Seeking the meaning of the text on a timely issue of concern invariably involves an encounter between the context of the interpreter and the multiple contexts of the biblical world. The history of biblical interpretation is a kaleidoscope of emphases and insights. Our own age is experiencing an ecological crisis which launches us into an urgent search for God's will concerning creation in Holy Scripture. Prior to the recognition of this crisis, the early work of G. Von Rad had stipulated that creation was not a significant issue in the Old Testament. But his latest and last work (1970) shifted ground totally, creation now being considered by Von Rad as the Old Testament's major theme. Thus, text speaks to context and context to text. Theologians and biblical scholars have also interpreted the meaning of the Imago Dei Trinitatis in many ways. Here, too, as the Theological Basis of Human Rights (WARC, 1976) testifies, our endangered world provoked an emphasis upon the image of God as the human being, male and female, and as community, seeking to protect and nurture others, including the natural world, rather than to dominate and subdue either human communities or the earth itself.

Our biblical responses to the four foci in relation with theological reflection led us to a new appreciation of the biblical theme of Shalom as the portrait of God's will for a creation with which the human race is interdependent. As stated during our plenary debates, human rights language does not appear in Holy Scripture, while "the right to have rights" does figure in it as "claim". The Imago Dei, as origin and destiny, also provoked a search for understanding how "claim" and the Imago Dei are interrelated. Shalom, "claim" and the Imago Dei, then, wove the fabric of our inquiry into Scripture. Although, taken by themselves, none of these elements is new to exegesis, integrating them has rendered novel insights. As we proceeded to explore this relationship, for instance, we found ourselves reading texts long ignored (Proverbs, the Complaint Psalms) and changing our angle of vision on texts conventionally interpreted (the decalogue, Hosea). Our responses, then, highlight Shalom, the well-being of the whole, as God's primal concern for creation; the brokenness of Shalom in the silent endurance of pain; and the road back to wholeness and health, beginning with breaking that silence by crying out. We are looking at the Imago Dei in two ways: the human community as God created it and intends it to be, and the broken human being restored to God's image by speaking as God speaks, such that the human being "...put[s] on the new nature, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator" (Col 3.10) through speech. The human being crying out in pain calls upon God to rise up and do justice. Such an act launches the process of reconciliation in which God, too, is delivered (Ps 9.13-14). The biblical insights which follow, then, rest upon God's Shalom in relation to the restoration of the Imago Dei as a function of "claim" or "cry". We note here that our biblical reflections lean heavily upon the Old Testament and the idea of Shalom as an Old Testament concept. There is much more to be done in relating the Old and New Testaments' understanding of such concepts as the Imago Dei, Shalom or abundance, and the Sabbath. Therefore, a deeper reflection on New Testament texts needs to complement the work presented here.

God as the provider of abundant life

I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly. (Jn 10.10)

As creator, God has decreed over creation Shalom, ordaining into the very fabric of creation the resources necessary for its sustenance and nourishment, such that creation is empowered with the potentiality for its own future under the mandate of God (Gen 1.1-2.4; Prov 8.22-31).

God's blessing upon the created order, the decree of Shalom, includes ethical restraints or limits which, if violated, will result in God's Shalom being broken and creation wounded:

For whoever finds me finds life
and obtains favour from the Lord;
but those who miss me injure themselves;
all who hate me love death. (Prov 8.35-36)

Hear the word of the Lord, O people of Israel;
for the Lord has an indictment against the inhabitants of the land.
There is no faithfulness or loyalty,
and no knowledge of God in the land.
Swearing, lying, and murder,
and stealing and adultery break out;
bloodshed follows bloodshed.
Therefore the land mourns,
and all who live in it languish
together with the wild animals
and the birds of the air,
even the fish of the sea are perishing. (Hos 4.1-3)

I looked on the earth, and lo, it was waste and void;
and to the heavens, and they had no light.
I looked on the mountains, and lo, they were quaking,
and all the hills moved to and fro.
I looked, and lo, there was no one at all,
and all the birds of the air had fled.
I looked, and lo, the fruitful land was a desert,
and all its cities were laid in ruins
before the Lord, before his fierce anger. (Jer 4.23-26)

The Old Testament then depicts two realities that are in profound tension within the text itself. One is the reality of brokenness and alienation, in which the rhetoric of exclusion predominates. Here, Israel identifies itself as apart from and singled out from all the other nations as the chosen people, the redeemed community, entitled to land and resources with no regard for its neighbours (Deut 1.1-6; 4.7-11).

For what other great nation has a god so near to it as the Lord our God is whenever we call to him? And what other great nation has statutes and ordinances as just this entire law that I am setting before you today? (Deut 4.7-11)

This rhetoric of self-serving exclusivity arises out of an economics of scarcity and the resulting claims of nations justifying their right to wound other communities, human and natural, by oppressing or eliminating competitors.

The second reality is portrayed by the blessings of the nations as created communities (Gen 12.3) and mediated through Israel as the topology of the redeemed community (Gal 3. 6-7), in which God's Shalom is realized and ethical restraints, primarily those of the decalogue, are heeded. In this scenario, an economics of abundance is the living reality enjoyed by diverse nations and peoples whose lives contribute to the well-being of all and to the future of creation itself.

I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse; and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed. (Gen 12.3)

Just as Abraham "believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness", so, you see, those who believe are the descendants of Abraham. (Gal 3. 6-7)

Creation as the provision of abundant life

As the Imago Dei, human beings are bodies ordered into socioeconomic communities constituting political organisms which act as vehicles for managing and distributing the blessings and resources of creation. They are the instrumentalities of those blessings. These bodies are under the ethical restraints of the decalogue (Ex 20.1-17), which command the protection of the weak and direct the political community's interpretative task regarding the use and disposition of the land, that is, of the nonhuman creation. In this sense, the body politic is not only manager or administrator of creation, but an interpreter of the decalogue, that is, of restraint, so as to realize God's blessing of abundant life. The Imago Dei's interpretation of God's Shalom, then, sets the conditions for the future of creation as either broken or fulfilled (Gen 9-10; Deut 28.1-14; 15-27).

I call heaven and earth to witness against you today that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Choose life so that you and your descendants may live, loving the Lord your God, obeying him, and holding fast to him; for that means life to you and length of days, so that you may live in the land that the Lord swore to give to your ancestors, to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. (Deut 28.19-20)

Crisis - when shalom or abundant life is disrupted

The Shalom of creation is disrupted by acquisitive, monopolistic, abusive and violent acts which produce pain as the irreducible experience shared by all communities and creatures:

Ah, you who join house to house,
who add field to field,
until there is no room for no one but you,
and you are left to live alone
in the midst of the land!
The Lord of hosts has sworn in my hearing:
Surely many houses shall be desolate,
large and beautiful houses without inhabitant.
For ten acres of vineyard shall yield but one bath,
and a homer of seed shall yield a mere ephah. (Is 5.8-10)

A community's status as redeemed or created is now irrelevant (Mic 2.1-5). An economics of abundance deteriorates into an economics of scarcity, increasing the frequency of violations done to creation and expanding the magnitude and consequences of such acts. The "spheres of destiny" resulting from disobedience, the unfolding of the momentum towards death, prove God to be the true prophet of the consequences of such disobedience. It is not God who punishes; it is the reckless disregard of restraint which triggers catastrophe such that even the land itself will not produce.

Restoration of shalom or abundant life

The restoration of Shalom begins with the cry of pain by the violated, the Complaint Psalms being the primary model for the recovery of voice as a reclaiming of the power and authority of God's creatures. There is a speaking out. As God speaks in power, so does God's creature. In brokenness, there is silence which becomes unbearable, issuing in the cry.

I was silent and still;
I held my peace to no avail;
my distress grew worse,
my heart became hot within me.
While I mused, the fire burned;
then I spoke with my tongue:
"Hear my prayer, O Lord,
and give ear to my cry". (Ps 39. 2-3; 12)

Be gracious to me, O Lord.
See what I suffer from those who hate me;
you are the one who lifts me up from the gates of death,
so that I may recount your praises,
and, in the gates of daughter Zion,
rejoice in your deliverance.
For the needy shall not always be forgotten,
nor the hope of the poor perish forever.
Rise up, O Lord! Do not let mortals prevail;
let the nations be judged before you.
Put them in fear, O Lord;
let the nations know that they are only human. (Ps 9.13-14; 18-20)

The initiative for restoration thus lies with those who have not enjoyed the protection commanded by God to the body politic. Speaking out the pain begins the rekindling of the Imago Dei who, like God, speaks. Silence disfigures the Imago Dei. Therefore, the courageous act of breaking the silence is the first act of breaking out of the crisis.

Once the cry is uttered, the way to reconciliation can proceed. The body politic has at its disposal various instruments for restoration. God establishes criteria for the use of these instrumentalities on the path to reconciliation.

First, there must be an acknowledgment by the violators to the violated of the sin or offense committed against them (Ps 51;2 Sam 12.13-15).

For I know my transgressions,
and my sin is ever before me.
Against you alone have I sinned,
and done what is evil in your sight,
so that you are justified in your sentence
and blameless when you pass judgment. (Ps 51.3-4)

Second, repentance must follow upon the acknowledgment (Ezek 18.19-32):

Yet you say, "The way of the Lord is unfair". Hear now, O house of Israel: Is my way unfair? Is it not your ways that are unfair?....Repent and turn away from your transgressions; otherwise iniquity will be your ruin. Cast away from you all your transgressions that you have committed against me, and get yourselves a new heart and a new spirit! Why will you die, O house of Israel? For I take no pleasure in the death of anyone, says the Lord God. Turn, then, and live. (Ezek 18.25, 30b-32)

Third, reparations or restitution must be made (Lev 6.1-5); the violated is now in a position to forgive (Mt 5.23-26).

...when you have sinned and realize your guilt, and would restore what you took by robbery or by fraud...or anything else about which you have sworn falsely, you shall repay the principal amount and add one fifth to it. You shall pay to its owner when you realize your guilt. (Lev 6.4-5)

So when you are offering your gift at the altar, if you remember that your brother or sister has something against you, leave your gift there...and go; first be reconciled to your brother or sister, and then come and offer your gift. Come to terms quickly with your accuser while you are on the way to court... (Mt 5.23-25a)

Fourth, God, as the provider of abundant life or Shalom, completes the process of reconciliation.

And you shall bring to the priest, as your guilt offering before the Lord, a ram without blemish from the flock, or its equivalent, for a guilt offering. The priest shall make atonement for you before the Lord, and you shall be forgiven for any of the things that one may do and incur guilt thereby. (Lev 6.6-7)

Conclusion

Life in abundance is God's shalom and Christ's ministry. Concern for the natural world is coherent with a concern for human community. An economics of scarcity, engendered through the abuse and exploitation of persons and land, triggers negative "spheres of destiny", which hurl us all headlong towards death. Conversely, concern for the human community coheres with a concern for the natural world. Human rights are implicit in situations of injustice arising in an economics of scarcity, where silence precludes the restoration of the imago dei and, therefore, the road to reconciliation within and among communities. The restoration of the imago dei trinitatis is thus begun through speaking as God speaks. Both the human being, whether as individual or community, and God are claim-makers and enjoy or should enjoy mutual obligations as partners in shalom. The obligations placed upon the human being are expressed through restraints, on the one hand, and in seeking the welfare of the neighbour, be it another human community or creation itself, on the other.

Extracted from the aide-mémoire of the consultation edited by Jill Schaeffer of the Presbyterian Church (USA)