ABSTRACT
This chapter argues that the principle of equality under law is best grounded in a holistic view of human dignity. Rejecting modern attempts to justify equality by reducing humanity to a particular factual characteristic, it articulates a religious imperative to treat people equally by drawing on biblical as well as modern philosophical sources. If God has made men equal, then the implication must be that God has invested all human beings with sufficient value to entail a duty of government to accord to each person the same, or at least equivalent, rights and duties. One of the peculiar features of American political theory is the way in which committed egalitarians totally ignore the theological foundations of American thinking about equality. The holistic approach to the ''image of God'' is critical to the prohibition of homicide.
