The Human Person as the Image of God

1999 ◽  
pp. 43-54
Author(s):  
David Novak
Keyword(s):  
Human Person ◽  
Image Of God ◽  
The Image Of God

Childhood in Eastern Patristic Thought: Some Problems of Theology and Theological Anthropology

1994 ◽  
Vol 31 ◽  
pp. 39-52 ◽  
Author(s):  
Graham Gould
Keyword(s):  
Theological Anthropology ◽  
Human Person ◽  
Image Of God ◽  
Christian Theology ◽  
Early Church ◽  
The Bible ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
Eternal Salvation ◽  
The Image Of God ◽  
Present Life

The writings of the Early Church concerning childhood are not extensive, but in the works of a number of Eastern Christian authors of the second to fourth centuries it is possible to discern some ideas about childhood which raise important problems of Christian theology and theological anthropology. The theological problem is that of the question posed for theodicy by the sufferings and deaths of infants. It is harder to give a brief definition of the anthropological problem, but it is important to do so because to define the problem as the Eastern Fathers saw it is also to identify the set of conceptual tools—the anthropological paradigm—which they used to answer it. These are not, naturally, the concepts of modern anthropology and psychology. Applied to patristic thought, these terms usually refer to speculations about the composition and functioning of the human person or the human soul which belong to a discourse which is recognizably philosophical and metaphysical—by which is meant that it is (though influenced by other sources, such as the Bible) the discourse of a tradition descending ultimately from the anthropological terminology of Plato, Aristotle, and the Stoics. Patristic anthropology seeks to account for the history and experiences of the human person as a created being—fhe experience of sin and mortality in the present life, but also of eternal salvation and advancement to perfection in the image of God.

scholarly journals Persona, esclavitud y libertad en Gregorio de Nisa

2006 ◽  
Vol 13 ◽  
pp. 11
Author(s):  
Lucas F. MATEO-SECO
Keyword(s):  
Human Nature ◽  
Human Person ◽  
Fourth Century ◽  
Freedom Of Speech ◽  
Image Of God ◽  
Human Being ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Origin Of Man ◽  
The Image Of God ◽  
Made In

Gregory of Nisa was one of the most cultivated men of the fourth century. He reflects the advances that had been made concerning the concept of the person and his/her relatioship with nature. In Gregory’s view, the dignity of the human person is grounded on the fact that the person is the image and likeness of God. This is equivalent to stating that the human being has attributes which no one may deprive him/her of; prominent among these is freedom, which is the crowning glory of his/her personal being, as he/she was made in the image of God, who is a-déspotos, that is, has no master. Rejection of slavery, together with firm defense of parrhesia (freedom of speech), is one of the most suitable perspectives for evaluating Gregory’s concept of human nature and the dignity of the person. Gregory discusses this subject in several places. Here we shall confine our survey to the most important ones: Homily IV On Ecclesiastes, the treatise On the origin of man, and the Great catechetical discourse. According to Gregory, freedom was given to human beings so that they could participate in the divine good. Gregory supported his arguments on the thinking insipired by Plato in which virtue is essentially free and voluntary, and so freedom is an attribute of the dignity of the person that cannot be relinquished.

The Needfor a Catholic Neuroethics

2017 ◽  
Vol 42 (12) ◽  
pp. 1-3
Author(s):  
James Beauregard ◽  
Keyword(s):  
New Technologies ◽  
Ethical Issues ◽  
Human Person ◽  
Image Of God ◽  
Ethical Reflection ◽  
Academic Field ◽  
Ethical Concerns ◽  
Neurological Illness ◽  
The Image Of God ◽  
Theoretical Foundations

Neuroethics is a developing clinical and academic field that considers ethical issues in the neurosciences. At this time, it would be premature to argue that there is a well-developed Catholic neuroethics. There is obviously overlap, as Catholic bioethics already addresses issues involving neurological illness. But we do not have a systematic Catholic approach to neuroethics that addresses specific ethical concerns and the underlying theoretical foundations of the field. A fully conceived Catholic neuroethics would be grounded in the nature of the human person created in the image of God. From that center, it would examine the numerous issues that arise in neurology and psychiatry as well as more fundamental philosophical and theological issues concerning the nature of the human person. It would involve sustained ethical reflection on the development and use of new technologies.

Social Aspects of the Image of God in Man According to the Orthodox Theological Anthropology of the XX-XXI Centuries

2020 ◽  
pp. 77-97
Author(s):  
Сергей Анатольевич Чурсанов
Keyword(s):  
Human Nature ◽  
Holy Spirit ◽  
Theological Anthropology ◽  
Human Person ◽  
Image Of God ◽  
Vertical Dimension ◽  
Social Aspects ◽  
The Third ◽  
The Holy Spirit ◽  
The Image Of God

В статье выделены и рассмотрены пять ключевых принципов совершенного общения человеческих личностей по образу божественных лиц. Согласно принципу единства в различии, каждая человеческая личность, пребывая в полноте общения с другими личностями, в то же время пребывает и в личностной уникальности. возможность приближения к такому совершенному общению открывается для человека при реализации принципа личностной конституированности, состоящего в том, что по образу монархии отца человеческое сообщество возглавляется личностью, способной преодолеть трагические установки и на индивидуалистическое обособление, и на нивелирующее подавление. в качестве третьего богословского принципа совершенного общения представлен принцип тройственной личностной соотнесенности, предполагающий преодоление диадической замкнутости и в вертикальном измерении, то есть в отношениях с богом, и в горизонтальном измерении, то есть в отношениях между людьми. Далее, совершенное общение отвечает принципу всеохватности, означающему, что в состоянии богоподобного совершенства каждая человеческая личность в общении с отцом, Сыном и Святым Духом воспринимает божественные энергии, а в общении с людьми - охватывает всю общечеловеческую природу. наконец, в соответствии с принципом свободного дарения, по образу распространения нетварных божественных энергий отцом через Сына в Святом Духе вне божественной неприступной сущности, различные составляющие полноты бытия, обретаемой в межчеловеческом общении, передаются его участниками всем окружающим, в конечном счете - всему сотворенному миру. The article highlights and considers five key principles of perfect communion of human persons in the image of Divine Persons. According to the principle of unity in difference, while existing in the fullness of communion with other persons, each human person at the same time gains his or her personal uniqueness. The possibility of approaching such perfect communion opens up for a person while realizing the principle of personal constitution, which involves that, in the image of the monarchy of the Father, the human community is headed by a person who is able to overcome the tragic attitudes of both individualistic isolation and leveling suppression. As the third theological principle of perfect communion, the principle of triple personal relatedness is presented, which implies the overcoming of dyadic restraint both in the vertical dimension, that is, in relations with God, and in the horizontal dimension, that is, in relations between people. Further, perfect communion meets the principle of personal all-embracing, meaning that in the state of God-like perfection, each human person perceives the Divine energies in communion with the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, as well as embraces all human nature in communion with people. Finally, in accordance with the principle of free giving, in the image of spreading of uncreated Divine energies by the Father through the Son in the Holy Spirit outside the Divine inaccessible essence, the various components of the fullness of being obtained in interpersonal communion are transmitted by its participants to everyone around, and ultimately to the whole created world.

scholarly journals HOW THE CATHOLIC CHURCH VIEWS THE POLITICAL COMMUNITY?

2009 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 99-110
Author(s):  
Ziad Fahed
Keyword(s):  
Catholic Church ◽  
Common Good ◽  
Human Person ◽  
Image Of God ◽  
Political Community ◽  
The Political ◽  
Single Person ◽  
The Guardian ◽  
The Image Of God ◽  
The Catholic Church

The Catholic Church believes that God has created every single person in His own image. God has implemented His own and personal image in the heart of our humanity. The political community, as seen by the Catholic Church, is meant to be the guardian and the witness of this indelible dignity offered and willed by God. The human person created in the image of God means that the purpose and objective of any political community is to defend and promote the “inalienable human rights”. The incarnation of Christ replaces the humanity in the heart of the project of God. By his incarnation, Christ elevates humanity to the dignity of being sons of God. For the Catholic Church, the political community is where one realizes the common good and so it facilitates living together. And by showing his compassion to every single creature, by recognizing the humanity of every single person, Christ leads the way to a civilization of love that can be achieved through the support of the political community.

Aquinas on Nature, Grace, and the Moral Life

2021 ◽  
pp. 657-672
Author(s):  
Daria Spezzano
Keyword(s):  
Holy Spirit ◽  
Human Person ◽  
Image Of God ◽  
Moral Life ◽  
Eternal Life ◽  
Summa Theologiae ◽  
The Holy Spirit ◽  
Child Of God ◽  
The Image Of God ◽  
Divine Goodness

Aquinas’ teaching on nature, grace and the moral life in the Summa theologiae outlines the graced movement of the rational creature from God to God, by perfection in the likeness of God. Reflection on causality, trinitarian exemplarity, and the communication of divine goodness shapes his thought. The human person, made to the image of God for knowledge and love of God, is elevated by grace to the supernatural end by a participation in the divine nature that assimilates the intellect and will to the trinitarian persons. This deification by grace, taking the form in the creature of the created habitus of infused charity and wisdom, makes the adopted child of God a new principle of activities directed towards supernatural beatitude and constantly moved by divine auxilium. The predestined human person, led in freedom by the Holy Spirit, manifests the divine goodness in the graced journey to union with God in eternal life.

The Reception of Greek Science in Gregory of Nyssa's De hominis opificio

2009 ◽  
Vol 63 (1) ◽  
pp. 24-46 ◽  
Author(s):  
Susan Wessel
Keyword(s):  
Human Person ◽  
Mental States ◽  
Image Of God ◽  
The Body ◽  
Gregory Of Nyssa ◽  
Physical Conditions ◽  
De Hominis Opificio ◽  
The Image Of God ◽  
The Brain ◽  
Medical Writers

AbstractOne of the most significant philosophical questions that Gregory of Nyssa grappled with in his anthropological treatise, De hominis opificio, was how intelligible mind, the image of God that the human person contained, might possibly exist in the physically-circumscribed limits of the corporeal body. Gregory addressed this question by engaging in a medical controversy that was current in his day: where in the body was the reasoning faculty located? Against those who placed this faculty in the brain, Gregory argued that certain mental states and afflictions were due to physical conditions suffered by the body and, therefore, had nothing to do with the reasoning faculty being confined to the brain. I conclude that Gregory's selective use of the anatomical investigations of Galen and the Greek medical writers helped him construct a unified theory of the human person in which the intelligible activity of mind both interacted freely with the physical body and depended upon the body functioning naturally for the complete expression of its divine rationality.

Christliche Rechtsüberzeugungen im Kontext einer pluralistischen Gesellschaft

1993 ◽  
Vol 37 (1) ◽  
pp. 256-266
Author(s):  
Wolfhart Pannenberg
Keyword(s):  
Human Dignity ◽  
Human Person ◽  
Modern Society ◽  
Image Of God ◽  
Human Right ◽  
Marriage And Family ◽  
Christian Perspective ◽  
The Family ◽  
German Constitution ◽  
The Image Of God

Abstract Although modern society emancipated itself from its Christian roots, Christian motivs continue to be effective even in the realm oflaw. Thus, in the 16. cent., the idea oftoleration had Christian, though not ecclesiastic origins. In a Christian perspective, however, toleration does not entail complete neutrality in all religious matters and on the part of society and legal order such complete neutrality is to be considered delusive. The positive attitude of Christians toward the German constitution is largely bound up with its emphasis on human dignity, which is rooted in the biblical idea of the human person being created in the image of God. In the reality of modern society, on the other hand, personal selfrealization tends to become the fundamental human right, and on certain points (abortion) issues in conflicts with the priority of human dignity. Here, the idea of freedom degenerates into licence, which in a Christian perspective is sin. Another area of particular concern for Christians in the legal system is marriage and family. Here, the author pleads for the Christian emphasis on marriage as basis of the family and indicates its legal consequences.

scholarly journals PATH OF SPIRITUAL DEVELOPMENT IN PHILOSOPHICAL AND RELIGIOUS VIEWS OF THE UKRAINIAN MIDDLE AGES AND THE EARLY MODERNISM REPRESENTATIVES IN THE CONTEXT OF THE DOCTRINE OF THEOSIS

2020 ◽  
pp. 117-127
Keyword(s):  
Middle Ages ◽  
Spiritual Development ◽  
Subjective Experience ◽  
Mystical Experience ◽  
Human Person ◽  
Image Of God ◽  
Main Task ◽  
Divine Grace ◽  
The Will ◽  
The Image Of God

In the article the author tries to analyze the vision of the path of spiritual formation in the philosophical and religious views of the Ukrainian Middle Ages and the early modernism representatives in the context of the doctrine of theosis. It is noted that the doctrine of deification is considered fundamental to the theology of holiness. Theosis, the idea of which is to renew the image and the likeness of God in a person, is the main goal of life from the standpoint of the Eastern Church. After all, the combination of the Divine and human natures opens the way to God for a person. As a state of subjective experience of a human person, theosis is considered in hesychasm, which interprets it as synergy - an interacting combination of energies of man and God. The path to the development of knowledge about God is connected with the ascetic rejection from the worldly life, and the path to the union with Him is connected with the union of the Divine and human natures in a person. Followers of hesychasm believe that theosis is the practice of the subjective experience of a human person; synergy is the interacting combination of the energy of man and God. The main task of austerity is the attainment of divine grace. It dissolves the will of man in the process of a human being transformation. The doctrine of theosis had an impact on the formation of the theocratic idea in the culture of Kiev Rus, in which love of wisdom played an important role in human understanding themselves as the image of God. Analyzing the views of the Ukrainian Middle Ages and early modernism representatives on the path of spiritual development of man, the author concludes that they were characterized by the vision of deification as a person’s approach to God through self-exploration and moral improvement. Theosis is the final result on the path of spiritual growth for the representatives of the Middle Ages and early modernism philosophical conception, who attached great importance to gaining inner mystical experience and sought to experience spiritual ecstasy as the ultimate goal in the mystical path to deification.

scholarly journals Interpretation of Spiritual Life According to the “Imago Dei”

2020 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 169-184
Author(s):  
Anna Pędrak
Keyword(s):  
Human Person ◽  
Image Of God ◽  
Imago Dei ◽  
Spiritual Life ◽  
Union With Christ ◽  
Holy Trinity ◽  
Unique Character ◽  
Full Participation ◽  
The Subject ◽  
The Image Of God

This article is the result of theological research on the subject of life. The phenomenon of life is multifaceted, but often it cannot be defined because it is a mystery. The author of the article, based on the truth that man is a biological-psycho-spiritual unity, interprets these spheres in the key of St. Bonaventure’s idea, describes them as vestigium, umbra, and imago Dei. The issue of spiritual life in the category of Imago Dei is analyzed in detail. The author tries to answer the questions that arise by using not only theological fields: or is there an openness to transcendence only in a man? What does it mean to be an image of God? How to achieve a full life? The sphere of bios, psyche, and zoe in the human person are permeating each other, but this spiritual life transcends the previous two planes. This distinguishes man from other creatures and gives him a unique character. God, in His goodness and freedom, grants man life, creates him as a free being and in His image. But the perfect image of the Father is Jesus Christ. In His Incarnation, He showed us the fullness of humanity and through imitation and union with Christ, man can become conformed to the image of God. In this way, it is finally possible to obtain full participation in the communion with God in the Holy Trinity.

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