I never did get to play Hamlet when I was an actor, so I hope you'll indulge me.

What a piece of work is a man.

How noble in reason, how infinite in faculty,

in form and moving, how express and admirable.

In action, how like an angel.

In apprehension, how like a God.

It's true.

For all the evident dysfunction of the human race,

there is still something extraordinary about it.

Something divine, you might say. Genesis chapter 1,

verse 27, the crescendo of the creation narrative explains why. God created man in his own image,

in the image of God he created him.

Nothing else in all creation is made in the image of the triune God, only men and women.

And to speak as scripture speaks, you and I don't bear the image of God.

We don't have the image of God.

We are the image of God.

This subject is what theologians call in Latin the Imago Dei, the image of God.

What does it mean to say that we are the image of God? Well, it's been the subject of seemingly endless exploration and elaboration, but at the very least, the fact that we

are made in God's image sets us apart from every other creature. Read Genesis chapter 1 and you'll get

used to hearing that God created various things according to their kinds, plants, trees, sea creatures,

birds, livestock and so on. According to their kinds, points toward the fact that

for all of the diversity of these things, there are recognisable groupings or families, almost as if a

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