ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the biblical texts to the imago dei, discusses the three major categories of interpretations within the Christian tradition like substantive, functional and relational. It examines the multiplicity and variety of interpretations of the imago dei point to a plasticity from the ambiguity of the biblical text and the concept itself. The chapter also examines the contemporary theological and philosophical context shapes the interpretation of the doctrine at each historical point as much as scripture and the witness of past Christian tradition. Functional interpretations of the image of God sidestep the issue, by returning to a holistic anthropology based on the biblical text, and defining the image in terms of human action rather than human nature. The centrality of the notion of human uniqueness within the Christian tradition's articulations of theological anthropology makes the posthuman challenge to human uniqueness seem all the more threatening. The theological issue of human agency is center in Ted Peters's engagement with transhumanism.
