21: Human Constitution

Question 1

What are the implications of understanding human constitution?

Answer 1

• personal identity
• consciousnes
• free will
• the relationship of human persons to other animals
• the beginning and end of human life
• the dignity of the human person
• the nature and process of salvation
• the fundamental nature of what it means to be ‘human

Question 2

What are various views of human constitution?

Answer 2

1. Trichotomy
2. Dichotomy
3. Duality or Wholistic Dualism
4. Psychosomatic Unity
5. Monism

Question 3

What is the Trichonomy view of human constitution?

Answer 3

• Man is made up of three constituents or parts
  • Physical body.
  • ​Soul
    
    • “The seat of the affections, desires, emotions, and the will of man” (NSRB)
  • Spirit.
    • That which “knows and is capable of God-consciousness and communication with God” (NSRB)
• Strongly dualistic: a contempt for the physical and this-worldly. As such trichotomism was condemned by the Council of Constantinople in 869-70.

Question 4

What is the Dichotomy view of human constitution?

Answer 4

• The human is made up of two constituents or parts
  
  • Soul or Spirit. That which is the true man or essence
  • Body. A temporary and accidental abode for the soul
• The majority view in the history of Western culture
• Assumed anthropological underpinning of western medicine

Question 5

What is the Duality or Wholistic Dualism view of human constitution?

Answer 5

• Human being is made up of two constituents, body and soul.
• But the two are not in tension. Both body and soul are inherently good and essential to full human functioning. The two are fully integrated and interdependent.

Question 6

What is substance dualism?

Answer 6

• A dualistic metaphysic
  
  • Reality is made up of two sorts of things, physical things and mental things

Question 7

What is the Psychosomatic Unity (Physicalism) view of human constitution?

Answer 7

• The normal state of man is as a “materialized unitary being”
• Biblical terminology is perspectival or aspectival not ontological or constitutional
• Man’s constitutional unity is altered at death

Question 8

What is the Monism view of human constitution?

Answer 8

• The human is an indivisible unitary being
• A disembodied existence is impossible