By Fr. Lawrence Mondoka, OFMConv
Human beings are created in the image and likeness of God (Gen 1:26); they are to enjoy communion and to exercise stewardship in a physical universe. The activities entailed by interpersonal communion and responsible stewardship engage-intellectual and affective capacities of human persons. They consist of “rational” and “divinely” for the fact that they are created in the image of God. It means that every human person has a special place in the hierarchy of creation, and everyone participates in the divine life.
The concept that man possesses both rationality and divinity has been an ancient debate among the philosophers. However, ancient philosophers concentrated on rationality, and not on the divinity of the human person. For instance, Plato and Aristotle taught that man has both rational and irrational soul in different proportions, but they were convinced that philosophers were completely rational.[1] For the Stoics, human beings are rational, and that irrationality is a result of error.
For Renés Descartes, a reliable intellect was a gift of God to man, although, data from senses is often obscure and refused. David Hume contended that using reason and senses alone leads to uncertainty and that we also require the irrational faculty, the imagination to avoid scepticism.[2] Karol Wojtyla interprets man as not only being solely as a “rational animal”. He offers instead an understanding of man viewing his innerness as a human person manifested not only by his existence but more importantly through his actions and participation in the divine life.[3] He asserts that the cosmological type of understanding holds the definition of Aristotle: homo est animal rationale; man is a rational animal. He traces the traditional Aristotelian anthropology in associating man with the cosmos.
This definition fulfils Aristotle’s requirements 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, at the same time, the definition of man is constructed in such a way that excludes the possibility of accentuating the irreducible in the human being. Therefore, it implies a belief in the reducibility of the human being to the world.[4]
Christian faith proclaims that in Jesus Christ, God has drawn near; he has taken human beings nature. The infinite capacity of human nature is revealed definitely and irrevocably in the humanity of Jesus, far beyond all notions of intimacy, which we found in the stories of Genesis.[5] Human beings are created with rational and divinely 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.[6] They are saved by God’s love in Christ. To be in union with God’s creatures intends that we use our freedom wisely and forego our self-interests. The freedom in our nature is our ability to love someone besides ourselves, a power that transcends and escapes the inevitability of self-love. To affirm that we are made in the image of God is to say that love is the reason for our existence, because God is love.
Our capacity to love gives us the essential and peculiar power, which is the most intimate secret of our humanity and greatest dignity. This power stamps us in the image and likeness of God in the depth of 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 neighbour’s love. These two commandments are inter- connected.
A person is different from anything or something, because any person possesses spiritual perfectibility and rationality, not merely a physical body endowed with life, but a person is rational and divinely. Only God can be the “object” of a complete, unconditional and final fulfilling choice. Jesus Christ is the real identity of God. In essence, this is the mystery of man and his worth. It means that man is an end in himself. Human beings have intrinsic worthiness that comes not from his being useful for something or someone else. Every person is valuable from what he is by his makeup; from his personal nature and destiny endowed on him by God.
The human person is the composition of the body and soul. These two entities are the single unity of the person. The human body shares in the dignity of the “image of God”; it is a human precisely because it is animated by a spiritual soul, and it is the whole person that intended to become, in the body of Christ, a temple of the spirit.[7] The unity between the rational and divinely is the same unity of the soul and body, which is so profound that one has to consider the soul to be “form” of the “body”. Moreover, it is because of its spiritual soul that 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 single human person in a way that is not clearly distinguishable.
John Paul II in his encyclical letter Veritatis Splendor affirms, The human person rational soul is per se et essentialiter the form of his body, and the person, including his body is completely entrusted to himself, and it is the unity of body and the soul that the person is the subject of his moral acts.[8] The imago Dei then consists in man’s fundamental orientation to God, which is the basis of human dignity and the inalienable rights of the human person.
Vatican II affirms human being’s 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 the divine likeness to the sons and daughters of Adam, which was partially wounded by the […]. Through his incarnation, the Son of God has united himself in some fashion with every man. He worked with human hands: He thought with a human mind, acted by human choice and loved with…. (GS, 22).
Created in the image of God, human beings are by nature bodily and spiritual, men and women made for one another, persons oriented towards communion with God and with one another, wounded by sin and in need of salvation, and destined to be conformed to Christ, the perfect image of the Father in the power of the Holy Spirit.[9] Human beings created in the image of God, are persons to enjoy communion and responsible stewardship engage spiritual-intellectual and affective capacities of people, but they do not leave the body behind. The 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. For by nature his innermost nature man is a social being and unless he relates with others, he can neither live nor develop his potential striving for a way of life which integrates these two dimensions (rational and divinely) is not just a trendy question of good health and well-being. It is the question of holistic human existence and the final salvation of the people.
It is every man’s responsibility to ensure that the Gospel values and the cultural norms are in conformity. In fact, there are meant to safeguard and promote morality among the human persons. Thus, the message of the Gospel about the good news of the earth, the dignity of human life and the demands of God’s justice and love, orients Christians to the needs of the whole person and the whole earth. Human beings are responsible for taking care of other creatures.
[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 Christian Personalism, Manila, St Paul’s Publications 1995, 71.
[4] FRANCISCO, Karl Wojtyla’s Theology of Participation, 85.
[5]R. J. sachs, The Christian Vision of Humanity:Basic Christian Anthropology, Minnesota, Collegevile 1991, 32.
[6] g. v. lobo, Guide to Christian Living: A New Compendium of Moral Theology, Maryland, Christian Classics 21985, 79.
[7] catholic church, Catechism of the Catholic Church, Cap. 1, a. 1, n. 364.
[8] john paul ii, Encyclical Letter Veritatis Splendor ( 6-8- 1993): AAS 85 (1993) 1173.
[9] international theological commission, Communion and Stewardship: Human Persons Created in the Image of God, Vatican City, LEV 2003, n. 25.