October 25, 2005

MINNEAPOLIS – Humans are the image of God. What does that tell us about God? Theologian Ian A. McFarland claims that Christians have mainly misappropriated the ‘image of God' language for 2000 years and thereby missed a rich resource for our knowledge of God.

Rather than referring to some germinal divine element in humans, such as reason, McFarland claims in his new book, The Divine Image, that the image of God in us tells us something about God's characteristics and how we know them. It tells us that God, though not identical with us, communicates Godself to us in creative love, in a way that offers precious clues about God's transcendence, immanence, triune life, self-disclosure, incarnation, and intentions for human life.

The Divine Image, is a careful and exacting work that builds from this kernel a powerful Christian vision of God's life and our destiny in Christ.

"McFarland's ambitious work shows us to see anew the image of God in Jesus Christ, whose body is made vibrantly visible in legions of faithful believers-in all their rich diversity. For him, difference is not a problem but a promise-a gift that allows us to grasp Christ in the very tissue of our complex identities and contexts. The Divine Image is exciting – a window into a whole new generation of serious, engaged Christology." –Serene Jones, Professor of Theology, Yale University.

Ian A. McFarland is Associate Professor of Systematic Theology at Candler School of Theology, Emory University. His prior publications include Difference and Identity: A Theological Anthropology (2001) and Listening to the Least: Doing Theology from the Outside In (1998).

The Divine Image: Envisioning the Invisible God by Ian A. McFarland, Format: Paperback, 5.5" x 8.5," 208 pp, ISBN: 0800637623, Price: $20.00, Publisher: Fortress Press.

To order The Divine Image please call Fortress Press at 1-800-328-4648 or visit the Web site at http://www.fortresspress.com/.

Fortress Press