we fail to live up to our calling as creatures in God’s image.  So, too, the inherent value of other creatures endures in God’s eyes because He loves them – and so it should in our eyes, as well.  It is only in recognizing the inherent value of other creatures and fulfilling our responsibilities to them that we can claim our own value as human beings.

Photo credit: David Wye

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[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image_of_God (footnotes and hyperlinks omitted).

[2] Davis, Ellen F. Scripture, Cutlure, and Agriculture: An Agrarian Reading of the Bible. Cambridge: Cambridge Universtiy Press, 2009, p. 56.

[3] Birch, Bruce C. Let Justice Roll Down: The Old Testament, Ethics, and Christian Life. Louisville: West Minster/John Knox Press, 1991, p. 87.

[4] Wright, Christopher J.H. Old Testament Ethics For The People Of God. Intervarsity Press, 2004, p. 127.

[5] Wright, p. 127.

[6] Bauckham, Richard. Living With Other Creatures: Green Exegesis and Theology. Waco: Baylor University Press, 2011, pp. 4,13.

[7] Bauckham, pp. 12-13.

[8] Wright, p. 122.