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- Title
The Dignity Code of Jesus and the Reformation.
- Authors
Domeris, Bill
- Abstract
The Reformers, through their renewed and inspired reading of Scripture, rediscovered and applied, to their time, the teaching and practice of Jesus, including Jesus's own code of dignity. Not that they declared that they recognised such a code or even gave it a name--rather it was a case of what Thomas à Kempis called 'the imitation of Christ' (1418-1427)--doing what Jesus did. Following the Gospel accounts, Jesus expressed his respect for the worthiness (Gk. worth ἄξιος) of all people in both his teaching and his practice, and it informed his vision of the Reign of God. This deep awareness of what we today term 'human dignity' enabled Jesus to challenge the hegemonic2 code of honour and shame. which dominated the first-century Roman world, including the Jewish colonies of Judaea and Galilee. A millennium and a half later, as the Reformers filled their minds with Scripture (sola scriptura) and meditated upon the praxis of Jesus, they bore fruit which led inter alia to the education of ordinary children (created in imago deo) and a re-evaluation of Christian forms of leadership (priesthood of all believers). But it was the inherent idea of human worthiness (dignity), which remains to this day one of the great gifts of the Reformation, and ultimately, I will argue, harks back, at least in part, to Jesus' personal dignity code.
- Subjects
REFORMATION; DIGNITY; RELIGIOUS values; GOD in Christianity; ATTRIBUTES of God; SPIRITUALITY; RELIGION
- Publication
Conspectus (South African Theological Seminary), 2017, Vol 24, p255
- ISSN
1996-8167
- Publication type
Article