An Immaterial Substance View: Imago Dei in Creation and Redemption

I will favourably describe mind-body dualism with a rich property/attribute as a persuasive accounting of the scripture’s narration of human beings as images of God. Mind-body dualism is the view that there are two kinds of things, namely body and soul/mind, and that humans are comprised of souls and bodies—a view commensurate with both Medieval and Reformation views of humans. By drawing from the narrative of human beings as images I show that souls, which bear rich properties/attributes, offer one way to account for the Christian story. I do so by considering the storyline of scripture in conjunction with analytic philosophy. As such, I am engaged in what is often called analytic theology as a methodological approach to constructing theological positions. While analytic theologians normally do not approach human nature in terms of the broader narrative of Christian theology, this kind of approach is compatible with an analytic perspective. By addressing the basic categories of the Christian meta-story (e.g., creation, fall, redemption and glory), one can assess what models of anthropology coherently account for or capture the movements of the scripture’s meta-narrative. As it pertains to human composition and the imago Dei, the scripture’s testimony is unsystematic; moreover, the precise nature of human constitution and the image is incidental to the direct teachings found therein. Having said this, it is not unimportant. One way to approach the biblical notion of human constitution and image, if there is such a notion, is by asking what it is that allows the scriptures to speak on its own terms, and which view provides the conditions for a coherent metaphysical story. I approach the topic from the perspective of holistic empiricism or phenomenal conservatism taking into account fundamental intuitions and experiential givens as the starting point. Furthermore, I assume that there is an interface between God’s special revelation and what we know internally to be true such that the most natural reading of scripture will include one’s basic perceptions of reality. In this article, I approach the broad contours of the scripture’s narration on human persons and offer a substantial view of imago Dei wherein persons are characterized