Upon the answers which thinkers give to the question "What is Man?" depend on the answers they give to every other question -- hence the importance of this matter in the world's life and future. Much that is current in theological discussion centers in the same inquiry. It is evident that the Christian must know what the Bible says, and Dr. Ryder Smith is supremely qualified to expound the Bible teaching. The author finds that the Doctrine of Man is implied rather than stated in Holy Writ. He has made it his task to draw out the doctrine, largely by examining the meaning of the Hebrew and Greek terms. He has included a treatment of the Septuagint, because the New Testament usually starts with the Septuagintal use. There is special treatment of the important phrase "The Image of God," so frequently encountered in current theological discussion. This is the more advantageous because, Dr. Ryder Smith maintains, the usage has changed since the days of the Bible writers. There are chapters on "What ought a man to be?" as well as on "What is a man?" -- and to the writer the former question is the more important. This book, which seeks to put in its right perspective the whole question of the Biblical doctrine of Man, will take its place as the classical and fundamental treatment of this doctrine. - Publisher.
As I have already attempted to deal with social doctrine, man is here considered, so far as may be, as an individual, though this, of course, implies another artificial division, for man, being 'personal', is thereby an 'individual' and 'societary' being at one and the same time. Where necessary, I have referred to my earlier works on the doctrines of society. Of course, two other doctrines are also involved in this study -- the doctrines of God and of Nature, especially the former. I have kept references to these as few as possible. The difficulty of the separation of subjects is peculiarly acute in the chapters that deal with 'What a man ought to be'. In discussing any biblical doctrine there is, of course, a certain difficulty. Since all its books were written for 'practical purposes', no doctrine is fully exhibited in any one passage. Even when such a writer as Paul or the author of the Epistle to the Hebrews deals at some length with a particular subject, he does not attempt to cover the whole of it. The complete doctrine, therefore, has to be collected from a number of passages, and what they imply has to be considered as well as what they say. This is especially true of the doctrine of Man. Again, this doctrine naturally falls under three questions -- What was man when God made him? What is he now? What is he to become? In the Bible that last takes the form, 'What ought he to be?', and it is here that the emphasis falls. - Introduction.
