Biotechnology and the Normative Significance of Human Nature: A Contribution from Theological Anthropology

2013 ◽  
Vol 26 (1) ◽  
pp. 18-36 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gerald McKenny
Keyword(s):  
Human Nature ◽  
Theological Anthropology ◽  
Normative Significance

scholarly journals The Unsuitability of “Unsubstitutability” in Theological Anthropology

2020 ◽  
Vol 77 (1) ◽  
pp. 54-62
Author(s):  
Joshua R. Farris
Keyword(s):  
Human Nature ◽  
Theological Anthropology ◽  
Significant Other ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
In Virtue Of ◽  
As If

When we wait for a significant other, it is not as if we are waiting for someone who looks like her, talks like her, or even walks like her. Instead, what we want is her. And, the same goes for the afterlife: if there is an afterlife, we long to see our loved ones. Not those who look like our loved ones, who sound like them, or even smell like them, but we actually want them. In the study of human nature, this is, arguably, one of the modern insights on humanity. The question of the “particularity” of human beings matters. In technical philosophical studies, the question of “particularity” is a question of thisness (i.e., the fact that objects are countable as discrete in virtue of some property or feature that makes an object what it is). What makes one person this person rather than that person? By showing how the concept of thisness is important in modern and contemporary theology, I will argue for a specific view as that which accurately captures both the historical consensus and the modern emphasis of personhood.

“Anonymous Feminist”?

2019 ◽  
Vol 31 (1) ◽  
pp. 145-163
Author(s):  
Simon Hallonsten ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Human Nature ◽  
Theological Anthropology ◽  
Feminist Theology ◽  
Karl Rahner ◽  
Sex And Gender ◽  
And Gender

Karl Rahner is not usually thought of as a feminist. Though feminist theology has often made recurs to his theological anthropology, Rahner is assumed to offer feminist theology little in terms of an analysis of sex, gender, and human nature. While Rahner’s explicit writings on women appear fragmentary and ambivalent, an investiga­tion of the philosophical and theological underpinnings of Rahner’s theological anthropology shows that Karl Rahner’s understanding of human nature is imbued with a conception of sex and gender that constitutes an important contribution to an understanding of sex, gender, and human nature in theological anthropology in general and feminist theology in particular.

scholarly journals Being Gifted as Negative Certainty

Open Theology ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 227-240
Author(s):  
David Mark Dunning
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Human Nature ◽  
Human Subject ◽  
Theological Anthropology ◽  
Human Person ◽  
The Social ◽  
Contemporary Philosopher ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Subjective Phenomenon ◽  
Human Embodiment

Abstract Existentialism centres reflection upon the bodily existence of the human person. Generally, however, theological anthropology has struggled to manage developments in biological and psychological sciences that have made clear the pluriformity of human embodiment. The work of the social sciences has also increased the visibility of minority, disadvantaged, or neglected persons. Theological anthropology must begin to conceive of an inclusive, non-static understanding of human nature that fully acknowledges the integrity and the diverse identities of the human subject. To riposte, this article utilises the interplay between phenomenology and theology in the work of the contemporary philosopher-theologian Jean-Luc Marion. Marion undeniably sees the root of the human in the concrete free person; he recognises an ever-receding, indefinable horizon towards which the incomprehensible existence of the subjective phenomenon is universally oriented. In this article I focus on how a combination of the theology of the subject and its existential orientation, realised through the freedom of incomprehensibility à la Marion, may provide a dynamic basis for understanding human nature at a time when subjective diversity is ever more asserted.

scholarly journals Dealing with Free Will in Contemporary Theology: is It Still a Question?

Studia Humana ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 67-74 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lluis Oviedo
Keyword(s):  
Free Will ◽  
Human Nature ◽  
Theological Anthropology ◽  
Current Debate ◽  
Karl Rahner ◽  
Great Role ◽  
Relationship With God ◽  
Ecumenical Dialogue ◽  
The Reformation ◽  
The Way

Abstract Free will is a very hot issue in several theoretical settings, but less in theology, or at least not as much as use to be in former times, when the discussions on sinfulness, grace and freedom were igniting a long season of controversies, especially in the Reformation time. Even in ecumenical dialogue apparently free will does not play a great role, since the reached consensus seems quite peaceful and agreement dominates over discussion. However, some theological insights, especially Karl Rahner reflections, are still worthy to consider and possibly theological anthropology should pay more attention to the current debate and its consequences for the way we understand human nature and its relationship with God.

Shadow Sophia

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Celia E. Deane-Drummond
Keyword(s):  
Human Nature ◽  
Theological Anthropology ◽  
Thomas Aquinas ◽  
Original Sin ◽  
Theological Ethics ◽  
Psychological Literature ◽  
Capacity To Act ◽  
Classic Theory ◽  
Moral Nature ◽  
Shadow Side

Why do humans who seem to be exemplars of virtue also have the capacity to act in atrocious ways? What are the roots of tendencies for sin and evil? A popular assumption is that it is our animalistic natures that are responsible for human immorality and sin, while our moral nature curtails and contains such tendencies through human powers of freedom and higher reason. This book challenges such assumptions as being far too simplistic. Through a careful engagement with evolutionary and psychological literature, it argues that tendencies towards vice are, more often than not, distortions of the very virtues that are capable of making us good. After beginning with Augustine’s classic theory of original sin, the book probes the philosophical implications of sin’s origins in dialogue with the philosophy of Paul Ricoeur. Different vices are treated in both individual and collective settings in keeping with a multispecies approach. Areas covered include selfishness, pride, violence, anger, injustice, greed, envy, gluttony, deception, lying, lust, despair, anxiety, and sloth. The work of Thomas Aquinas helps to illuminate and clarify much of this discussion on vice, including those vices which are more distinctive for human persons in community with other beings. Such an approach amounts to a search for the shadow side of human nature, shadow sophia. Facing that shadow is part of a fuller understanding of what makes us human and thus this book is a contribution to both theological anthropology and theological ethics.

Regarding the Theological Anthropology of Theodore of Mopsuestia

1964 ◽  
Vol 33 (2) ◽  
pp. 115-124 ◽  
Author(s):  
Arthur Vööbus
Keyword(s):  
Human Nature ◽  
Theological Anthropology ◽  
Original Sin ◽  
Theodore Of Mopsuestia ◽  
The Status

In the research on Theodore's theology, a complication has arisen. Certain Conclusions which place Theodore's ideas in quite different perspective than the traditional have been drawn. The monograph produced by R. Devreesse established the thesis that the views which have been repeated about Theodore's convictions concerning man are erroneous and need to be corrected. The alleged deviations from the established positions as affirmed by tradition must upon closer examination be regarded as no more than myth which has gained the status of established truth. Theodore's thinking is in fact entirely within the line of orthodox tradition. He taught both the immortal status given to Adam by creation and original sin and its effects on human nature.

Düzgün’s Case for a Religion of Freedom

2019 ◽  
pp. 127-161
Author(s):  
Taraneh R. Wilkinson
Keyword(s):  
Human Nature ◽  
Theological Anthropology ◽  
Individual Freedom ◽  
Double Standards ◽  
Individual Agency ◽  
The Face ◽  
Western Values

This chapter takes up the work of Ankara theologian and kalam scholar Şaban Ali Düzgün, treating his Muslim understanding of fitra, or primal human nature and how he uses this Islamic concept to redefine what it means to be primitive. From his understanding of primal human nature, the chapterreconstructs his theological anthropology—one defined by both Enlightenment values and classical Islamic understandings of the God-world relation. Through a holistic reconstruction of Düzgün’s theological anthropology, the analysis shows that his dialectical use of both Islamic and “Western” concepts not only allows him to cast authentic Islam as compatible with Western values of individual freedom. Further, Düzgün’s theological anthropology also allows him to actively defend individual agency and worth in the face of double-standards, be they religious or secular, or in the face of Western individualism gone to the extreme.

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.

Should We Say that Personhood Is Relational?

1998 ◽  
Vol 51 (2) ◽  
pp. 214-234 ◽  
Author(s):  
Harriet A. Harris
Keyword(s):  
Human Nature ◽  
Theological Anthropology ◽  
Interpersonal Relations ◽  
Cultural Interaction ◽  
The Difference ◽  
A Current ◽  
Current Emphasis

A current emphasis in theological anthropology is that we become persons through our relations to others. Ethically valuable and pastorally illuminating insights that as persons we develop in relation to others have been used wrongly to underpin the claim that personhood is relational — a claim which is logically confused and ethically precarious. Alistair I. McFadyen, whose book The Call to Personhood has been influential in this respect, describes personhood as the ‘sedimentation’ of interpersonal relations. Elaine L. Graham places the stress on cultural interaction as a prerequisite for the development of beings into persons. In her study of gender and personhood, Making the Difference, Graham argues that her ‘relational’ account of gender is ‘suggestive of a model of human nature as profoundly relational, requiring the agency of culture to bring our personhood fully into being’. The potential ethical danger behind a view of personhood as relational is apparent from statements made by Vincent Brümmer in his volume The Model of Love, to the effect that ‘both our identity and our value as persons is constituted by our relations of fellowship with others’.

scholarly journals Grotius’ Imago Dei Anthropology

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Janne E. Nijman
Keyword(s):  
International Law ◽  
Human Nature ◽  
Theological Anthropology ◽  
Imago Dei ◽  
Three Dimensions ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Standard Account ◽  
Law Of Nature ◽  
Political Debates ◽  
Hugo Grotius

In the standard account Hugo Grotius secularized international law by grounding it on human nature. This chapter argues we should not stop at the standard account, but rather should dig deeper and examine the theological anthropology grounding Grotius’ ideas on the law of nature and nations. With some attention for the influence of both (neo-)scepticism and (neo)stoicism in analyses of Grotius’ understanding of human nature and natural law, this chapter examines Grotius’ ideas through the lens of the Christian theological notion of imago Dei—the idea that human beings are different from other animals in that they are created in ‘the image and likeness of God’. The chapter relates the concept of the imago Dei briefly to the early seventeenth-century theological and political debates in the Dutch Republic and discusses the Arminian interpretation of the imago Dei along the lines of three dimensions generally set apart: ontological, teleological, and functional.

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