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Book: Earth, Empire and Sacred Text

Chapter: Chapter 10 A BIBLICAL TRUSTEESHIP OF HUMANITY

DOI: 10.1558/equinox.19306

Blurb:

This chapter concludes the second section of this work on interpreting scriptural texts—the human caliphate as seen in the Qur’an, and now, as viewed from the Bible. First, I present some of the salient exegetical questions relevant to the dominion of humanity in the Genesis 1 and 2 creation narratives. It entails, among other things, taking into serious consideration Gen. 1:26-31 as a literary unit and a discussion relative to its central concept, the “image of God.” Second, I take a historical look at this passage’s interpretive “career” among Jews and Christians. This leads me, thirdly, to engage the theological discussion, a process that will call to mind not only other passages, both in the Old and New Testa- ments, but even more, a framework of thought discernible through the whole sweep of biblical revelation. The conclusion shows both the extent and the limit of a common Muslim–Christian theology of humanity and creation. 

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