Original scientific paper
https://doi.org/10.31823/d.29.3.3
Images of God and Their Origin
Hrvoje Kalem
orcid.org/0000-0002-6146-8024
; Catholic Faculty of Theology, University of Sarajevo, Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina
Abstract
Man’s effort to imagine God is marked by a multitude of distorted images of God. The thesis of the article is that the biblical man’s and modern man’s distorted image of God is imposed from the outside, even though the image of God is inscribed deep in the human heart. After the introductory part, following the thought of Paul Tillich, the article reminds us of autonomous, heteronomous, and theonomous law. The goal of the article is to show that each of them is unique to man and that these laws represent resources that bring forth the images of God. Against the multitude of distorted images of God, we offer a reflection on mercy that clears them up and brings us to the image of a merciful God that culminates in the incarnation and the cross of Jesus Christ as the New Being; if we keep in mind how God made an image for Himself in the Crucified, and how it is precisely the Crucified who represents the negation of all erroneous images of God.
Keywords
autonomy; heteronomy; theonomy; images of God; mercy; Paul Tillich; Raniero Cantalamessa; cross
Hrčak ID:
265980
URI
Publication date:
30.11.2021.
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