“Since his death I have been combing through all the material Jim left behind: his letters, articles, photos, audio tapes, journals and drawings. I’m far from finished…. It was during one of these archaeological digs that I found that last version of the book he was working on before he fell ill, 'In Search of Adam and Eve.' It contains this powerful quote, which encapsulates everything Jim worked so hard to convey during his long and fruitful life: that each and every one of us is an icon.
“ 'We are made in God’s image. Has any assertion in all of human history so startled and challenged us — or, for that matter, condemned us? What Jesus says in his parable of the Last Judgment — “Whatever you did to the least person you did to me?” — simply makes concrete the implications of belonging to a race in which each person, from the humblest to the most exalted, from the most dented to the most saintly, is made in God’s image and, however defaced that image may get as the individual develops later in life, deserves to be treated in a way that recognizes that each person we encounter bears a divine spark which can never be fully extinguished.' “
