Becoming a Human in the Divine Image and Christian Education

Abstract

The topic of human uniqueness has been a crucial issue in various academic domains. In theology, what is meant by human uniqueness is closely related to the core idea of the Imago Dei. The history of interpretation as it relates to the image of God in theology can be summarized within three broad categories: substantive, functional, and relational. However, isolated theological notions of human uniqueness have often been distorted by human pride, arrogance, and hostility to other creatures on earth. In the current study, we will explore a more embodied and holistic meaning of the human uniqueness through a dynamic conversation between paleoanthropology, evolutionary epistemology, neuroscience, and theology. The emergence of the symbolic mind and the cognitive fludity has assisted humanity in having religious experiences, performing religious rituals, and carrying out religious norms and values, marking homo sapiens as "homo-religious." However, a holistic comprehension of human uniqueness as within the Imago Dei cannot be encapsulated purely within the biological or neuroscientific. A dialogue with theologian Abraham Heschel, and particularly his notion of transcendence and becoming human in the divine likeness, can help us craft a theological meaning of human uniqueness. Religiously constructed values, goals, and expectations are built into the structure of interpreting daily events and motivating self-transcendence. The essentially interactive embodied human mind, functioning as a "mindedness of behavior in context," promotes humans to seek out meaning in life and pursue the good. This article will argue that the human being is more than being: being human is becoming human in the image of God by self-transcendance overcoming current limitation through exercising divine living. Based on a more dynamic and holistic notion of human uniqueness, it is also claimed that Christian education should promote transformation of the whole being beyond narrow intellectualism by the act of pursuing and becoming the divine likeness.