Author: Lawrence Mondoka, OFMConv
Human beings are created in the image and likeness of God (Gen 1:26); they are to enjoy communion and exercise stewardship in a physical universe. The activities entailed by interpersonal communion and responsible stewardship engage the intellectual and affective capacities of human persons. They consist of “rational” and “divinely” attributes because they are created in the image of God. This means that every human person has a special place in the hierarchy of creation and participates in divine life.
The concept that man possesses both rationality and divinity has been an ancient debate among philosophers. However, ancient philosophers concentrated on rationality rather than the divinity of the human person. For instance, Plato and Aristotle taught that man has both a rational and an irrational soul in different proportions, convinced that philosophers were completely rational. For the Stoics, human beings are rational, with irrationality as a result of error.
For René Descartes, a reliable intellect was a gift from God to man, although data from the senses can often be obscure. David Hume contended that using reason and senses alone leads to uncertainty. He argued that we also require the irrational faculty, the imagination, to avoid skepticism. Karol Wojtyla interprets man not solely as a “rational animal.” He offers an understanding of man that views inner humanity as manifested not only by existence but, more importantly, through actions and participation in divine life. He asserts that the cosmological understanding aligns with Aristotle’s definition: homo est animal rationale; man is a rational animal. He traces traditional Aristotelian anthropology in associating man with the cosmos.
This definition fulfills Aristotle’s requirement for defining the species (human being) through its proximate genus (living being) and the feature that distinguishes the given species in that genus (endowed with reason). However, it also implies a belief in the reducibility of the human being to the world.
Christian faith proclaims that in Jesus Christ, God has drawn near; He has taken on human nature. The infinite capacity of human nature is revealed definitively and irrevocably in the humanity of Jesus, surpassing all notions of intimacy found in the stories of Genesis. Human beings are created with rational and divine faculties as unique creatures in the universe.
In the Christian view, man is a creature made in the image of God—fallen but recreated to the likeness of Christ as an active agent in the history of salvation. They are saved by God’s love in Christ. To live in union with God’s creatures means using our freedom wisely and foregoing our self-interests. The freedom in our nature allows us to love others beyond ourselves, a power that transcends self-love. To affirm that we are made in the image of God signifies that love is the reason for our existence, because God is love.
Our capacity to love gives us essential and peculiar power, which is the most intimate secret of our humanity and our greatest dignity. This power marks us in the image and likeness of God within our souls. If we are capable of being one with God, then nothing else but loving union with God will make us complete. God’s love is manifested in our neighbor’s love. These two commandments are interconnected.
A person differs from anything else because a person possesses spiritual perfectibility and rationality, not merely a physical body endowed with life. A person is rational and divine. Only God can be the “object” of a complete, unconditional, and final fulfilling choice. Jesus Christ is the true identity of God. Essentially, this is the mystery of man and his worth. It means that man is an end in himself. Human beings have intrinsic worth that comes not from being useful for something or someone else. Every person is valuable by their nature and destiny endowed on them by God.
The human person is a composition of body and soul. These two entities form a single unity. The human body shares in the dignity of the “image of God”; it is human precisely because it is animated by a spiritual soul. It is the whole person that is intended to become, in the body of Christ, a temple of the spirit. The unity between the rational and divine reflects the profound unity of soul and body, whereby the soul can be considered the “form” of the “body.” Moreover, because of its spiritual soul, the body made of matter becomes a living, human body; spirit and matter, in man, are not two distinct natures, but rather their deep union forms a single nature. These two dimensions—rational and divine—are found inseparably in the mystery of the individual human person in a way that is not easily distinguishable.
John Paul II, in his encyclical letter Veritatis Splendor, affirms that the human person’s rational soul is, “per se et essentialiter,” the form of his body, and that the person, including his body, is completely entrusted to himself. The unity of body and soul makes the person the subject of their moral acts. The imago Dei consists in man’s fundamental orientation to God, the basis of human dignity and the inalienable rights of the human person.
Vatican II affirms human beings’ participation in the divine nature. God calls human persons in their “entire being” to an endless sharing of divine life (GS, 18). The Son is the perfect Man who restores divine likeness to the sons and daughters of Adam, which was partially wounded. Through his incarnation, the Son of God has united Himself with every person. He worked with human hands, thought with a human mind, acted through human choice, and loved with human heart (GS, 22).
Created in the image of God, human beings are by nature bodily and spiritual—men and women made for one another, oriented towards communion with God and each other. They are wounded by sin and in need of salvation, destined to be conformed to Christ, the perfect image of the Father, in the power of the Holy Spirit. Human beings, created in the image of God, are called to enjoy communion and responsible stewardship. They engage their spiritual, intellectual, and affective capacities, without leaving their body behind. Body and soul define the human person.
The ethics of life is based on human interpersonal relations. Relating with others is a new manifestation, a new discovery and a new revelation.
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REFERENCES
[1] b. russell, – Unpopular Essays, London, George Allen & Unwin 1950, 367.
[2] d. hume, – A Treatise of Human Nature, Oxford, Oxford University Press 1978, 44.
[3] r. b. francisco, – Karl Wojtyla’s Theology of Participation Based on his Christi
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