Meaning of the Image

We human beings are very complex creatures. That's a given. Most of us also think we're of a different order from the animals, despite some similarities, because we think and feel at a different level. When Genesis 1 says we're made in the image of God, what does it mean?

The theologians would point to three things.

First, our minds and emotional makeup correspond to his. We think and feel in ways like God thinks and feels. One outcome of this is especially important - if our minds are like his, then he can communicate with us. An essential plank of my worldview is the belief that God has spoken to us, from outside our collected experience, to tell us the truth in a world that has come to believe that truth can't be found.

Second, there is moral position, a way of living, that God has chosen from his own nature to guide his own conduct and is supposed to be reflected in us. The Bible, God's word from outside, says things like "You shall be holy as God is holy," "love as he loved," and so on.

Third, "image" becomes a verb in the sense that we are to "image" God in the world, serving as his representatives to do his will in every aspect of our lives.

That's essentially it, but it doesn't answer the question of a Hitler or a BTK killer. Did God mess up when he made us in his image?