How Does God Promote Himself? Jesus as the Image of the Father
Ks. Grzegorz STRZELCZYK
John Paul II Institute, Faculty of Philosophy, John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin, Al. Racławickie 14, 20-612 Lublin, Poland , PolandAbstract
The present article focuses on the analysis of a chosen aspect of the issue of the image of God. Through the Incarnation, He whose invisibility was a well-grounded belief already in the Old Covenant, used his earthly (human) image so that his eternal image—the Logos, or the Son—could be revealed to the world. The Incarnation consisted in God’s emptying himself and assuming the attitude of a humble servant, which—in the aspect of image appreciation rather than in the theological terms—turned out to be a failure: it resulted in a misunderstanding that led to the crucifixion of Jesus. However, the Incarnation was simultaneously a success, since to those who believed in Jesus the new image he had provided assumed a prescriptive dimension. In the theological sense one might say that the Incarnation resulted in a relativization of the belief in the Divine invisibility and paved the way to conceiving of the Christian life as ‘imitation’ of Christ.
Keywords:
Christology, image, picture, visibility of GodJohn Paul II Institute, Faculty of Philosophy, John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin, Al. Racławickie 14, 20-612 Lublin, Poland
