Images of God

During his many decades of research into the mystery and complexities of the human psyche, Carl Jung engaged in a concerted focus on comparative religion, ethnology, and esoteric contemplative practices. His explorations of Eastern alchemical disciplines included a deep resonance with many of the primary tenets and practices found in Taoism and Buddhism, and the tantric Buddhism of Tibet in particular would provide inspiration and confirmation for many of his psychological discoveries. This would lead him to a subsequent exploration of medieval European alchemy, which further supported and expanded upon many of his earlier postulations. In these traditions he found a profusion of various God-images that included abstract forms such as the mandala as well as personified archetypal representations such as the Buddha and Christ, and in Tibetan Tantra, as in his own psychotherapeutic methods, such mythic imagery was employed through creative visualization as a dynamic means of healing and transformation. This study provides an overview of Jung's encounter with these traditions and presents a crosscultural analysis of the transformative alchemical practices found in both Jungian depth psychology and Tibetan Buddhism, which serves to further enunciate the vital contributions Jung made toward advancing the ever-evolving contemporary dialogue between the sacred esoteric disciplines of East and West.

The linguistic and cultural background of the words tslm and dmwt supports a reading of Gen. 1:26–7 as a statement of humanity’s divine parentage. As such it is intended to evoke the responsibilities of child to parent and of parent to child in the minds of its readers. Such an interpretation accommodates both the semantic range of the key terms tslm and dmwt and the sense that the statement is meant to be theologically
significant.

Toen we als sectie zo'n vijftien jaar geleden het onderbouwprogramma godsdienst verlegden van de BTW-methode (Bijbel-Theologiseren-Wereld) naar wereldgodsdiensten, heb ik voor vwo-5 een onderdeel ontwikkeld waarbij godsbeelden in de Bijbel gekoppeld worden aan godsdienstpsychologie. Van die uitwerking doe ik graag in deze bijdrage verslag.
The present paper presents a series of lessons religious education on the AS level devoted to several concepts of God as reflected in the Bible. The series of lessons were developed for pupils of c. 17 years of age with high intellectual capacities but little knowledge of and affinity for the Jewish-Christian tradition. The series applies concepts taken from psychology of religion to the biblical metaphors of God as king, spirit and suffering martyr.

Author: Mimi Haddad
Publisher: CBE International

Recent events in the evangelical community—particularly with the release of Todays New International Version (TNIV) Bible translation—have raised concerns over masculine language. Does Jesus ask us to be fishers of people or fishers of men (Matt. 4:19)? Is there a difference? Should we be afraid to use words like people, especially when the ancient text and context warrants this?

ABSTRACT. This chapter deals with visual artworks as media of divine revelation. Since the third century, Christianity as a religion of revelation is using images to transmit knowledge of God and His action in history. These pictures rate among the oldest communication media of revelation. Apse mosaics of late antique churches served anagogical purposes leading beyond the pictorial work to transcendent realities. Placed intentionally above the altar, Christ’s sacramental presence was given a visual form through his pictorial presence. In the Middle Ages, the perception of images could represent the beginning of anagogical ascent towards the transcendent divine. In the Renaissance occurred a rhetorical shift. Gazes and pointing gestures of the figures in a perspectival space draw the viewer’s attention to the stage-like performance of the divine. The Baroque rhetoric of visionary revelations deployed theatrical and illusionistic features. In contemporary history, the issue of revelation in art became frequently controversial because the concord between artistic self-expression and the Judeo-Christian understanding of revelation was no longer a given. Many vanguard artists shaped their work as aesthetical expression of their spiritual ideas (Kandinsky, Newman). At present, the individual responses to divine revelation continue (Lüpertz, Pawson).

God hardly appears as an acting literary character in the Apocalypse of John, yet is very present in the background of this revelatory narrative. Especially the throne room vision of chapter 4 is an excellent example of rhetorical art that paints an appealing picture of heaven with God at the centre of cultic celebration, while falling short of any concrete description of "the one sitting on the throne". Thus, Revelation 4 is much more reserved than its literary predecessors in the Old Testament, Isaiah 6 and Ezekiel 1. Unlike those texts ,John does not even attempt to depict God, but God is made present in cultic praise.

This paper aims to reflect on the images and the imagery of God in the Brazilian context in relation to images
and imaginary God in the preaching of the Latin American context, taking as example sermons written by
ministers of the Evangelical Church of Lutheran Confession in Brazil (IECLB) published on the site Göttinger
Predigten im Internet. For analysis of these images and the imagery of God, it was deemed important to treat
the socio-cultural context of the IECLB – which corresponds largely to the context of the historical Protestantism
in Brazil – and reflect briefly on image and imagery in relation to religion and theology, not intending to build a
theory of image and imagery. The article is divided into three parts: the first part presents aspects of images and
imagery of God present in Brazilian culture and religiosity, using a few examples of pop culture and theological
context of some ecclesiastical segments. In the second part, we seek briefly for concepts of image, imagination
and verify the relationship with theology. In the last part, it analyzes images of God in the preaching of the IECLB
and seeks to reflect on the meaning of these images to the Christian preaching, considering the context in which
the church is located.

This theology chronicle proceeds from the Marcionite idea of the cruel God of the Old Testament. This idea today is still well and alive with church members, and even with students of Biblical Studies and Theology. The author then takes the reader on a short journey through some of the most sublime love texts in the Old Testament, portraying Yahweh (the God of Israel) as a loving father and even as a loving mother/wife. The article concludes with an appeal towards the reader to once again discover the beauty of the Old Testament as well as Old Testament texts.

Religious identity serves as a central cleavage in American politics. However, little attention has been granted to how gendered views of authority conveyed in religious doctrine shape political identities and attitudes. Using a nation-wide sample of adult Americans, we demonstrate that gendered notions of divine and human authority exert considerable influence on political thinking. In particular, belief in a masculine God and preferences for traditional gender roles strongly relate to political conservatism. Adherence to gendered notions of authority influences political identity and policy preferences, even when controlling for more conventional indicators of religiosity. Accounting for gendered beliefs about authority also partially explains well-documented gender gaps in American politics, providing insight into women’s apparently contradictory tendencies toward both political liberalism and religiosity. The relationships uncovered here, coupled with the continued salience of both gender and religion in contemporary political campaigns, underscore the importance of attending to the gendered dimensions of authority.

My purpose in this paper is to discuss the issue of images of God and what, if any, inherent sinfulness they might contain. In brief, I believe the Second Commandment certainly forbids the worship of God by any means other than that which he has ordered, and that images for the purpose of worship (whether to worship the image, or “worshiping…God in it or by it”) are beyond the pale. But the use of images – images of those persons of the Trinity which God has himself revealed for purposes unrelated to worship is not inherently sinful. I will look briefly at some of the exegetical issues related to understanding what God expects of us in this commandment; and follow up with some of the theological issues and implications. I will also survey church history to provide a sense of some of the different contexts and attitudes surrounding the discussion since New Testament times. And finally, though I believe it is not expressly sinful to make or use images for non-worship contexts, it is a fact that the propensity of humanity is to turn even something good into an idol (as Calvin
a said, “man’s nature…is a perpetual factory of idols”). Therefore, it is certainly wise to use them as sparingly as possible, and so I will close by addressing some practical or pastoral issues and concerns surrounding the legitimate use of images.

"The novel inquiry into the sociology of prayer typically approaches prayer as a social phenomenon by looking at its nature or the different ways it is carried out by individuals today.  Indeed, as my research with undergraduates involved in Catholic organisations in various universities in Metro Manila demonstrates, prayer is treated as a conversation with God.  As an informant puts it, “God is like my trashcan because I get to throw at Him all the dirty things in me…In return, God listens to me and answers my prayers”.

This chapter, however, presents a different angle by giving attention instead to the different ways prayers are enacted as conversations and are therefore answered.  For many of my informants, God answers through people, circumstances, and even mediating technologies such as the radio and the internet.  Personal realisations drawn from these are not just food for thought.  They are taken as divine answers and help for the day. 

By looking at the nuances of answered prayers or how God is perceived by my informants to respond to their prayers, a case can be made that God in the end does not speak in mysterious ways.  He is immanent by intervening in daily affairs, personal as a friend, and creatively experiential by being evocative through technology.  This condition contests the common understanding of institutional Catholicism as a religion of difference in which God may be approached through the intermediation of the Church, sacraments, or even saints.  The sociology of answered prayers, therefore, also reveals contemporary nuances of God.  It is in this light that the chapter is a contribution to this edited volume on the sociology of prayer."

This article is about how lesbian, gay, bisexual, and trans (LGBT) Catholics imagine God and how images of God change in parallel with their self-image. The study is based on qualitative research with LGBT Catholics, most of whom are members of Drachma LGBTI in Malta or Ali d’Aquila in Palermo, Sicily. LGBT Catholics’ image of God changes as they struggle to reconcile their religious and sexual identities and as they go through a process of “conversion” from deviants and sinners to loved children of God. One study participant compares his faith in God to peeling an onion: “With every layer one peels off, one destroys false images of God.” Most study participants have moved away from the image of God as a bearded old man and father of creation and moved more toward a conception of God as love once identity conflicts are resolved.

Lecture entitled “‘I will devour them like a lion’ says God: The Many Faces of God in the Hebrew Bible”, given at Mount Zion Temple, University of Minnesota, March 5, 2014.

The Hebrew Bible and the Jewish tradition strongly argue that God should not be depicted in any form. At the same time, the Hebrew Bible is full of images for God. God is father, mother and leopard, among others. The Hebrew Bible also draws on many diverse and challenging metaphors for God. Hanne Løland Levinson explores the diverse “god-language” of the Hebrew Bible and reflects on the connection between language for God and concepts of God.

There is a remembrance of Milad Karimi's new book to Dietrich Bonhoeffer, who wrote in  "Resistance and Submission" :  The God who is, is not" -  " Den Gott, den es gibt, gibt es nicht ". Karimi reflects in this essayistic approach "Why God is not, and yet he is" - "Warum es Gott nicht gibt und er doch ist" (Freiburg: Herder 2018) the mystery of God . Therefore he has used the sometimes strange shapes of popular, mostly American TV series. They are starting points for his prinipal considerations. His presentation often gains a poetic character involving Sufi traditions and Western philosophers and poets. What a multicultural and multi-religious diversity is expressed here! On the way of the different approaches to understand eternal truth an open discourse is necessary for the religion of Islam and the understanding of God's revelation in the Qur'an. Against every absolutism as perversion of religion it is an invitation to all believers to take action because God has been always among men.

Este artículo aborda la existencia de zonas de sacrificio, en Chile y en otras partes del mundo, como punto de partida de una reflexión teológica crítica sobre la ingeniería del clima. Primero, se hace un análisis sobre el impacto de escala en la aceptación de sacrificio, para después cuestionar los argumentos a favor de la sacrificialidad que están implícitas en algunas imágenes de Dios. Finalmente, se propone una reinterpretación de estas ideas desde una visión cristo-céntrica que cambia nuestra comprensión del sacrificio como necesidad colateral de soluciones tecnológicas a gran escala frente al cambio climático.

Este artigo aborda a existência de zonas de sacrifício, no Chile e em outras partes do mundo, como ponto de partida para uma reflexão teológica crítica sobre engenharia climática. Primeiro, é feita uma análise do impacto da escala na aceitação do sacrifício e, em seguida, questiona os argumentos a favor do sacrifício que estão implícitos em algumas imagens de Deus. Finalmente, uma reinterpretação dessas idéias é proposta a partir de uma visão centrada em Cristo que muda nossa compreensão do sacrifício como uma necessidade colateral de soluções tecnológicas em larga escala para as mudanças climáticas.

In this article, I take the existence of Sacrifice Zones, in Chile and other parts of the world, as a starting point for a critical theological reflection on climate engineering. First, I analyze the impact of scale on the acceptance of the sacrifice. Second, I question the arguments in favor of sacrifice that is implicit in some God Images. Finally, I propose a reinterpretation of the need for sacrifice from a Christocentric view that changes our understanding of sacrifice as a collateral necessity of large-scale technological solutions in the face of climate change.