加爾文《基督教要義》中「上帝形象」的概念

Calvin's Conception of the Imago Dei In the Institutes of the Christian Religion

石素英(Shih Shu-Ying)

《道風：基督教文化評論》 21期 (2004/07) Pp. 115-140+290-291

並列摘要

Calvin describes the imago Dei as a created, divine gift. With this gift, human beings can attain eternal life. We have here both a horizontal dimension and a vertical dimension. We can call the first dimension ＂horizontal＂ because it involves a relationship among created beings. Calvin highlights the excellence of the human creature above other animal life. This status is retained even in fallen human beings, who bear the imago Dei in its deformity. Calvin also compares human beings to angels, who are equally part of God's creation. Calvin stresses that the imago Dei was created and is not a part of the divine essence, as was held by the Manicheans. In this way, the place of human beings within God's creation is set. In the vertical dimension, Calvin highlights the reciprocal participation that occurs between God and human beings. For Calvin, God first participates in human existence through his grace. It is because of the grace of God, by which God endows human beings with the imago Dei, with which human beings can participate in God. This focus on the primacy of God's grace thus points to God's preparation of the world as a house for human beings and God's freely-given endowment of the imago Dei upon the human soul. Yet God's active involvement is not limited to the time of creation. He continually sustains and governs his creation and human beings. In turn, humankind as God's creatures participates in God with the wholeness of their being. Calvin stresses that the pre-lapsarian Adam with the imago Dei was created to contemplate eternal life, to recognize God and to respond appropriately to his word. Thus the pre-lapsarian human creature was able to know God and to choose either to obey God or to go astray. Adam failed to follow God's word. Humankind became corrupted and lived against God. The cause of human corruption is the perverse human being itself, who stands against God and is thus totally responsible for the Fall. The difference between God's participation in grace and human participation with their whole being suggests two existential autonomies: God's supreme, sovereign autonomy, and humanity's more limited autonomy, given in order that they may partake in God-achieved by responding to the creator and reflecting his characteristics. In this way, their maker is glorified. God's autonomy in his divine sovereignty covers and governs over human autonomy within this movement of .reciprocal participation. God's superior autonomy can be found both in the created essence of the imago Dei and in God's providence, which governs the human will and even uses evil as an instrument for its purposes. It is because of human autonomy that human beings are responsible for the deformity of the imago Dei. Yet it is the grace of God expressed through God's autonomy which reforms and restores the imago Dei in God's election through the redemption of Christ.