The three areas of learning which most interest me are: Bible, theology (which involves lots of Bible, obviously), and philosophy. I guess I could make a really obtuse case for how every single interest of mine boils down to these three categories: baseball, for example, reveals much about anthropology, modernism and capitalism. But what I’m really trying to convey is that, as I grow up, those three topics seem to pique my interest more than anything else does.
Each of them has to do very much with education. And each of them has to do very much with the concept of man being made in the image of God (in Latin, Imago Dei). So as I write things which explore the connection between education and the image of God, I’ll be drawing from the wells of Bible, theology (biblical, systematic, historical) and philosophy. Sometimes one of them; sometimes more than one. Sometimes issues of culture or history or methodology, which flow out of theology and philosophy.
So, as a rudimentary introduction to everything to follow, here is a survey of what education has to do with the Image of God from a Biblical, theological and philosophical perspective.
Education & Imago Dei in the Bible
The point to be made here is, simply, that the Bible is the singularly sufficient means by which humans are educated about what it is to be created in God’s image. Peter indicates that the Word has provided all things which pertain to life and godliness, and I’m presupposing that my understanding of how God created us fits into either one or both of those categories (life and/or godliness). Scripture alone has the authority to truly educate me concerning who I am from the perspective of God, since it is special revelation from God about God and about God’s works (which include me, and you, too). Whereas general revelation (ie. creation and conscience) can only reveal to me how I relate to creation and other humans (the natural realm), the special revelation of the Bible can reveal to me how I relate to God himself (the supernatural realm). And since the idea of Imago Dei is a not merely a natural concept, I must base my education in it upon Scripture. So must we all.
Education & Imago Dei in Theology
Biblical theology educates us to think of God’s image in mankind as being fundamental to what it is to be human. We can trace the theme of the image of God in man from Genesis through Revelation, from Adam to Christ, from dying sinner to resurrected saint. I would argue with others that the idea of Kingdom is the overall theme of the Bible, and as such we learn that it is God’s image-bearers who are to mediate a rulership over the Earth. Fallen images fail in this task, and so the very image of divine essence must come to rule and restore us to our purposed place alongside Him.
The doctrines of man, sin, and salvation all hinge upon a right understanding of God’s image in man. We can not understand what is man, what is sin, and for what purpose we are saved if we fail to comprehend the nature of the Imago Dei. To be human is to bear God’s image, which means that all persons posses value, discrete sexuality, and the mandate to rule. To be sinful is to idolize the image of God in us over the God whose image we bear. And to be saved is to have the guarantee of eternally bearing God’s image in perfection. The concept of Imago Dei, therefore, is no sideline issue in the realm of systematic theology.
And the degree to which Christians have rightly understood the image of God in man throughout history has played a critical role in how education occurs. Errors in understanding Imago Dei led to war, enslavement, predation, greed, laziness, domination, and perversion (just to name a few) in human cultures repeatedly throughout history. Human society is inherently religious and theological, and so the education of its peoples cannot occur apart from a presupposed notion of the image of God in man. In our day, secularism presupposes that there’s no image of God in man (since we came from star stuff and random chance processes), and so we are watching the (de)construction of a society built upon such a profoundly ignorant idea.
Education & Imago Dei in Philosophy
Connected to Bible and Theology is Philosophy. Philosophy flows out of what we hold to be true about God, man, and nature, and is dictated by where we believe authority lay. And education is simply the means by which philosophies are disseminated, implanted, grown, and harvested in subsequent generations.
At the heart of any philosophical system is both an explanation of how a human should interact with the world around them, and a presentation of a goal to which a human ought to pursue. Consider the well-known philosophical systems of Realism, Idealism, Rationalism, Empiricism, Existentialism, Modernism, etc. They all have to do with humans parsing the world around them and then determining what to do in it. And so also is the case for the “philosophy” of Imago Dei — which is, that the biblical teaching of God’s image in mankind tells us how to interpret and interact with the natural and supernatural worlds around us. It would, therefore, follow that true education aims at helping a student understand what it means that they are made in God’s image, and what they should do because of it.
A Distilled Definition
It would likely be imprudent to reduce Classical Christian education down to one essential thing, since it’s so very multi-faceted and complex. But I like to try to do things like that. So, if I were pressed to positively assert the fundamental thing that Classical Christian education aims to do, I would say this: Classical Christian education attempts to open a student’s eyes to the fact that he is created in God’s image, that bearing his image comes with certain privileges and responsibilities, and that only through Christ can he overcome what the serpent is seeking to devalue, deface and destroy concerning the Imago Dei that he bears.