◉ The Image of God Buffet: Semantic Overload, Hermeneutical Drift, and the Collapse of Imago Dei Clarity

Christian appeals to imago Dei often present it as a clear revealed foundation for human dignity, equality, rights, or policy. The difficulty is not simply that the phrase has several uses. It is that public arguments frequently move from an unspecified theological formula to a specific conclusion while leaving the controlling interpretation and the connecting warrants unstated. This paper develops a three-link constraint test: an argument must justify a selection among substantive, relational, functional, vocational, and Christological readings; show what human status follows from that reading; and defend the normative bridge from that status to the proposed conclusion. Applied to dignity arguments, the test exposes a recurring mismatch. Capacity readings risk excluding humans with diminished capacities; functional and vocational readings identify tasks more readily than inviolable status; relational and Christological readings protect universality only by adding substantial theological commitments. None of these results makes imago Dei worthless. The phrase may organize Christian identity, motivate solidarity, or summarize a developed theology. It does show that interpretive abundance cannot be advertised as public clarity. The limited conclusion is inferential: an unspecified imago Dei premise does not determine a particular moral or political result. A stronger argument remains possible, but it must name and defend the links that the slogan usually conceals.