The Human Person

Question 1

What is the testimony on Anthropology from the Bible: Gen 1-2? (7 elements)

Answer 1

1) Man is the Culmination of Creation (Gen. 1:26).
2) Human person is a Unity of Body and Soul (Gen. 2:7).
3) Man is created in God’s own image (Gen. 1:26-27) (“Image” is REPEATED).
4) Human person is created Male & Female (Gen. 1:27b & 2:18-24).
5) Man is given Dominion Over the Rest of Creation (Gen. 1:26; 28-30).
6) Man is created Good and In a State of Friendship with the Creator (i.e., Original Justice / Holiness).
7) Man is ultimately brought to his perfection in and through Jesus Christ

Question 2

What does it mean that Man has been created in God’s own image? (6 elements)

Answer 2

1. The Human Person has the capacity to KNOW & LOVE the Creator.
2. Man has a calling/vocation to SHARE in God’s own life (participate).
3. The Human being possesses the dignity of a PERSON (Each human being is not just something but someone).
4. Human being is capable of SELF-KNOWLEDGE.
5. Human being is capable of freely giving themselves to other (communion).
6. Because he is the image of God, man has DOMINION and is CULMINATION of Creation.
   +•+ SUMMARY => IMAGE OF GOD INVOLVES ALL THREE: • 1) Ontological • 2) Relational • 3) Vocational

Question 3

What is the teaching of Gaudium et Spes (1965) on the Human Person?

Answer 3

-§14 - Who are we? Made up of body and soul, yet one / a unity.
• Through his bodily composition [man] gathers to himself the elements of the material world.
• But at the same time are able to raise the material world up to the Creator.
• Human beings may not despise their bodily life.
-§34 - Value of Human Activity (Arts, Sciences, etc.)
• “Considered in itself, human activity, individual and collective,…is in keeping with God’s design.”
• Development of new technology, communication, medicine, etc., is in keeping with God’s design

Question 4

What is the teaching of Nostra Aetate (1965) on the Human Person?

Answer 4

• §1 “All peoples form a single community. Their origin is one….One also is their final goal: God.”
• Fundamental unity and solidarity among all human beings: 1) All created in the image of God; 2) Same destiny/goal.
• The foundation/platform (for issues) should be one that unites us (attempts to bring all into unity with the Church)

Question 5

What does JPII say about the Human Person in his Address to the Latin American Bishops (1979)?

Answer 5

“Thanks to the Gospel…the Church has the Truth about the human person.”

• “This truth is found in an anthropology….that man is God’s image and cannot be reduced to a mere portion of nature or a nameless element in the human city.”

Question 6

What does JPII say about the Human Person in Redemptor Hominis (1979)?

Answer 6

§13 “What is in question here is the Human Person in all his truth, in his full magnitude. We are not dealing with the ‘abstract’ man, but the real, ‘concrete,’ ‘historical’ man.” —> Each human life is included in the Mystery of Redemption.
• “Every man comes into the world through being conceived in his mother’s womb and being born of his mother, and precisely on account of the mystery of the Redemption is entrusted to the solicitude of the Church.”
• We become sharers in the Redemption at conception, not Baptism.
• We are immersed in the Mystery through baptism

Question 7

What does JPII say about the Human Person in Mulieris Dignitatem (1988)?

Answer 7

§6 “The revealed truth concerning the human person in the image and likeness constitutes the immutable basis of all anthropology.”

Question 8

What does JPII say about the Human Person in Veritatis Splendor (1993)?

Answer 8

§48 “The spiritual and immortal soul is the principle of the unity of the human being…”