Guard the Image of Humanity: A contemplative approach to healing sociopolitical division

Dean Johnston, April 2025

I walked along the country road that winds away from my house, in the Northern Rivers of

New South Wales, Australia. Above me, the sky stretched wide and open, feathered with

high cirrus clouds that flared like brushstrokes across a canvas of blue. The first breath of

autumn stirred in the air—cool and quiet after a long, hot, and heavy summer.

There was a stillness to the moment that invited reflection. As I walked, I found myself

thinking about the growing tensions in our world—in my community, my country, and

across the globe. The polarities of left and right, conservative and progressive, no longer

seemed like abstract labels, but rifts running through the heart of humanity. These rifts

seem to be deepening and widening to the point of irreconcilable differences.

And then, in those little moments of inspiration that we all get, a thought arose:

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Be a conservative. Boldly proclaim all that is good and true. But be a conservative who

makes way for nuance. Be one who accepts the complexities of life, and the inequality and

suffering that are the realities of many.

Be a progressive. Boldly proclaim the injustice and suffering of the world. But be a

progressive who honours the shoulders on which you stand. Be one who accepts the

pragmatic realities of life and the natural consequences of our actions.

But whether progressive or conservative, clothe yourself with compassion, kindness and

humility. And above all else, put on love.

Guard the image of humanity, for it is the manifest image of God.

Look for it in your neighbour.

Search for it.

Seek it.

For it is found even in your enemy.

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Shortly before Easter, St. Stephens University Alumni Community Coordinator, Marisa

Lapish, reached out to see if I would expand on this thought for the alumni blog. Initially, I

wasn’t sure how I could. It felt like the prose/poem had appeared fully formed. But as I

reflected further, I realised that so much of its underlying thinking came directly from my

studies at JFI/SSU. Exploring some of those links may be helpful for current students - and

a reminder for alumni just how formative our studies at JFI/SSU were!

Inter-religious Dialogue

One of the subjects I undertook at JFI SSU was ‘Religion, Peace and Conflict’. I’ll be

honest—it wasn’t a subject I was particularly excited about at first. I remember saying in

one session that I don’t operate in an interfaith or interreligious context. I couldn’t see how

it was going to be useful to me. As is often the case, I was wrong.

That day, walking along the country road, I began to wonder: What if the same processes

used in interreligious peacemaking could be applied to sociopolitical divides? What if the

interfaith skillset is exactly what we need in our fractured cultural and political moment?

This line of thought led me directly to the concept of hospitality.

Hospitality

By ‘hospitality’, I don’t mean a kind of sentimental inclusivism where all colours are

blended into a dull grey. In her book, ‘Fragile Identities: Towards a Theology of

Interreligious Hospitality’, Marianne Moyaert makes it clear that true hospitality is not

about absorbing the ‘other’ in diluted form. Nor is the ‘other’ a projection of our own values

or expectations. Instead, Moyaert writes that hospitality requires “making room in one’s

own abode to receive the other.”

The ‘other’ might be culturally, politically, ethnically, or socially different to us. Crucially,

we make room for them without expecting conformity. Hospitality, in this deeper sense, is

about holding space for others to be fully themselves - unassimilated, undiluted,

honoured.

This type of hospitality should be differentiated from ‘unity’. Expectations of unity that

ignore injustice, difference, or truth-telling can simply be coercive bids for control. As

Walter Brueggemann reminds us, we must maintain our ‘particularities’. True hospitality

allows both host and guest to remain distinct - fully themselves.

How can these seemingly contradictory states coexist? The only one I know who truly sets

a table like this is Christ. In his self-offering love, he breaks down all barriers of division and

hostility. Even more, his incarnational and hypostatic nature gives us a model: two distinct

natures, not blended or compromised, held together perfectly in one body.

The Two Hemispheres of Humanity

One way to navigate the progressive/conservative divide is to stop viewing them as

enemies and start seeing them as fundamental components of our shared humanity. They

are like the two hemispheres of our brain—we need both to survive. To lobotomise one

side because it makes us uncomfortable is to injure ourselves.

That’s not to say either side is incorruptible. Just as our physical brain can suffer tumours,

haemorrhages, or oxygen deprivation, our political and philosophical tendencies can

become diseased. But healing doesn’t come through amputation—it requires a skilled

surgeon, wise and careful, to bring the condition into the light.

Be a Conservative… with nuance

Conservatism, like progressivism, is not just a political identity—it’s also a philosophical

and psychological disposition. At its best, conservatism seeks to preserve what is good,

enduring, and true. But without nuance, it becomes brittle, blind to suffering, unable to

respond to the complexities of life.

To be a conservative, in this deeper sense, is to value tradition, inherited wisdom, and

moral order—while still making space for compassion. Life is complex. Not every problem

is solved by personal responsibility or market solutions. Sometimes, nuance is not a

luxury—it’s a necessity.

Be a Progressive… with gratitude

The progressive impulse is driven by a longing for justice and transformation. Progressives

shine a light on what’s broken. They call for dignity, equity, and change. This is a noble

calling.

But it is not enough to tear down. We must also build. Progress must be grounded in

gratitude—for those who came before, and for the structures that have carried us this far.

There must be reverence for history, a respect for limits, and a sober-minded awareness of

what can truly be achieved.

Clothe Yourself with Compassion

Here is the rub: both conservatism and progressivism can be practiced in ways that are

dehumanising. That’s why the deeper call is not ideological, but personal: to become fully

and generously human.

Compassion. Kindness. Humility. These are not partisan virtues. They are signs of a life

grounded in love. They disarm hostility, soften rigidity, and open up space for real dialogue

and healing.

Seeing the Divine in the Other

Jim Forest once said, “The inability to see Christ in the other is the most common form of

Christian spiritual blindness.” Quoting John Chrysostom, he reminds us: “If you fail to

recognize Christ in the beggar outside the church door, you will not find Christ in the

chalice.”

Forest continues:

“Suddenly, when we least expect it, a word is said, an expression alters an unexplored

face, we glimpse beauty in someone we regarded with irritation, and the two-dimensional

ideas we had concerning that other person are demolished. We find ourselves in the

presence of a huge mystery…”

As we break bread with strangers, we learn to anticipate the divine in them. As Christians

who practice a eucharistic faith, we affirm that Christ is present in every believer—left and

right, progressive and conservative. Mysteriously and symbolically, his body is not only on

the table, but in each of us.

Love Your Neighbour As Yourself

Christ calls us to love—not just in general, but specifically: to love him in them. When we

feed the hungry, clothe the naked, visit the prisoner, or care for the sick, Christ says we do

these things to him—not for him, not on his behalf, but actually to him.

I’ve stopped understanding the command to “love your neighbour as yourself” as a

quantitative comparison. It’s not about how much we love ourselves and whether we

match that. It’s a paradigm shift. We are to love our neighbour AS ourselves—because we

are connected. They, too, bear the image of God. Christ is in them, as he is in me.

Guard the Image of Humanity

One of the final lines in the poem draws directly from Thomas Merton. The quote is well

known, but I want to include it in full for context:

“You are not big enough to accuse the whole age effectively, but let us say you are in

dissent. You are in no position to issue commands, but you can speak words of hope. Shall

this be the substance of your message? Be human in this most inhuman of ages; guard the

image of man, for it is the image of God. You agree? Good. Then go with my blessing. But I

warn you, do not expect to make many friends…” - Thomas Merton, "Raids on the Unspeakable"

At the heart of this prose/poem is a sacred truth: every human being is made in the image

of God. This is not a metaphor. It is a mandate. And we must guard it.

If we believe this, then even our fiercest opponents cannot be dismissed. We must search

for their dignity, their worth, their story. Even our enemy bears the divine spark. And that

changes everything.

Put On Love

The world doesn’t need more partisans. It needs more peacemakers—people who can

hold conviction in one hand and compassion in the other.

May we be those people.

Whether conservative or progressive, may we clothe ourselves with love—for love is the

only garment that fits us all.

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Dean Johnston lives in the Northern Rivers of New South Wales, Australia with his wife, Kylie, and their three daughters. Together, they planted Hinterland Chapel, a grassroots community church, where they’ve been serving for the past five years. When not on the ground, Dean works as an international airline pilot operating between Sydney, Singapore, London and Los Angeles. He holds a Bachelor of Aeronautical Engineering from UNSW, a Master of Arts from St. Stephen’s University, and a Graduate Certificate in Divinity from Morling College.