“Then God said, ‘Let us make humankind (adam) in our image, after our likeness; and let them have dominion….’ And God created humankind in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.” Gen 1:26–27 clarifies that the Hebrew term adam stands for the generic species of humanity which is composed of men and women. If there is any doubt on this interpretation, Gen 5:2–3 declares and defines again: “When God created humankind, he made him in the likeness of God. Male and female he created them, and he blessed them and named them humankind when they were created.”The “image of God in man and woman” opens us to transcend both the masculine and feminine metaphors for God which abound in the Bible and to transcend our historical selves and social institutions in recognition of the Holy One. It would appear that whatever one's interpretation of the “image” and “likeness” of God, one would have to recognize that the biblical text makes explicit that in our resemblance to the Divinity and in our dominion over the earth and animals, men and women share a common human dignity.

Living during the French religious wars, Pierre Charron (1541-1603) was acutely aware of the dangers inherent in basing morality on religion. The battles between the Huguenot minority and the Catholic majority raged in the pulpits as well as on the streets. Calvinist ministers flocking into France from Geneva gave leadership to Huguenot demands for religious liberty. While before 1562 most ministers tried to quell rather than incite riots, after war broke out many utilized their influence and their pulpits to aid the Protestant side. On the other side, the French Catholic clergy, aided by royal persecution edicts, was generally in favor of a policy of wiping out Huguenot heresy. Massacre, persecution, martyrdom, political resistance, and assassination became topics and events of the day.