Christian Metaphors

Christian beliefs are complex. In fact one of the tenets of Christianity is that God is so complex that the human mind cannot completely understand God. The image is like the four blind men who come across an elephant. (See the Parable of the Blind Men and the Elephant for a Christian variation on this old tale)

Each blind man in the story had a metaphor for understanding the elephant. Those of us who can actually see the elephant, can see the truth in each of those metaphors even though none of the metaphors is complete by itself. Over the centuries, Christians have developed various metaphors for understanding God and the relationship between God and us. The following is a list of widely used Christian metaphors. Click each for a brief description of that metaphor.

Existential Metaphor

Sacrifice Metaphor

Slavery Metaphor

Debtor Metaphor

Damned Souls Metaphor

Sons of God Metaphor

Right Relationship Metaphor

Free from the Law Metaphor

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Steve Falkenberg

Steve.Falkenberg@eku.edu