Owen Strachan has written a masterful and insightful piece of theology here. Certainly, the doctrine of anthropology is under fire today both in the church and in the culture. The human person is being reenvisioned in scores of ways. Where previous generations of Christians fought ideological battles on the nature of the Trinity, Christ's hypostatic union, justification by faith alone, and the infallibility of Scripture, today, the major question hinges upon a theology of mankind. Strachan puts it in this way: "If the major issue of the sixteenth century was that of acceptance (how man may be forgiven by God), and the major issue of the twentieth century was that of authority (whether the Bible was inerrant), then the major issue of our time is that of anthropology. Does the human person live in an ordered cosmos and have an appointed identity, or does he make his own identity in a world without God?" (3).

The present age is a season where previously held beliefs about humanity are eroding and breaking down. Transhumanism, posthumanism, transgenderism, homosexuality, feminism, and postmarital sexual libertinism are just a few samples of such staunchly anti-biblical ideologies. The church needs to be equipped, standing on the word of God, building up what it means to be a true image bearer.

Human beings are seeking to define themselves in various ways, perhaps vocationally, or even through various forms of sexual expression. But it is the "imago dei that marks out humanity as an enchanted race. Tragically, humanity disenchanted itself by following the anti-wisdom of the serpent" (4). Only through the God-man, "the one who brings light back into our eyes and hope back into our souls," can we find freedom, flourishing, and purpose in becoming who we were made to be and glorify God through offering obedient worship to him (382). ( )