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Image of God’ from Its Origins in Genesis Through Its Historical-Philosophical Interpretations to Contemporary Concerns in Science and Phenomenology

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Image of God’ from Its Origins in Genesis Through Its Historical-Philosophical Interpretations to Contemporary Concerns in Science and Phenomenology View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by MURAL - Maynooth University Research Archive Library A Study of the Development and Significance of the Idea of the ‘Image of God’ from its Origins in Genesis through its Historical-Philosophical Interpretations to Contemporary Concerns in Science and Phenomenology by John Haydn Gurmin, M.A. Submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy Presented to: The Department of Philosophy National University of Ireland, Maynooth 29th October, 2010 Head of Department of Philosophy: Dr Michael Dunne Supervisor: Dr Mette Lebech Co-Supervisor: Dr Cyril McDonnell Then God said, ‘Let us make humankind in our image, according to our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the wild animals of the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth.’ So God created humankind in his image, in the image of God he created them, male and female he created them. (Genesis: 1:26-27, NRSV). C O N T E N T S Acknowledgements vi Abbreviations viii INTRODUCTION 1 CHAPTER I BIBLICAL REFLECTIONS ON THE MEANING OF 9 THE IMAGE OF GOD (BESELEM ELOHIM) 1.1 The Image of God as Encountered in the Old Testament 11 1.2 ‘Male and Female He Created them’ 22 1.3 God’s Rule and its Royal Connotations 33 1.4 The Biblical Context and the ‘Image of God’ 39 CHAPTER II JEWISH-HELLENISTIC UNDERSTANDINGS OF THE IDEA OF BESELEM ELOHIM 43 2.1 Historical Developments which lead to the Targum Translations 44 2.1.1 Targum HaShivim- The Greek Septuagint 46 2.1.2 Syriac Targum — The Peshitta 47 2.2 Targum Interpretations of Beselem Elohim 48 2.3 Ancient Greek Philosophical Developments 52 2.3.1 Phantasia and Phantasmata (Imagination and Images) 61 2.4 Philo’s Interpretation of the Septuagint 66 2.4.1 Philo’s influence on Jewish Theology and Law 71 2.5 Plotinus and Neo-Platonism 75 2.5.1 Image and the One 78 2.6 Summation: Jewish-Hellenistic Context and the ‘Image of God’ 79 CHAPTER III FROM BESELEM ELOHIM TO IMAGO DEI: THE CHRISTIAN SYNTHESIS 82 3.1 A Consideration of Christian Anthropology with Regard to the ‘Image of God’ and the ‘Fall’ 84 3.2 New Testament Interpretation of Beselem Elohim as Referring to Christ 86 3.2.1 Christ’s as the Image of God 88 3.2.2 Christ’s Lived Historical Existence and the Imago Dei 90 3.2.3 Christ as Emmanuel 93 3.3 The Augustinian Synthesis 95 3.3.1 Augustine’s De Trinitate and the Imago Dei 100 3.4 Alcuin: De Dignitate Conditionis Humanae 111 3.5 Bonaventure: ‘Mirroring’ and the Imago Dei 114 3.6 Medieval Jewish and Arabic Reflections on the Imago Dei 118 3.7 Aquinas and the Medieval Synthesis 120 CHAPTER IV RENAISSANCE AND MODERN APPROACHES TO THE ‘IMAGE OF GOD’ IDEA 133 4.1 Context: The Renaissance Period 135 4.2 The idea of the Image of God in Renaissance Writing 138 4.2.1 Petrarch and Ficino — Man as a ‘Microcosm’ 140 4.2.2 Pico’s Critique of Man as a ‘Microcosm’ 144 iii 4.2.3 Pomponazzi, Morality and the ‘Image of God’ 148 4.3 Reformation and Reformed Approaches to the Idea of the Imago Dei 150 4.3.1 John Calvin’s Reformed Theology and the Imago Dei 154 4.3.2 Paul Tillich — Modern Protestant Theological Reflections on Imago Dei 158 4.4 Modern Philosophical Approaches to the Imago Dei 159 4.4.1 Modern Philosophy and Mechanistic Views 163 4.4.2 Hume’s Reflections on Human Reason 165 4.5 Kant on the Image of God and on the Question of the Existence of God 168 4.6 Summation of Historical Approach to the ‘Image of God’ Idea 172 CHAPTER V ON THE ORIGIN OF THE SPECIES (1859), NEO-DARWINISM AND THE NON-EXISTENCE OF GOD 175 5.1 Charles Darwin and the Theory of Evolution 179 5.2 Evolution: One Theory or Many Theories? 184 5.3 The Neo-Darwinian Account of Evolution 187 5.4 Neo-Darwinism and the Non-Existence of the Proper Object of the Image (God) 191 5.5 The Neo-Darwinian Natural Scientific Method and the Question of ‘What it means to be a Human?’ A Change of Methodology Required? 201 5.6 Conclusion 209 CHAPTER VI A PHENOMENOLOGICAL CRITIQUE OF NATURALISM AND ITS UNDERSTANDING OF WHAT IT MEANS TO BE HUMAN 211 6.1 Edmund Husserl’s Philosophical Critique of Naturalism (Scientism) 214 6.1.1 The Phenomenological Critique of Both Scientism and the Natural Scientific Method 221 6.1.2 Ideas: an Expansion of ‘Philosophy as Rigorous Science’ 224 6.2 Husserl’s Early and Later Phenomenological Developments 226 6.3 Edith Stein’s Position in Relation to Husserlian Methodology 232 6.3.1 Stein’s Phenomenological Approach to the Question of What it Means to be Human 233 6.3.2 The Structure of the Human Individual in On Empathy 236 6.3.3 Constitution (Konstitution) in the Early Works 245 6.3.4 The Constitution of the Psycho-Physical Individual 253 6.3.4.1 The Pure ‘I’ 254 6.3.4.2 The Physical Body (Körper) and the Lived Body (Leib) 256 6.3.4.3 The Contribution of Feelings to the Constitution of the Human Individual 259 6.3.4.4 The Foreign Living Body 260 6.3.4.5 The Constitution of the Person 261 6.3.4.5 Person and Value-Hierarchy 265 6.4 The Philosophy of Psychology and Humanities: An Investigation of Causality and Motivation 266 6.5 The Human Type and the Importance of Education in the Unfolding of the Human Individual 270 6.6 Some Preliminary Conclusions 275 CHAPTER VII STEIN’S PHENOMENOLOGICAL ASCENT TO THE EXISTENCE OF GOD (THE ORIGIN OF THE IMAGE) 277 7.1 Stein’s Phenomenological Starting Point 278 7.1.1 What is the Being of which I am Conscious? 282 7.1.2 The Experience of Finite Being as Analogical to Eternal Being 285 7.1.3 The Emptiness of the Pure I 286 7.2 The Contingency of the I, Its Content and the Felt Experience of Security 288 7.2.1 The Contingency of the I 288 iv 7.2.2 The Contingency of the I in relation to its Content 289 7.2.3 The Proof of the Existence of God from the Being of the I 293 7.2.4 Security as a Revelatory Mood 296 7.3 The Image of God Idea and the Necessity of an Assent to Belief in the Existence in God 300 Conclusion 305 Bibliography 315 v ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This work would not have come to completion, without the help and the encouragement of a great number of people. First of all, I would like to dedicate this work to my parents, John and Ann Gurmin, and to the memory of Rev. Prof. James McEvoy, MRIA (1943–2010) who first agreed to be my supervisor in 2002. Prof. McEvoy was taken from Irish philosophy far too soon. He shall be remembered for his kind and gentle disposition and for his encouragement to all of his students to pursue wisdom right to the end. Many others have been instrumental, not least, Dr Mette Lebech, who generously agreed to be my supervisor and who guided my studies after Prof. McEvoy’s move to Queen’s University in Belfast in 2003. Mette introduced me to the discipline of phenomenology and, in particular, to the works of Edith Stein for which I shall remain grateful. Other members of the Philosophy Department of the National University of Ireland, Maynooth were also very supportive of my work; I think especially of the memory of those who have past, Prof. Thomas A. F. Kelly (1956–2008) who guided the department, his colleagues and especially his students, fostering and inspiring everyone to have a ‘love for wisdom’ and Prof. John J. Cleary, MRIA, with whom I discussed many aspects of the thesis. I must also remember Rev. Dr Gerald Hanratty, who supervised my Masters in University College Dublin, and who has since passed. Rev. Dr Brendan Purcell also discussed the topic and helpfully made available a number of his works on philosophical biology. Prof. Michel Ghins, who was my Promoteur during my vi Socrates year to Université catholique de Louvain, Belgium, read over early drafts of the thesis and introduced me to the philosophy of time. My friends, Dr J. K. Kur, Dr Susan Gottlöber, Marian O’ Donnell, Angela Bracken, Pádraig O’ Connor, Ruarí Foster, Edward Holden and Martin O’ Rourke read over various drafts and/ or made helpful recommendations for inclusion in the dissertation and/ or gave encouragement and support. Ms. Ann Glesson, Administrative Officer of the Department of Philosophy, offered much encouragement and help through the years. My post-graduate colleagues were also a great source of encouragement, namely: Wilhelm Brenninkmeyer, Yinya Liu, Conleth Loonan, Stephen McGroggan, Elizabeth Meade, Neil O’ Donnell, Michael Regan, Cory Sloan, James Smith and in particular Denise Ryan. I hope the post- graduate workgroup continues to be a support for those undertaking the oft-lonely avenue of research. Finally, I would like to thank Dr Cyril McDonnell for his meticulous readings of many drafts submitted, for his dedication and time, for his constant encouragement, motivation and guidance to complete this study and to thank Dr Michael Dunne, Head of Department, for encouraging the completion of the dissertation.
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