Carmen Joy Imes

Review: Being God’s Image

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Being God’s Image, Carmen Joy Imes (foreword by J. Richard Middleton). Downers Grove: IVP Academic, 2023.

Summary: A study of what it means to be God’s images as representative rulers in God’s good creation, what was lost in the fall, how we might live well in a good but fallen world, and how we see in Christ’s coming the fulfillment of God’s image in humans and of God’s purposes for the creation.

One of the fundamental assertions of the first chapter of Genesis is that when God created human beings, he made them in (or as Imes contends as) his image. In this book, Carmen Joy Imes explores what this means for what it means to be human.

She begins with creation noting the pattern of the first three days that established domains and the second three that filled them with their residents. She explores biblical cosmology and the idea that creation is God’s cosmic temple. Humans, who rule under the divine King follow his pattern in work of six days working and sabbath. Humans then are God’s embodied, royal family representing God and exercising responsible rulership stewarding the creation. All humans, regardless of sex are the image of God. What Imes establishes in these chapters is the integral relationship between our embodied life as God’s image and our engagement with God’s creation of the earth. Our work is how we participate in this rule. It doesn’t define us but brings satisfaction.

What was lost in the fall was not the imago dei but rather rebellion, distrust, and fear replaced love and trust in our relationship with God, and this affected both our human relationships and that with the creation, which was marked by thorns and thistles and toilsome work. The endurance of the imago dei means that all must be treated with dignity. The rebellion was costly and eventuated in violence beginning with Cain. It led to the flood, an act of un-creation to afford a chance for a fresh start (Imes includes a wonderful chart of the chiasm of the flood account that centers in God’s remembrance of Noah). God continued to resist the violence of militaristic power at Babel, that prevented nations and cultures from flourish and filling the earth.

Before moving to Christ’s fulfillment of our failed call and restorative work, Imes explores what it means to live wisely and well in a fallen world. It means heeding the wisdom of the Word and the world. She particularly explores living well as sexual creatures and trenchantly points the way to sexual fulfillment, and in a sidebar article, explores the pervasive and problematic character of pornography. Looking at Ecclesiastes and Job, she explores living with joy amid the fleeting character of our lives and what it is to trust God when we feel we are unfairly suffering.

Jesus is the image of the invisible God, revealing what it means not only to be true God but truly human in bodily form. Although male, he honors women in being born of Mary, and able to represent all humanity. He participates in every aspect of human culture, often prophetically and restoratively, ultimately dying, taking on himself the consequences of our rebellion. In his bodily resurrection, he affirms God’s ongoing purposes for embodied humans. Imes proposes that the scars of the risen Lord point to their being continuity in our resurrected bodies while our mortality points toward the restoration of all things. Meanwhile, Jesus ascended empowers his people to carry on and multiply his work, even as we learn from him what it means to be in his image.

One manifestation of that work is the healing of human relationships in the beloved community of God’s people, undivided by gender, race, or any other factor that divides humans. Jesus intent is that we work this out in physical presence, not in some virtual or ideal world. All this anticipates the return of Jesus. Imes challenges views of the rapture in a sidebar and the idea of God’s people being removed from an earth that will be burned up. She argues from study of the passages that “the taken” are those taken in judgment, that the fire cleanses, and that Jesus will rule a renewed creation in which the bodily resurrected rule with him, fulfilling their calling as people ruling in his image, restoring creation.

The book includes a number of informative sidebars, for example comparing the creation accounts to other ancient accounts. Each chapter includes summaries and further resources including QR code links to further resources from the Bible Project as well as other written resources. For group study, a discussion guide is offered.

Imes makes a powerful statement for our embodied lives and work both now and in the new creation as the imago dei. She also speaks compellingly that the imago dei, in creation and redemption transcends all distinctions between human beings. The book complements her earlier Bearing God’s Name (review), on our calling, in addressing our identity as an embodied royal family representing our great King as we rule over and care for his creation–forever.

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Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a complimentary review copy of this book from the publisher.

Review: Bearing God’s Name

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Bearing God’s Name: Why Sinai Still Matters, Carmen Joy Imes. Downers Grove: IVP Academic, 2019.

Summary: What the law given at Sinai and the Old Testament has to do with the lives of Christians.

Carmen Joy Imes wants to puncture the myth once for all that the Old Testament is about law and the New about grace. In this book, which begins with Israel’s deliverance from Egypt and provided for in the wilderness, she stresses that the law reflects how those who have been the recipients of such grace may live under such grace, and that the scriptures speak of the joy and delight that God has shown them how they ought live with Him.

A key point in this book is her reading of what she would consider the second commandment, the first being to have no other gods nor images of God. She contends that what we often translate “you shall not take the name of the Lord in vain” is better translated, “you shall not bear the name of Yahweh, your God, in vain.” She considers Israel’s calling to be, as those who worship only Yahweh, to represent well, or bear, God’s name to the nations. The rest of the commands, then, articulate how they do this well.

She then discusses how God ratifies his covenant purpose and provides for their covenant-breaking in the whole system of sacrifices, yet another note of grace. Then she traces how they are prepared to enter the promised land through census, blessing, and marching orders. She then covers all the ways Israel strikes out, from the unbelief surrounding the report of the spies, the compromises with the Gibeonites and other failures under Joshua, and the failures of David’s dynasty. The prophets reveal Israel’s problem, and it is not with the law, but what the law reveals of their hearts. They point to restoration, new hearts on which the law is written.

Enter Jesus, whose name means Yahweh saves. He is one who fulfills the name bearing at which Israel so miserably failed. His whole life as the true Israel, one greater than Moses, revealed in the transfiguration and raised from the dead reveals him as the true name bearer. There is no other name, his name is above all names, and those who are saved by grace bear that name and represent him well as they obey him. And this includes the Gentiles, who together with the Jews are formed into one new people bearing the name, living out the law written on their hearts, reflecting God’s “tattoo” upon them to the nations.

Along the way, Imes includes sidebars with informative background on such things as “How Many Hebrews?”, in which she discusses the question of the numbers given of those in the wilderness. She offers resources for further study, including an appendix of QR codes to relevant videos from The Bible Project. A discussion guide for group study is also provided.

Through a style that includes references to Narnia, personal stories, and word studies, and scholarship, she traces the arc of how God has worked to call out a people who bear His name from Sinai through Jesus to the church. She both demystifies the Old Testament, including matters like the sacrificial system and traces the story arc of all of scripture. She shows the continuity between Sinai and Zion, between Moses and Jesus and what all this means for us.

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Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a complimentary review copy of this book from the publisher.

Review: Praying the Psalms with Augustine and Friends

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Praying the Psalms with Augustine and Friends (Sacred Roots Spiritual Classics #1), Carmen Joy Imes. Wichita, KS: TUMI Press, 2021.

Summary: A collection of readings for all the Psalms drawn from the writings of Augustine and other classic spiritual writers from Origen to Calvin.

This is the first of the Sacred Roots Spiritual Classics series to be released. The Sacred Roots Project, in cooperation with The Urban Ministry Institute (TUMI) and inspired by the brief but effective ministry of Samuel Morris, a Taylor University student, believes “fresh readings of Christian spiritual classics can lead Christian leaders into a deeper engagement with the God revealed in Scripture and into deeper relationships with one another” (p. 331). The larger dream is to equip a million Christian workers to serve the global poor and this series is driven by the premise that “leaders are readers.”

The bulk of the book is taken up with reflections on each Psalm by Augustine or another classic spiritual writer, with Augustine in the predominance. Each of the reflections are 1-2 pages in length except for a few in verse that may be up to 3-4 pages. Readers are encouraged to read the Psalm in their Bible, then the reflection, and then re-read the Psalm The readings are organized into eight chapters for groups going through this together, which means two or three readings over the day, sometimes leaving one with “make up” days. At the end of each chapter, five discussion questions are offered that concern Habitat, Head, Heart, Hand, and Habits according to an explanation in the resource section.

The readings usually focus in on a verse or several verses from the Psalm. Augustine and Calvin, it seemed to me stayed closest to the text. Mary Sidney Herbert’s verses offered paraphrases of the text, often accompanied with notes on archaisms and what they mean. Others often began with the text and brought in other insights from scripture and the spiritual life. One theme developed in many of the readings is epitomized in John Calvin’s observation on Psalm 4: “David testifies that although he may lack all other good things, the fatherly love of God is sufficient to compensate for the loss of them all.” Throughout we are reminded that God’s most precious gift to us is the gift of God’s self. Caesarius of Arles reminds us from Psalm 41 that “Confession is the very beginning of restoration to health.” Reflecting on Psalm 55, Augustine proposes that “Perhaps the reason your heart is troubled is because you have forgotten him in whom you have believed.” And as the Psalms come to a close, Augustine urges us from Psalm 148 to “Praise with your whole selves: that is, do not let your tongue and your voice alone praise God, but your conscience also, your life, your deeds.”

Reading through the Psalms using this book reminded me of what a gift both the Psalms and the great figures of the church are to us. The Psalms remind us of what matters, God and his word and give us words when we have sinned, are in a great need, beset by enemies, discouraged personally or for our people, and for exultation in God. The saints in these pages testify from the Psalms to the truth of what is written. What a powerful combination.

The reader should not conclude without reading through the resource section which includes an afterword, and explanation of the purpose of this series and a variety of ways to do “Psalm work” and “Soul work including a wonderful chart on what Psalms to pray for particular purposes. Other sections give us brief biographies of Augustine and friends, place them on a timeline, show the Psalms each appear in, and provide for each Psalm, the source of the reading–many available for free online. Resources for further reading are offered as well.

My sense is that this book is well designed for the devotional and discipleship purposes for which it is intended with carefully curated readings, discussion questions for groups, and supporting resources. I might also mention that this may be a good resource for those who regularly read the Psalms as they follow a lectionary set of readings through the year (the one I follow, for example has morning and evening readings that go through the Psalms every two months). Saints through history have found that the Psalms give them language to express their longings for God and the turmoil in their souls. In this book, we get to accompany a number of them as we read the Psalms with them and each other.

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Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a complimentary review copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. The opinions I have expressed are my own.