The Plasticity of All Creation: Kathryn Tanner on the Imago Dei in Conversation with Crip and Indigenous Theology

This article has two specific tasks: to advocate for an approach to the imago Dei developed by Kathryn Tanner in Christ the Key and to expand that view to include all of creation as imago Dei by drawing from the insights of Indigenous theology and crip theory. I center the intersection of Indigenous or tribal theologies and a growing literature in crip theory that seek to blur the thick dividing line between humanity and the rest of the natural world. In Christ the Key , Kathryn Tanner proposes a unique account of the imago that pulls from the tradition an understanding of human nature as plasticity that supports a description of imago inclusive of the magnificent diversity of human bodies and minds, with the potential to include kinship with all creation in a way not seen in most alternatives. In response to Tanner, however, I argue that her proposal may better suggest that all of creation is imago Dei as all of God’s creation shares something of the plasticity she describes.