"What Is Man That You Are Mindful of Him?"

Christian Anthropology reveals the deep truth of our body-soul unity and the divine purpose of our sexual differentiation.

The Psalmist asks, "What is man that you are mindful of him, and a son of man that you care for him? Yet you have made him little less than a god, crowned him with glory and honor" (Ps 8:5-6).

Theological investigation into the nature and purpose of the human person in the light of natural reason and divine revelation is known as Christian Anthropology (from the Greek anthropos = "man"). It seeks answers to the most fundamental questions about human life: Where do we come from? Where are we going? What is our purpose? Who are we?

"Image and Likeness"

Unlike secular anthropologies, which view man alone as the measure of all things, Christian Anthropology sees God as both the source and ground of what it means to be human: "God created man in his own image [Imago Dei], in the likeness of God he created him, male and female he created them" (Gn 1:27). In the so-called second creation account, Genesis 2:7 adds, "Then the LORD God formed the man out of the dust of the ground and blew into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being."

Although the terms "image and likeness" are synonymous in Hebrew, some early Christian theologians distinguished the terms for the purpose of illuminating the need for conversion and spiritual growth. Thus, the Image refers to those divine qualities we possess from birth (e.g., self-awareness, free will, rationality, creativity, royal dignity, immortality of the soul, etc.), while the Likeness refers to the call within us for greater growth in communion with God (resulting in salvation, increased spiritual wisdom, growth in the virtues, greater capacity to serve others, etc.). The Likeness exists in us as a potential state that needs to be actualized by means of grace.

But Adam and Eve were created in a state of original justice and holiness, given both a body and a soul. The seventh century Eastern theologian St. John Damascene affirmed the beauty of this original state of grace:

Since man is composed of body and soul, I think that this excellent temple, called paradise, should be understood in both material and spiritual terms. .. . As a matter of fact, as regards his body, man lived in a place which excelled all other places in beauty. As to the soul, he found himself in a place still more sublime and marvelous, above any comparison, since God dwelt in him as in a temple and he was dressed in splendid vestments, robed as he was with divine grace.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church states: "Of all visible creatures, only man is able to know and love his creator. He is the only creature on earth that God has willed for its own sake' (Gaudium et Spes, no. 23), and he alone is called to share, by knowledge and love, in God's own life. It was for this end that he was created, and this is the fundamental reason for his dignity" (no. 356). The following section adds: "Being in the image of God, the human individual possesses the dignity of a person, who is not just something, but someone. He is capable of self-knowledge, of self-possession and of freely giving himself and entering into communion with other persons. And he is called by grace to a covenant with his Creator, to offer him a response of faith and love that no other creature can give in his stead" (no. 357).

This is why we all long for God and can only be satisfied by God, because from the beginning, we have been created in his divine image and likeness.

Damage from the Fall

But the question arises: why, then, do we not easily recognize God's beauty, goodness, and presence in ourselves and in everyone we meet? The answer is because of the fall from grace that Adam and Eve experienced as a result of original sin. Our faculties have become wounded and compromised. We have become alienated from God, from others, and even from ourselves. In short, our original nature has become broken.

But thank God this is not the end of the story. During the Easter Vigil, the Exsultet proclaims: "O happy fault, O necessary sin of Adam, which gained for us so great a Redeemer!" Christ came not only to save us from our sins but to restore, elevate, and perfect our human natures, to make possible what the Eastern Church calls theosis (deification). We now have the potential to be better off than the pre-lapsarian Adam and Eve (if we repent, believe, and become baptized).

The Catechism says that "the mystery of Christ casts conclusive light on the mystery of creation and reveals the end for which in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth': from the beginning, God envisaged the glory of the new creation in Christ" (no. 280). This is why Christ is the linchpin of Christian Anthropology.

Beyond Secular Anthropology

The difference between this "good news" and other philosophical anthropologies can be seen in other areas, as well. For instance, Plato described the soul as being imprisoned in the body. This is why the soul longed for release from the body, so that it could return to its originally exalted, unsullied state. This idea led to a very dualistic conception of man, with the soul being held in far greater esteem than the body.

But this is not the view of Christian Anthropology. The Catechism describes the unity of the soul and body as comprising a single nature (cf., no. 366). Hence, man does not have a body and a soul; rather, man is a body and soul. Through his Incarnation, Christ sanctified the body; through his Resurrection, Christ also glorified it.

For this reason, man must not despise his bodily life. In Heaven we will continue to exist as embodied souls, albeit in a glorified state. Referencing Pope Pius XII's encyclical Humani Generis, the Catechism in no. 367 states: "The Church teaches that every spiritual soul is created immediately by Godit is not produced' by the parent—and also that it is immortal: it does not perish when it separates from the body at death, and it will be reunited with the body at the final Resurrection."

That the soul is immortal forms the basis for the Catholic Church's teaching on the inviolable dignity of the human person.

Human life is sacredall men must recognize that fact. From its very inception it reveals the creating hand of God. Those who violate His laws not only offend the divine majesty and degrade themselves and humanity, they also sap the vitality of the political community of which they are members (St. John XXIII, Mater et Magistra).

Sexual Differentiation "Willed by God"

Another essential dimension of our being human is our sexual identity as male and female. As no. 369 of the Catechism expresses:

Man and woman have been created, which is to say, willed by God: on the one hand, in perfect equality as human persons; on the other, in their respective beings as man and woman. "Being man" or "being woman" is a reality which is good and willed by God: man and woman possess an inalienable dignity which comes to them immediately from God their Creator. Man and woman are both with one and the same dignity "in the image of God." In their "being-man" and "being-woman," they reflect the Creator's wisdom and goodness.

So, though we have been created equal, we have been made to be different. Humans exist as masculine or feminine beings. Hence, far from sexual differentiation being merely an accidental or secondary aspect of our humanity, it is something constitutive of it. The sexual differences between man and woman, while certainly manifested in physical attributes, in fact transcend the purely physical and reveal something fundamental about the very mystery of our humanity (and what it means to be created in the Imago Dei).

Complementary but Fully Complete

Humanity shares one common nature, but man and woman are two complementary aspects of that same nature, so that the unity and difference between them lies at the level of being. This means that man and woman, although complete in and of themselves, together are able to fully reveal the nature of God to the world. They are able to experience and live out life differently, while building each other up and drawing each other closer to that which they were created for, a relationship with God.

"The insurmountable diversity between men and women transforms them both, reciprocally, in the greater sign of the Other, not as a threat, but rather as a gift, a gratuitousness and a promise of life; it is also a sign of a unity that is free and founded on the love on which the perfection of human beings depends." (Bp. Alfonso Rouco)

But the Catechism no. 370 adds a necessary caution: "In no way is God in man's image. He is neither man nor woman. God is pure spirit in which there is no place for the difference between the sexes. But the respective perfections' of man and woman reflect something of the infinite perfection of God: those of a mother and those of a father and husband" (cf. Isa 49:14-15; 66:13; Ps 131:2-3; Hos 11:1-4; Jer 3:4-19).

This affirmation highlights a fundamental fact of Christian Anthropology: that man was created to be a relational beinga being created for communityfor communion (on both the natural and supernatural levels of existence).

Man and woman were made "for each other"not that God left them half-made and incomplete: he created them to be a communion of persons, in which each can be "helpmate" to the other, for they are equal as persons ("bone of my bones") and complementary as masculine and feminine. In marriage God unites them in such a way that, by forming "one flesh" (Gn 2:24), they can transmit human life: "Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth" (Gn 1:28). By transmitting human life to their descendants, man and woman as spouses and parents cooperate in a unique way in the Creator's work. (Catechism, no. 372)

Theologian Fr. Paul Haffner in his book, Mystery of Creation, further points out that a proper and profound understanding of the relation between man and woman is necessary in order fully to understand the mystery of the Church as the bride of Christ, the true nature of the married state, and why the ministerial priesthood presupposes a male subject of ordination.

Man and woman are created in view of the coming of Christ, born of the Virgin Mary, and this anchors the difference between the sexes in a Christological setting. The relation between man and woman reflects in some way the mystery of the Holy Trinity. The Apostle states that: "there are no more distinctions between Jew and Greek, slave and free, male and female, but all . . . are one in Christ Jesus" (Gal 3:28).

Aid to Evangelization

By way of conclusion, Christian Anthropology is important for evangelization because many contemporary philosophies obscure or deny the human need for God, redemption, and grace. They also hold that there is no meaning or purpose beyond the present life.

Theologian Karl Rahner famously stated that "dogmatic theology today must be theological anthropology" for the purpose of launching an effective new evangelization of the world. For we must first engage people where they are at, showing how the Gospel addresses and answers the very questions they have been asking themselves: Where do I come from? Where am I going? What is my purpose? Who am I?