Fallen Image and Redeemed Dust: Being human in God's creation

This paper considers, through a theological lens, what it means to be human, and does so in an ecologically minded way. While the usual strategy for this works from the doctrines of creation, fall and redemption, this article considers the work of Paul Ricoeur and his retrieval of symbolic language as the first-level language from which theology arises. As such, we are offered a number of incongruous metaphors within the scriptures for being human, held in tension with each other. These include being dust, the image of God, fallen and redeemed. It is from these that theology gains new insights into being human.