Jesus as the Image Dei

Abstract

"That Jesus is central to Christianity is one of the least contested assertions in theology today. Furthermore, nearly all evangelical theologians deduce from the centrality of Jesus the principle that Christology must form the center of Christian theology. Evangelicals are less likely to be of one mind as to what forms the center of Christology. Yet most tend to elevate Christ’s saving work—the atonement—to center stage. Moreover, following the trajectory of Western theology, evangelical theologians typically present the atonement as God’s antidote for the predicament posed by human sin. This focus, in turn, determines both the shape and the flow of the typically evangelical delineation of systematic theology. Such depictions routinely begin by presenting God as the Creator who fashions humankind in the divine image, which is generally understood as involving some sort of endowment, such as reason or will. Evangelical presentations then delineate the sinful human condition that resulted from the primordial fall, before describing Christ as the one who overcomes the debilitating rule of sin"