Description: The view that humanity is "in the image and likeness of God" has influenced the past two millennia of European history. Human beings are understood to be in some way "special," deserving of "respect." The aim of the author is to delineate this view: its apparent justifications, its implications, and what can be said to challenge it.
Brief description: STEPHEN R. L. CLARK is Emeritus Professor of Philosophy at the University of Liverpool, and an Honorary Research Fellow in the Department of Theology at the University of Bristol. His books include The Mysteries of Religion (1984), God's World and the Great Awakening (1991), Biology and Christian Ethics (2000), Understanding Faith: Religious Belief and its Place in Society (2009), Ancient Mediterranean Philosophy (2013), and Plotinus: Myth, Metaphor and Philosophical Practice (2016). His chief current interests are in the philosophy of Plotinus, the understanding and treatment of non-human animals, philosophy of religion, philosophy of psychiatry, and science fiction.