THE HUMAN PERSON

THE HUMAN PERSONThe Christian ConceptThe human person is a living organism.Human Person may simply become a specimen for biological and pathological scientists to investigate and to research.

HOMO SAPIENSThe human person is a living organism.He may simply become an specimen for biological and pathological scientists to investigate and research.

HOMO SAPIENS

I am your ancestor!Philosophy:Human Person

Natur rationalis individua substantia (an individual substance of RATIONAL nature) - Boethius

The Catechism of Filipino Catholics points essential descriptions of a Human Person.

Open and Relational (687)Conscious Beings (688)Embodied Spirits (689)Historical Realities (690)Unique yet equal (691)

BIBLE

Biblical Tradition offers a rich source of material about the human person. Biblical anthropology paints a complex picture of the human person.

Man is a Creature (Finite) Man is the Center of the Universe (cosmos) (Center of Creation) - Anthropocentric Religious Connection (If there is a creature then there is a CREATOR) Psalm 8:5-7 Man has Dignity Man is a unity (body and soul) In need of SALVATIONOLD TESTAMENT AnthropologyHUMAN BEING AS CREATUREGod created man and woman. Human Beings are invited into manifold relationships.With GodWith other creaturesMan is called to be fruitful (creatively cooperate in the creation of the world)

Genesis 1:1 - 2:3OLD TESTAMENT AnthropologyHUMAN BEINGS DISTINCTIVE PLACE IN CREATIONThe Creation of the world is an introduction to the creation of man.Man is the peak and the centre of creation.Let us create (br) - special manner of creation.Genesis 1:1 - 2:3

OLD TESTAMENT AnthropologyMAN AS GODS IMAGE (selem) AND LIKENESS (demut)Man, insofar as he is the image, represents and makes visible that which is invisible and in not present.Man as created in the image and likeness of God underlines the inherent DIGNITY of the human person.Genesis 1:1 - 2:3

OLD TESTAMENT AnthropologyMANS DOMINION OVER CREATIONhave dominion over the fish of the see and over the birds of the air and over every living things that moves upon the earth - Gen

Such dominion over creation must then be understood not so much in terms of conquest of it as in terms of concern for it. - STEWARDS of Gods CreationGenesis 1:1 - 2:3

SECOND CREATION STORYGENESIS 2:4-25

More Anthropological than the First Creation Story (Cosmological)

The narration is essentially all about the creation of man.

Man as both End and Part of Creation

It is mans world, the world of his life (the sown, the garden, the animals, the woman), which God in what follows establishes around man; and this forms the primary theme of the entire narrative adamadama (man earth). - Von Rad

B. The Breath of Life (Gen 2:27)

It does not mean that a living soul is inserted into the human body; it means rather that man is created into or as a living soul, that is into a living being.

(BASIC BIBLICAL UNDERSTANDING OF MAN - Man created as a complete unity - composite of Body and Soul)

C. Man and His Work

Problem (2:5)

Man has a task in relation to creation. God placed man in the harder for a purpose. (2:15)

Man is so privileged not only as to have been entrusted with the care of creation but also as to have been called to be a co-creator himself.

D. Mans Social Nature (and Relational)

Man is not an isolated creature. He is surrounded by creatures that God made. (2:20)

Creation of Woman (2:23) - a helper like him

Woman was taken from a intimate part of Adam himself; and so, unlike animals, she has the very same nature as Adam. - Lon Dufour

E. Mans Freedom and Fall

God gives man a command and man can only relate himself to this in freedom. He can abide by what has been commanded or he can reject it. in both cases he sets himself in either a positive or negative relationship to him who commands. The freedom of this relationship arises only from the command; without the command there would be no freedom.