<\/p>
In response to my post on Calvin and the de-centered self, reader Eric Enlow of Handong International Law School in Pohang, Korea, writes: <\/p>\n
\u201cI liked your post on the de-centered self; I couldn\u2019t agree any more with the central argument. <\/p>\n
\u201cMy own sense, however, is that if Calvin deemphasizes a relational image of God, he does not affirmatively exclude it. He does not aggressively assert that \u2018Imaging God has nothing fundamentally to do with engagement in the world or with other human beings.\u2019 <\/p>\n
\u201cIndeed, in Institutes I.15.4, he seems to teach precisely that the image of God consists in the distinct nature of human common life, in the relation of conversational understanding: \u2018John confirms this [i.e. that \u201cwhatsoever has to do with spiritual and eternal life is included under image\u201d] by other words, declaring that \u2018the life\u2019 which was from the beginning in God\u2019s Eternal Word [interestingly, Calvin has \u2018Sermo Dei\u2019 not Verbum Dei] \u2018was the light of men.\u2019 It was his intent to praise God\u2019s singular grace, wherein man excels the remaining living creatures, in order to separate him from the multitude because he attained no common life, but one joined with the light of understanding. Accordingly, he shows at the same time how man was created in God\u2019s image. <\/p>\n
\u201cI read this to say: (1) man is distinguished from the animals by the nature of his common life, (2) because man\u2019s common life is grounded in the light of understanding, and (3) man has this common life because of his similarity to God whose Sermo Dei is the image of man. <\/p>\n
\u201cSo, the light of men is one with the Conversation of God and since we were made in God\u2019s image, it requires us to achieve a distinct kind of social life through the light of conversational understanding.\u201d <\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
In response to my post on Calvin and the de-centered self, reader Eric Enlow of Handong International Law School in Pohang, Korea, writes: \u201cI liked your post on the de-centered self; I couldn\u2019t agree any more with the central argument. \u201cMy own sense, however, is that if Calvin deemphasizes a relational image of God, he […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3021,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[47],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3822","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-theology-creation"],"yoast_head":"\n