Much of human life is a matter dignity. From from income to recreation and all the spots in between, we humans spend must of our lives dealing either with the maintenance or exaltation of human dignity; more specifically, our own dignity. We have an innate sense, an underlying recognition that we possess a certain level of dignity. To posit that all humanity possess this same sort of dignity is an extension of that thought.
When the attempt is made, however, to trace that dignity to its source is when we run into all sorts of different and competing ideas. Some feel that dignity is based on action, as in, someone becomes dignified when it does some action or obtains some vague status/position. Others assume this dignity to be a feature of one or more of our components (intellect, emotion, spirituality, talent, et al).
The Christian, though, understands that the dignity of humanity is an inherent thing, the vital part of our God-given constitution actually. The reality of mankind's dignity is reckoned, simply, in the simple assertion that man is made in the image of God. It is the fact that we bear the image of God that warrants the entirety of man's dignity. It is found no where else. Once we recognize this basic truth, we will be much more equipped to handle the multifaceted challenges to the dignity of man in our world today by seeking after God in whose image we bear!
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