Ellen G. White's inclusion of the body in the Imago Dei

Abstract

Chapter 1 introduced the problem by mentioning a persistent discussion on the body in the imago Dei. The study attempted to answer two basic questions. First, to what extent is Ellen G. White’s inclusion of the body in the imago Dei unique? Second, to what extent does Ellen G. White share her viewpoints with others? Chapter 2 reviewed the theological positions for the inclusion of the body in the imago Dei in Christian anthropology from the Early Church to twentieth century. Those who were influenced by Greek dualism tended to exclude the body from the imago Dei while those who took the sola scriptura assumption included the body in the imago Dei. Chapter 3 described Ellen G. White’s inclusion of the body in the imago Dei. Her monistic view of man in the imago Dei is found to permeate the SDA Church’s views of education, health, abolitionism, and creationism. Her biblical support for the imago Dei are found in Gen 1:26,27; Ps 8:5-8; John 1:14; 14:9,10; Rom 8:29; 1 Cor 10:5; 2 Cor 3:18; 2 Cor 4:3-6; Eph 4:24; Col 1:15 and Heb 1:3, all of which describe how the imago Dei relates to the totality of human nature. The SDA Church also endorsed her imago Dei concept by presenting the complementarity of the body and the mind and the character as parts of the whole and Christ as the prototype for believers’ bodily resurrection. Chapter 4 presented the extent of her commonalities and differences with others in (1) traditional theology, (2) extra-biblical texts, (3) anti-dogmatic writers, (4) neo-orthodox writers, (5) Darwinians, (6) ecologists, (7) feminists, (8) proposers of a body theology, and (10) Jewish theology. These commonalities and differences are measured by the degree of their dependence on the sola scriptura or Greek dualism.