In Our Image

The Thesis Of In Our Image Is That The Traditional Christian Assertion That God Made Man In His Image (Gen. 1: 26) Has Been Turned On Its Head By Christian Orthodoxy And That It Is Most Often The Believer Who Makes God In His Image. It Is True That The Bible As A Whole Seems To Support The Traditional Christian Theist View Of A God Out There Who Creates Mankind According To His Will And Demands High Standards Of Holiness But A Too-Superficial Reading Of The Text Will Tend To Overlook The Significance Of Myth And Symbol Thereby Missing The Point That The Bible Is Essentially A Human Document Expressing Human Concerns. Holiness Although Of The Essence Is Not Primarily A Top-Down Affair Imposed Or Demanded From Above But A Bottom-Up One Which Is Created By And Lies At The Heart Of Human Experience. Christian Fundamentalists Read The Bible With Black-And-White Literalism While Liberals Often Reduce Religious Experience To The Merely Human. Smith Here Argues For A Via Media Which Appeals To The Harmonious Existence Of Faith And Reason As The Chief Means Of Addressing Mans Modern Existential Situation.