RECLAIMING THE IMAGO DEI THROUGH THE TURBULENT SEAS OF COVID-19 AND WHITE PRIVILEGE

BANGKOK FORUM PAPER | ENTRY 3 OF 4

Control Through Certainty and Effectiveness

Reflecting on our current participation in missio dei, I’d like for us to consider the detrimental effects of how our drive toward certainty betrays the very concept of imago dei. The drive and even obsession toward certainty creates elitism and perhaps unintended “class system.” It inevitably creates and draws the line of who is right and who is wrong—driving toward orthodoxy as if there is one supreme orthodoxy! The areas of certainty undoubtedly stem first and foremost from unattainable theological certainty and spill into areas of systems of how missions is done and should be done. Our concept of God can never amount to God. Our idea of God is not God. God is so much bigger than what Christianity claims God to be. God refuses to be contained in a religious box! God’s altar cannot be confined to churches or cathedrals or mosques, but the whole world is teeming with the wideness and wildness of God’s “wholly” presence.

Certainty exists when the world is built on simplicity. (Here, I am certainly J not saying that there isn’t any certainty in the world.) We’ve become more aware of the fact that life and the world are complex, more complex and mysterious than we care to admit. Recent books by Gregory Boyd and Peter Enns described certainty as an “idol” and “sin” respectively.[1] Paul Tillich’s seminal book[2] ends with this italicized sentence, “The courage to be is rooted in the God who appears when God has disappeared in the anxiety of doubt.” These books show that doubt is not the enemy of faith, but certainty is. Doubt is a natural and integral process of the spiritual journey. The drive toward certainty at its worst can translate into control and even manipulations, often disguised as carefully constructed “effective” systems.

Effectiveness is a top currency of modern progress. Bible addresses faithfulness, sometimes even against being effective. The actuating force toward effectiveness showcases itself as results (or fruits) driven, which has its roots in money, which also translates into control. If the results or fruits are the natural outcome of faithfulness, we ought to be glad and rejoice. Fruits are God’s gifts of encouragement to us, affirming that we are on the right path. However, our posture should be fundamentally that of seeking faithfulness, not effectiveness. Bible also portrays God’s love as never possessive or controlling, which is to say God’s love is unconditional. Can you imagine God operating out of effectiveness?

Imago Dei as a Foundation for Missio Dei

What then are some implications for embracing imago dei as a foundation for missio dei? Right off the bat, it levels the playing field, as it were. Nobody is above or below, in or out, with or without. We are all created in the image of God and the likeness of God. No exceptions. This foundationally should change how we relate to one another as fellow human beings. (We are human beings, not human doings, by the way.) This leads to the biblical concept and image of all humanity as fellow pilgrims and sojourners toward union with God. As we know, the concept of imago dei (Gen 1:26) is closely followed by the cultural mandate (Gen 1:28). The cultural mandate is a natural outflow of action from the reality and vision of imago dei. In other words, promoting the cultural mandate without the foundational assertion of imago dei can easily be distorted and dangerous in such ways that it can tilt and favor certain race over the others.

Paul Hiebert’s assertion of “centered set model” (over “bounded set”) some 40 years ago is a helpful framework with a couple of cautions. One is that while affirming that Jesus Christ is at the “center,” we dare not add our own theological convictions. The other is a precaution that no one (or group) judges who is moving closer to the center, who is going sideways, or who is going astray. If we are not careful, it can easily turn into a judgment game of who is closer. I understand this language of “moving closer to the center” is significantly better expression than “who is in or out.” Even then, it requires humility and vulnerability of our journey of all from all. Furthermore, Paul Hiebert’s addition of “self-theologizing” as the fourth self along with earlier foundation of the “three-self principle” proves intelligible for embracing imago dei. In other words, the concept of imago dei is the starting point for the four-self principle. Without this understanding, four-self principle morphs into a mere behavioral list of what to do or what not to do. Mike Stroope’s book, Transcending Mission: The Eclipse of a Modern Tradition, where he encourages the use of the words like pilgrim, witness, and the kingdom is quite helpful. In this vein, I am continually in favor of “alongsider” language.

[1] Benefit of the Doubt: Breaking the Idol of Certainty by Gregory Boyd was published in 2013. The Sin of Certainty: Why God Desires Our Trust More Than Our “Correct” Beliefs by Peter Enns in 2017.

[2] Courage To Be was published in 1952.