Journal: Priscilla Papers
Volume: PP 23:2 (Spring 2009)
Article: Engendering the "Imago Dei:" How Christ Grounds Our Lives as Parables of the Divine Image
Author: Elizabeth W. McLaughlin

PP 23:2 (Spring 2008) p. 16

Engendering the Imago Dei: How Christ Grounds
Our Lives as Parables of the Divine Image

Elizabeth W. McLaughlin

ELIZABETH W. McLAUGHLIN is Assistant Professor of Communication at Bethel College, Indiana, where she teaches writing, interpersonal communication, speech, mass media, and public relations. McLaughlin, an active United Methodist, recently completed her dissertation on how Mennonite quiltmaking rhetorically expresses the image of God. She lives in Granger, Indiana, with her husband Donald and daughters Kaitlin and Holly.

The glory of God is the human being fully alive

—St. Ireaneus

Today the world will ask you who you are, and if you do not know, the world will tell you.

—Attributed to Carl Jung

She has done a good thing to me.

—Jesus of Nazareth, speaking of the woman with the alabaster jar

Introduction

“What does it mean to you that you are created in the image of God?”

When I conducted a qualitative study with a group of young women attending the Christian college where I teach communication, they did not know how to answer. After some reflection, they reported how the influence of their families and churches, as interpreted through the biblical narratives, were strong sources for understanding their identities and how they were supposed to live in the world. My experience echoes theirs: In more than thirty-five years in evangelical churches, I have never heard a single sermon about how this fundamental biblical truth relates to the lives of women. This is surprising, since the creation narrative shared by the world’s leading monotheistic religions.1

In this article, I explore what it means to be created in the imago Dei, how men and women equally and interdependently bear this image and charge to replenish the earth, and how Jesus Christ, as the incarnation and image of the invisible God, is engaged in the work of restoring this image in God’s fallen children. Instead of reinforcing and codifying gender inequity as God’s plan, the Genesis narrative affirms the sacred nature of all human life, making our lives and actions living parables of God’s grace, as evidenced by the mutuality of men and women.

Narratives and gender identity formation

Who am I? What is my relationship to the world? Does my life have a purpose? These are a few of life’s most fundamental questions. Many find answers through stories shared within their communities. Alasdair MacIntyre noted how essential stories are to helping humans organize their experiences into a coherent reality: “I...