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Christology, Imitability and Ethics1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 February 2009

John B. Webster
Affiliation:
St John's College, Durham DH1 3RJ

Extract

Our conduct is shaped by the condition of our vision; we are free to choose or to struggle against only what we can see. Our vision, however, is determined by the most important images of the self from which we have fashioned our sense of identity. These furnish us with our perspective upon everything else; they finally legislate not only what we will and what we will not see, but the particular angle or point of view from which the whole of reality will be assessed. How we see ourselves, then, determines how we will conduct ourselves in relation to others, to the world, and even to God — and all this is ultimately a matter of images. If we cannot see ourselves as Christians, we shall scarcely be able to act except in the ways that the fashions of this world legitimate.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Scottish Journal of Theology Ltd 1986

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References

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