NSBT 36: Identity and Idolatry

The Image of God and its Inversion.

So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male " and female he created them (Genesis 1:27)."

Genesis 1:26-27 has served as the locus of most theological anthropologies in
the central Christian tradition. However, Richard Lints observes that too
rarely have these verses been understood as conceptually interwoven with the
whole of the prologue materials of Genesis 1. The construction of the cosmic
temple strongly hints that the 'image of God' language serves liturgical
functions.

Lints argues that 'idol' language in the Bible is a conceptual inversion of the
'image' language of Genesis 1. These constructs illuminate each other, and
clarify the canon's central anthropological concerns. The question of human
identity is distinct, though not separate, from the question of human nature;
the latter has far too frequently been read into the biblical use of 'image'.

Lints shows how the 'narrative' of human identity runs from creation (imago
Dei) to fall (the golden calf/idol, Exodus 32) to redemption (Christ as perfect
image, Colossians 1:15-20). The biblical-theological use of image/idol is a
thread through the canon that highlights the movements of redemptive history.

In the concluding chapters, Lints interprets the use of idolatry as it emerges
in the secular prophets of the nineteenth century, and examines the recent
renaissance of interest in idolatry with its conceptual power to explain the
'culture of desire'.

In Identity and Idolatry, Richard Lints shows himself to be an exceptional " thinker who combines the sensitivities of a theologian with that of a
philosopher and interpreter of the Bible. He not only speaks of ideas in the
abstract but shows how these ideas forge the way we think and act. I recommend
this book to all thoughtful Christians. - Tremper Longman"

Series: New Studies in Biblical Theology.

Recommended € 21,90