What does it mean to be
“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.
Fr. John Vandenakker, CC
T
he 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”
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.
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
2
MOSAIC
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