This week I’m finishing up assessing end of term papers in which my students articulate their theological anthropology through the question ” What is a human being fully alive?” Which as you may hear is drawing from Irenaeus’ famous quotes, “the glory of God is [a person] fully alive.” Students explore this question, in small writing groups at the end of their first year of their respective programs at The Seattle School.
What is a well lived life? What is health & wholeness? Self, other, & community? Created in the image of God? How does one understand the relational self? What is a good life? etc.
Every person has an assumption about the good life, or what it is to be fully alive. Listen to one’s deepest desires and you’ll get a sense of what they think life is about. Even though these assumptions about flourishing often lurk under one’s conscious considerations in some culturally formed, pre-critical state those assumptions play a vital role shaping what one does, believes, and imagines. To interrogate your own theological anthropology it can be helpful to tap into your inner toddler, and start asking “why?” What’s life about?…. “Why?”… and continue.
This may be obvious, but within the context of Christian theology, theology anthropology refers to the study of the human as it relates to the Divine. It differs from the social science of anthropology, which primarily deals with the comparative study of the physical and social characteristics of humanity across times and places. It explores: if God is; and if that Divine being is multiplicity and oneness expressing itself as love; and if all creation reflects its Creator then there may be real opportunities for human beings to discover even more beautiful ways to be human is we listen to our deepest desires.
Hands down, the most influential text on theological anthropology I have read to date is, Reimagining the Human: Theological Anthropology in Response to Systemic Evil, by Eleazar S. Fernandez. I have read, and re-read Fernandez’s book multiple times. It’s not only insightful, I actually find it exciting and very practical in helping reimagine faithful presence with the ecosystem of relation that is our world.
Below are a handful of other books exploring theological anthropology that I have found helpful:
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Peace, dwight
