Tuesday, August 30, 2022

Stanley L. Jaki on the Prohibition of Images of God and God being "pure spirit"

In his work on the reception history of Genesis 1, Stanley L. Jaki wrote that

 

The very prohibition of making any image of God was a powerful reminder that God was pure spirit. (Stanley L. Jaki, Genesis 1 Through the Ages [2d ed.; Edinburgh: Real View Books, 1998], 27; by 'pure spirit', Jaki, a Catholic, means immaterial spirit)

 

Contra Jaki, there is an ‘image’ of God in the Bible, and that is humanity who is the ‘cult image’ of God according to the theology of Genesis 1:26-27. On this, see the exegesis of this passage at:

 

Lynn Wilder vs. Latter-day Saint (and Biblical) Theology on Divine Embodiment

 

On the issue of images/icons, see the listing of articles at:


Answering Fundamentalist Protestants and Roman Catholic/Eastern Orthodox on Images/Icons