Christian View. 2.1.3 Intergovernmental View
Christian View. Conversely to the Kantian approach, there are theories that pose that human dignity is universal to all human beings. Many of these individuals appeal to religious texts and biblical thought to support the nature of unconditional and inherent dignity of human beings. In this view, dignity does not require a level of merit or performance (unconditional) and it is ascribed to every human being due to their humanity (inherent). One prominent example is the dominant view of the Christian church that human beings are made in imago dei, or the image of God, as stated in the Hebrew Bible Book of Genesis.64 The verse states that, in the creation of the world, God made human beings “in [His] image, in [the holy trinity’s] likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.”65 This verse does two things; it establishes the inherent human dignity of every human being and it relates this human 64 Xxxxxxx, Xxxxxxxxx. “‘Homo Imago Dei’ in Jewish and Christian Theology.” The Journal of Religion 48, no. 3 (1968): 235–59.
