Theological Anthropology
The Human Person
The Human Person as
“Image of God”
So God created humans in his image,
in the image of God he created them;
male and female he created them.
Gen 1:27
Theological Statement
• The human person cannot be
understood apart from God.
• There is always a deep relationship
between the human person and
God.
Theological Statement
•It is Gods’ initiative to be with
Man.
• There is always the essence of
Gods’ Faithfulness and Love to
man.
Anthropological Statement
• All share common human
condition.
• God‘s creation has equality, dignity
and has a common end which is
God himself.
Anthropological Statement
•Human dignity does not depend
on human achievements alone
but by reason of God‘s
creation and redemption
pointing to Divine Love.
Moral implications
1.The Importance of our relationship:
It is through a community which
enhances the humanity of each person.
No one can exist by oneself but only in
relationship to others
Moral implications
2. Christian life meant for everyone
to realize that the image of God
within us.
By reason of creation and
redemption
Reason of creation:
God created man as
a responsible person.
• Responsibility is the capacity to
participate in truth and love drawing
us into the communion of divine life.
• God alone satisfies our deepest
hunger and thirst.
Reason of redemption:
Christ reconciles us with the
Father, one another and the
whole of creation.
The Human Person as Relational Being
Relationship Being:
The relational dimension of
being human is that he/she is
to be in relation with others
The Trinitarian vision
of God lies in the
relationship of love
Moral implications:
• There must be a moral choices with concrete
actions.
• Respect for structures, laws, institutions which
promote human dignity, and common good.
• All relationships must find their source and
fulfilment in God.
Embodied Subject
Person as subject:
The person is a moral agent with
certain degree of autonomy and self
determination empowered to act
according to his/her conscience, in
freedom and with knowledge.
Moral implication:
The human person can
never be treated as object
or as a means to an end.
Persons as embodied subject
There is a unitive
expression in variation to
the familiar – a unity of
body and soul‖
Our bodies are not merely
accessories, something that
houses our subjectivity but
are essential to our being
integrated persons.
Our bodies are our medium
of being human and or
relating in human ways that
is, we express ourselves as
image of God through our
bodies.
Moral demands:
1. Bodily expressions of love
in relationship must be
proportionate to the nature
of commitment one
makes.
Moral demands:
2. No arbitrary intervention in
the body
Moral demands:
3. Acceptance of
genetic endowment
Moral demands:
4. we are part of the material
world: co-agents with God in
developing the earth.
WHAT IS
FREEDOM?
God created man as a
rational being, conferring on
him the dignity of a person
who can initiate and control
his own actions.
Freedom is the power,
rooted in reason and will, to
act or not to act, to do this
or that, and so to perform
deliberate action on one‘s
own responsibility.
It attains perfection
when directed
toward God. True
freedom is for the
good.
There is no true
freedom except in
the service of
what is good and
just.
Freedom makes man
responsible
for his acts to the
extent that they are
voluntary
However, responsibility for an
action can be diminished or
even nullified by ignorance,
inadvertence, duress, fear, habit,
inordinate attachments, and
other psychological or social
factors.
Characteristics of Freedom
• Freedom is perfective of the
individual. Experience of the
limitations of our freedom yet the
quest for self-realization and
fulfillment is a manifestation of this
character of freedom.
•Freedom is a task and
a process – perfection
of freedom is a life-
long process.
•Freedom is
value-oriented.
•Personal
freedom is
perfected in the
community
Freedom of Self-Determination
• A freedom to decide about oneself
and to make someone of oneself.
• It is also called core freedom which
involves more than choosing among
different options.
• Its basic orientation is that it is directed
toward a loving relationship with God-
the ultimate end of our lives.
• Thus basic freedom is always
incarnated in the particular choice we
make through life and demands more
personal involvement from us.
The relationship between freedom and the person’s
center of identity
The notion of basic freedom
rests on an understanding of the
human person as a complex
multi-leveled being at the core of
whom is one‘s personal identity.
The human person is a
moving spiral: levels of
external possessions, of
feelings, of convictions,
and center of identity.
Thus, not every choice we
make involves us at the
deepest levels of our being,
in fact most of our action
spring from a more
peripheral level.
Freedom of Choice
• The freedom to do this or that, a
smorgasbord kind of freedom choosing
one option from a number of options.
• The kind of freedom which realizes our
capacity to be ourselves through the
particular choices we make.
WHAT IS
CONSCIENCE?
Conscience is present at the
heart of the person, enjoins the
person to do good and avoid
evil.
CCC, # 1777
Pope Pius XII
Gaudium et Spes defines conscience as
the inner sanctuary of the human being.
There he/she is alone with God, whose
voice echoes in his/her depths.
Conscience then is the
revealer of the love of
God in the heart of the
human person.
