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Reading Historic Theology Like an Adult

July 17th, 2025 | 9 min read

By Jake Meador

If you spend any time at all talking to contemporary Christians about the idea of human dignity, you're virtually certain to hear this: Someone will claim that human beings intrinsically possess a certain quality (called "dignity") that demands from others a certain degree of respect and propriety and they will attempt to anchor that idea in the well-known creation account of Genesis 1 which speaks of man being made in God's image.

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Jake Meador

Jake Meador is the editor-in-chief of Mere Orthodoxy. His writing has appeared in The Atlantic, Commonweal, First Things, Books & Culture, National Review, Comment, Books & Culture, and Christianity Today. He is a contributing editor with Plough and a contributing writer at the Dispatch. He lives in his hometown of Lincoln, NE with his wife and four children.