Just a mere few years after the Covid-19 crisis struck the entire world. 2025 has not turned out to be a great year thus far. The conflict we have witnessed between India and Pakistan, and in the Middle East, with the US now joining the fray. Most of us are afraid that we could be on the verge of a Global War Crisis and the whole of creation is anxious. The affected people are struggling grappling with loss, grief, pain, and vulnerability as their hearts cry out for compassion, togetherness, hope and the desperate need for transformation. Transformation is a complete change of something that is lacking or undesirable, into something that is completely different and desirable. It does not happen overnight in most cases. Such is the case with human society. Any change that comes is gradual and progressive. It begins with small changes (often insignificant) that add up, and over time these accumulated changes result in transformation. It is in the daily implementation of these small but accumulating changes that we may be said to be living transformative lives, i.e., our thoughts, decisions and actions are moving in the direction of transformation. The ongoing crisis has taught us that our communities and societies are in dire need of transformation. One of the root causes of conflict is the lack of understanding people have about human worth and dignity. We need transformation. And what better way to bring it than to live transformative lives simply by reaffirming the imago Dei within humankind and creation? This change in understanding is a small step with big implications, which ought to be our focus and what we teach our children our communities.
The issue of life and death and the kind of society we want has become globally the paramount question. Therefore, equally significant will be the issue of the revision of international order. The metaphors of war frequently deployed remind us of one of the most physical aspects of the crisis. As in most wars, “race” has become a physical reality of life. The conflict we see in the world is proof of how during hard times we as people tend to create barriers and divisions amongst ourselves. All around us we see Darwinian scenarios where only the fittest or most resourceful will survive. Instead of recognizing and embracing the image of God in fellow humans, we as a society seem to have internalized Darwin’s idea of the “survival of the fittest”. This is the unfortunate reality that we have to live with for as long as we walk this physical realm. The Covid crisis we experienced in the recent past has made this blatantly clear. We fail to understand that uniting as one is the only effective way to tackle such a global crisis.
There is a constant overarching fear, a fear that is collective and something we, people living today, have not experienced at this level of collectivity. While we are all in the same terrible storm, we are not all in the same boat. Structural inequality shows itself in crisis and disaster, and this one is revealing all the ugliness and systemic oppression and inequalities most of our societies were built upon. The very few privileged elites try and pit the rest of us against one another as though watching a gladiatorial match in the world arena. There is something deep here connected to what is the real truth about who we really are, not what we are told about ourselves. Yes, we are afraid. Yes, we feel pain and vulnerability, and what we do with that, again and again, throughout history and now more than ever, is to reach out to one another and find ways to care for each other. We can and are doing all of these things, and that is what makes this moment both horrific and transformative in a deeply hopeful way.
The current crisis is forcing us to confront our own vulnerability as human beings. And this ought to make us reconsider the way in which we distribute or redistribute wealth and promote solidarity within our societies: pensions, insurance, housing, health care, and education must be the main areas that we focus on. It is crucial that we reflect on the values in our belief systems and society that must be saved from being washed away in the tide of the current crisis. How best to do so than to reaffirm the intrinsic worth and the inherent divine dignity of fellow human beings? We human beings are not made to be solitary, as Jürgen Moltmann confirms, the divine image is not individual but person with person. Our relationship with fellow humans and creation matters, it is in our sociality that we discover the image of God. We may be able to restructure our current social systems when we begin to teach our youth about the imago Dei in and around us.
Injustices such as wounding, hurting, depriving, oppressing, and denying the rights of others (including all of creation) means denial of the image of God. All people, in all their varied differences are precious and valuable and are created in the image of God, the source of all life. All are bestowed with different gifts. We need to affirm the diversity of the human body and gifts. It is an integral part of the structure of God’s creation. From the family to church and the community, society must be a place where everyone is genuinely welcomed, given every opportunity to participate meaningfully and nurtured toward fulfilment. We need to work together for an inclusive just society rigorously so that our common vision for the establishment of an inclusive and empowering global society may be realized. Martin Luther King, Jr., believed that the imago Dei entails inherent dignity as children of God, which becomes the requisite for the bestowal of just and fair treatment; human capacity to cooperate with God by living out the mandates of their moral conscience, thus providing the existential common ground for genuine community-building, making beloved community, a distinct historical possibility.
If this is who we want to be, if this is who we are capable of being, then … at the beginning of the millennium Arundhati Roy famously said, “Another world is not only possible, she is on her way. On a quiet day, I can hear her breathing.” In disaster she is all around us, and we are her, and so the question is how to stay. Collective disasters wake us up to who we are, who we can trust, what matters, and what doesn’t. The difficulty is in how to stay awake when the ordinary returns. Moltmann has shown us that this may not be so difficult. So long as we are able to impart in the younger generation the true value of persons created in the image of God, not forgetting all of creation that also bears the image of God, this dream is achievable and sustainable. We ought to strive with relentless commitment toward bringing all people to this understanding as we push toward transformation.
Martin Luther King Jr. said “Man (sic) is a child of God made in His image, and therefore must be respected as such”. We must appreciate this core value and its implications for establishing interpersonal and social justice. The essential element in the relation between God and human as the imago Dei is the finite freedom in which one responds to God’s love. It is either a moving ‘into’ or moving ‘away from’ in which the “likeness” is either realised or forfeited. How we value fellow human beings and our interpersonal relationships rests on this response. Transformative living may be realised if we are willing to discard our old erroneous perspectives and reaffirm the biblical values in its true sense.
Crisis re-enforces the essential importance of immanent hope, moral courage, and the need for deep caring for the entire human family. One must respond with equanimity and deep resolve to demonstrate caring, courage, and understanding. Faith and hope in the face of suffering are essential for overcoming insurmountable obstacles. In the coming decades, this will be even more crucial in reasserting a positive transformation of humankind and the planet. It is for the youth of the world to urgently prepare to assume the responsibilities of the future and to do so with relentless courage, unwavering determination, and inextinguishable resolve.
During this global crisis, we are seeing humanity at its best and worst. As the conflict rages on, it is as though humankind is moving through a long dark tunnel filled with uncertainties. Yet Christian hope dictates that there is light at the end of the tunnel; that light is Jesus Christ – the perfect image of God – and the one in whose image we are made. It is pertinent for humankind to gain an essential understanding of the doctrine of imago Dei, and reaffirm it if we are to build a future without discrimination, racism, segregation, oppression, marginalization. A future community that is based on solidarity, equality and justice founded on the reaffirmation of every human being’s worth as the image bearer of God.
Christopher L. Zingkhai
Tuesday, July 8, 2025