4. Animality and Identity: Human Nature and the Image of God

2020 ◽  
pp. 89-117
Author(s):  
Alan L. Mittleman

This chapter moves into the political and economic aspects of human nature. Given scarcity and interdependence, what sense has Judaism made of the material well-being necessary for human flourishing? What are Jewish attitudes toward prosperity, market relations, labor, and leisure? What has Judaism had to say about the political dimensions of human nature? If all humans are made in the image of God, what does that original equality imply for political order, authority, and justice? In what kinds of systems can human beings best flourish? It argues that Jewish tradition shows that we act in conformity with our nature when we elevate, improve, and sanctify it. As co-creators of the world with God, we are not just the sport of our biochemistry. We are persons who can select and choose among the traits that comprise our very own natures, cultivating some and weeding out others.


2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (14) ◽  
pp. 92-97
Author(s):  
Edvica POPA ◽  

The notion of divine image is generously described by the patristic literature, each of the authors trying to identify the content of this special characteristic of human being, considered (in different positions) the defining element of the created rational being, indicating the possibility of opening to God not through something external, but from the inside of the human being. Since when they speak of God, the Church Fathers do not consider the reality of the one being, but that of the three persons, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, as well as when the question of the image of God is raised, they emphasize that this the image by which human nature is conformed is the image of the Son, or the image of the Word. In this article I set out to draw some points on this patristic feature of the Eastern Fathers.


Author(s):  
Alan L. Mittleman

Using the motif of the image of God as an organizing principle, this chapter shows how Jewish sources address such issues as mind/body dualism, body and soul, the relation of human nature to animal nature, sexuality, birth and death, vulnerability and dependence, and violence and evil as well as selfhood and the relations among rationality, emotion, desire, and imagination. Classical Jewish thought assumes and propagates dichotomies: human beings are bodies and souls, male and female; a little lower than the angels, but not much higher than the animals; descended from a common father and mother, yet divided into nations and races; biologically the same, though unique in their individuality; and a part of nature, yet possessing a power to remake both nature and themselves. Underlying the dichotomies is a basic Jewish commitment. Human beings are made in the image of God, and therefore possess intrinsic and undeniable worth. The idea of an image of God has an ethical function. It integrates human nature into personhood and gives persons an ethical orientation.


2006 ◽  
Vol 13 ◽  
pp. 11
Author(s):  
Lucas F. MATEO-SECO

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.


Perichoresis ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 19 (4) ◽  
pp. 55-63
Author(s):  
Magdalena Marunová

Abstract Gregory of Nyssa (cca 335–cca 395), one of the three Cappadocian Fathers, introduces the creation of human beings on the basis of Genesis 1:26–27 and interprets these two biblical verses as a ‘double creation’—the first of which is ‘in the image of God’ (Genesis 1:26) and secondly as male or female (Genesis 1:27). His concept of ‘double creation’ is obviously inspired by Philo of Alexandria, a first-century Jewish philosopher, but Gregory points out the condition of human beings before and after committing the sin, in contrast to Philo’s conception. While Philo distinguishes between the first and the second creation of the entirety of nature, Gregory only relates the double creation to humans. Thus plants as nourishment for humans, according to Genesis, must be matched with the second creation of humans. In the resurrection, when the ‘first creation’ of human nature will be reached, human beings with their restored bodies will only feed on immaterial, spiritual food—the Word of God.


2020 ◽  
pp. 77-97
Author(s):  
Сергей Анатольевич Чурсанов

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.


Moreana ◽  
2010 ◽  
Vol 47 (Number 179- (1-2) ◽  
pp. 45-62
Author(s):  
Joseph W. Koterski

In More’s preface to the first of the letters of Pico that he translated for inclusion in his Life of Pico, he explains Pico’s account of the beasts into which Circe changes various men. To what he finds in Pico, More adds his own comments about possible deformations of the image of God within us. This paper reviews relevant portions of More’s Life of Pico and of Pico’s letters in light of the general question of Pico’s grounds for the dignity of human nature and argues that More has provided a kind of friendly amendment to the views of Pico on the ultimate grounds for human dignity, not only in the preface to the letters but also in his way of handling Pico’s three sets of rules for spiritual warfare.


2019 ◽  
Vol 19 (3) ◽  
pp. 369-376
Author(s):  
Paschal M. Corby ◽  

In the sphere of end-of-life care, the fear of being a burden on loved ones is a significant factor in patients seeking assisted suicide or euthanasia. The claims of altruism and love that support such decisions are misplaced, and the possibility of being a burden must be reimaged within a proper anthropology. Allowing oneself to be a burden is a significant aspect not only of loving human relationships, but of a human nature that is essentially dependent and created in the image of God.


Vox Patrum ◽  
2004 ◽  
Vol 46 ◽  
pp. 511-525
Author(s):  
Elżbieta Kotkowska

Analyzing the work of St Gregory of Nyssa, in the first approximation we can say that he is a typical representative of his age. In the theology of the 4th century the power of God as the absolute ruler was emphasized more than his other attributes, so the image of God did not show him as the One who reigns through humility. In this regard, it is worthwhile to draw attention to a small, polemic treatise In illud: tunc ipse filius of St Gregory, in which his understanding of God's omnipotence receives a deeper dimension that appears to the modern man. In his work, this Father of the Church comments on one verse from the Letter of St Paul to the Corinthians: „And when everything is subjected to him, then the Son himself with be subject in his tum to the One who subjected alt things to him, so that God may be all in all" (1 Cor 15, 28; KJ). The problem which preoccupied Gregory of Nyssa, was the incorrect opinion or heresy of Arius and his followers. According to them, the Son is subjected to God, by the rule of creation, so He cannot be equal to God the Father and, in this way, He is not God. One from the crown arguments, which the Arians used were St. Paul’s words from his Letter to the Corinthians. However, the Bishop of Nyssa shows, that exactly this quotation, from the historical-salvific perspective, emphasizes the divinity of Christ. He portrays to us the Son who is subjected to God's vivifying power and the Father who receives the Son's subjection in His human nature. So, in this way, God is omnipotent on the cross, as a humble man. The image of God, which emerges from Gregory's theology, allows us to include his voice into present discussion of God's omnipotence and man's free will.


2018 ◽  
pp. 89-117
Author(s):  
Eric Daryl Meyer

This chapter works to refigure humanity’s place in creation, shifting from accounts centered in the imago dei that inculcate a sovereign anthropological exceptionalism and toward an account in which human beings find themselves personally and spiritually constituted by relations with nonhuman creatures. To that end, the chapter balances conventional emphasis on Genesis 1 with a reading of Nebuchadnezzar’s character arc in the book of Daniel, which configures sovereignty and human uniqueness in a very different way. Moving to the New Testament Gospels, the chapter suggests that one’s identity in the Realm of God is always determined from the perspective of the oppressed. Following this insight through, the chapter imagines who human beings might be in the eyes of various nonhuman neighbors, from pets to animals confined in factory farms.


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