On his way to Rome to be martyred, Ignatius of Antioch urges the Christians there not to interfere with his impending fate: “Don’t hinder me from living,” he wrote. “Let me attain the pure light; then I will be a human being.”
Drawing on early Christian sources, especially the newly edited and translated volume, On the Human Image of God, by the fourth-century theologian St. Gregory of Nyssa, this workshop features John Behr, Natalie Carnes, and Thomas Breedlove exploring what it means for human beings to be made in the image of God. What does it look for human beings, as “images of the Image,” to be a work in progress—growing in Christ until we attain the “full measure of Christ.”
The Very Rev. Dr. John Behr is Regius Professor of Humanity at the University of Aberdeen. He previously taught at St. Vladimir’s Seminary, where he served as Dean from 2007-2017. He is a leading expert on the early church and has translated many seminal texts from the patristic era. His doctoral work focused on issues of asceticism and anthropology in St. Irenaeus of Lyons and Clement of Alexandria, and was published by Oxford University Press in 2000. Fr. John then began the publication of a series on the Formation of Christian Theology: The Way to Nicaea (SVS Press, 2001), and The Nicene Faith (SVS Press, 2003). Synthesizing these studies is the book The Mystery of Christ: Life in Death (SVS Press, 2003). Fr. John also edited and translated the fragments of Diodore of Tarsus and Theodore of Mopsuestia, setting them in their historical and theological context (OUP, 2011). Next, Fr. John published a more poetic and meditative work entitled Becoming Human: Theological Anthropology in Word and Image (SVS Press, 2013) and a full study of St. Irenaeus: St. Irenaeus of Lyons: Identifying Christianity (OUP, 2013). He then completed a new critical edition and translation of Origen’s On First Principles, together with an extensive introduction (OUP, 2017), and John the Theologian and His Paschal Gospel: A Prologue to Theology (OUP, 2019). Most recently, he is the editor and translator of Gregory of Nyssa’s On the Human Image of God (often titled, “On the Making of Humankind” or “De Hominis Opificio”) (OUP, 2023).
Dr. Natalie Carnes is Professor of Theology at Baylor University. She holds a Ph.D. from Duke University, an M.A. in Religion from University of Chicago, and a B.A. from Harvard University in Comparative Religious Studies. A constructive theologian who reflects on traditional theological topics through somewhat less traditional themes, like images, iconoclasm, beauty, gender, and childhood, Natalie draws on literary and visual works as sites of theological reflection to explore questions of religious knowledge and authority. In addition to authoring articles in Modern Theology, Journal of Religion, and Scottish Journal of Theology, among other journals, she is the author of Beauty: A Theological Engagement with Gregory of Nyssa (Cascade, 2014), Image and Presence: A Christological Reflection on Iconoclasm and Iconophilia (Stanford University Press, 2017), and Motherhood: A Confession (Stanford University Press, 2020). For more information on events, blogposts, and other writings, you can visit her website: nataliecarnes.com.
Dr. Thomas Breedlove is a Postdoctoral Fellow at Baylor University’s Institute for Studies. He holds a Ph.D. in Theology from Baylor University, an M.Div. from Duke Divinity School, and a B.A. from the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill. His primary research topics include issues of human nature, embodiment, and divine image in the fourth-century theology of Gregory of Nyssa and contemporary French phenomenology. He has published on these topics and theology and the arts in Modern Theology, St. Vladimir’s Theological Quarterly, Religion and Literature, Literature and Theology, Political Theology, Anglican Theological Review, Heythrop Journal, and a forthcoming volume on phenomenology and art with Bloomsbury Press.
