Christian Greetings!
In conclusion to our survey of chapter one of Vondey’s, People of Bread: Rediscovering Ecclesiology, I have listed his six principles of using biblical images.
Principles for the Use of Biblical Images:
- Images must emerge from within the community of faith.
- The images must emphasize the ecumenical unity of the Church.
- The images must complement one another in depicting the reality of God, the Church, salvation, etc. (An example of this is by Augustine who speaks of the Church as “bride or the Body of Christ” when speaking of individual believer’s relationship with Christ; he uses the image of “mother” when speaking of the “self-sacrificing care of the Church for its children”; when speaking of the unity of the Church, he refers to the Church as “the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, as one body or one loaf.”)
- Images are always dynamic, never static. (This dynamism manifests in two ways: 1) an image may be replaced in the same context by another image without any transition and without change in meaning [e.g. 1 Cor 3. 6-17; where Paul uses "field" and "building" interchangeably]. 2) an image can evolve in its use by the same writer and take on a different emphasis or new meaning in another text or circumstance [e.g. Paul's use of 'temple' in referring to the local congregation (1 Cor 3.16-17), as well as of the body of each individual Christian (1 Cor. 6.19), as well as of the entire Church (Eph 2.21).])
- All images are primarily theological instruments. (As such, they point not only to the object, but to God and God’s activity in the world.)
- All images used by the Church are rooted in the language and experience of Israel. (e.g. Paul calls the Christian communities “Abraham’s offspring” [cf. Gal 3.29 and Rom 4.16] and the “Israel of God” [Gal 6.16].) *Importantly, the Christian experience of God as the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit unifies and transforms all biblical images.
Vondey contends that “bread is an image of the primary experience of the Jewish and Christian communities” (p. 34).
Blessings,
Shannon
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I think this blog is very important, especially for those of us teaching who often grapple with explaining things in a way which our students can understand and remember. The solution to this often comes in the form of an image, and we must be careful when using these images that they reflect what it is we want them to reflect. I think the guidelines above will be helpful for me when I am making decisions on whether to use an image. Dee Mimbs(Quote)
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