Image, Community, Christ, and Gender

what is the weight of our understanding of humanity and of the image of God? how could re-visiting and highlighting this subject dramatically alter our lives?

given the Barthian understanding of the imago dei as the potential of i/thou relationship, and actually taking that a step further via the two great commandments, it seems obvious that the imago dei is in the potential for i/thou relationship with God and with humanity - and, actually, that the imago dei is untwisted from the fall in mutually loving relationhips between i/thou and i/divine thou - (wow this is getting to be a long and confusing intro to the question i want to ask - and sincerely hope you will comment on!) - we can conclude that to be imago dei - which is to be human - is to be communal.

we can, then, further conclude that no single human being can be "human". rather, a communal collection of beings become human as they are relating.

given this, as we look at the necessity of Jesus' humanity, the question becomes, can Jesus be human without the community of those around him? can we conclude that God, genuinely needed certian human beings in order to become fully human? did Jeus need the disciples (12 apostles and other - including women) in order to be a human and thereby redeem humanity?

ruminating further on the imago dei, genesis 1 makes it crystal clear that female and male are communally needed for the fullness of the imago dei, and therefore for humanness.

what does this mean for the humanity of Jesus? does his gestational community with Mary become key in his humanity? do the women who follow and love Jesus provide fuller humanity to Jesus? does their remaining at the cross play a role in Jesus' being human at the moment of crucifixion?

more applicably, does this, then, mean that when we make ministry an entirely male vocation, do we de-humanize leadership in the church? do we de-humanize our leaders? does becoming Christlike mean becoming human? and, if so, does this, then mean engaging more and more perichoretically with gender until our perichoresis mirror's God's and, in our humanness male and female and co-existing in loving community?

the obvious, though distateful from my unmarried point of view, is that we are most human in sexual encounters when the diversity of male and female work together to bring about mutual pleasure for the glory of God (or love).

what does that mean for ministry? male and female ministerial partenering? the importance, and even utter centrality of a theology of sex? what does this speak to the issue of homosexuality? modes of preaching? the theological texts we pick and choose to read from? who seminaries hire to instruct in ministry?

if male and femaleness are so utterly necessary to reflect - and thereby glorify - God, how does this change our theology? what life does it invite us to live? what becomes our catechesis?




so...there's some theological vomitting for you to sort through and begin to reflect on. please, please discuss this!