06/09/2026
Scripture begins with the astonishing claim we heard read from Genesis 1: that human beings are made in God’s image. Theologians, thinkers, and philosophers over centuries have studied, cerebrally and academically, what this means. What is the nature of a human person? What does the Imago Dei, the image of God, really mean?
But the Imago Dei is not just about definitions. I’m fascinated by what the image of God feels like. What does it mean for me to know and feel that I am made in the image of God, even in a world that might deny my humanity?
My mother used to talk about knowing something in your “knower,” the bit deep down that can’t be explained, in which we feel or intuit something, yet cannot articulate it. I think perhaps part of what makes us human is recognizing, in our knowers, for ourselves, that there is something in us that is not only non-material and longing for transcendence and beauty, but is itself made of divine stuff, as if each of us senses that we have this golden thread, this X factor, the image of God in us.
- from “In the Image of God”, Sermon preached by Canon Chine McDonald, Director of Theos and Canon Theologian of Chester Cathedral, on Trinity Sunday, May 31, 2026.
