Christian anthropology
In the context of Christian theology, Christian anthropology is the study of the human as it relates to God. 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.
One aspect studies the innate nature or constitution of the human, known as the nature of humankind. It is concerned with the relationship between notions such as body, soul and spirit which together form a person, based on their descriptions in the Bible. There are three traditional views of the human constitution – trichotomism, dichotomism and monism.
Early Christian writers
Gregory of Nyssa
The reference source for Gregory's anthropology is his treatise De opificio hominis. His concept of man is founded on the ontological distinction between the created and uncreated. Man is a material creation, and thus limited, but infinite in that his immortal soul has an indefinite capacity to grow closer to the divine. Gregory believed that the soul is created simultaneous to the creation of the body, and that embryos were thus persons. To Gregory, the human being is exceptional being created in the image of God. Humanity is theomorphic both in having self-awareness and free will, the latter which gives each individual existential power, because to Gregory, in disregarding God one negates one's own existence. In the Song of Songs, Gregory metaphorically describes human lives as paintings created by apprentices to a master: the apprentices imitate their master's work with beautiful colors, and thus man strives to be a reflection of Christ. Gregory, in stark contrast to most thinkers of his age, saw great beauty in the Fall: from Adam's sin from two perfect humans would eventually arise myriad.Augustine of Hippo
was one of the first Christian ancient Latin authors with very clear anthropological vision. He saw the human being as a perfect unity of two substances: soul and body. He was much closer in this anthropological view to Aristotle than to Plato. In his late treatise sec. 5 he insisted that the body pertains to the essence of the human person:Augustine's favourite figure to describe body-soul unity is marriage: caro tua, coniunx tua – your body is your wife. Initially, the two elements were in perfect harmony. After the fall of humanity they are now experiencing dramatic combat between one another.
They are two categorically different things. The body is a three-dimensional object composed of the four elements, whereas the soul has no spatial dimensions. Soul is a kind of substance, participating in reason, fit for ruling the body.
Augustine was not preoccupied, as Plato and Descartes were, with going too much into details in efforts to explain the metaphysics of the soul-body union. It sufficed for him to admit that they were metaphysically distinct. To be a human is to be a composite of soul and body, and that the soul is superior to the body. The latter statement is grounded in his hierarchical classification of things into those that merely exist, those that exist and live, and those that exist, live, and have intelligence or reason.
According to N. Blasquez, Augustine's dualism of substances of the body and soul doesn't stop him from seeing the unity of body and soul as a substance itself. Following ancient philosophers he defined man as a rational mortal animal – animal rationale mortale.
Terms or components
Body
The body is the corporeal or physical aspect of a human being. Christians have traditionally believed that the body will be resurrected at the end of the age.Rudolf Bultmann states the following:
Soul
The semantic domain of Biblical soul is based on the Hebrew word nepes, which presumably means “breath” or “breathing being”. This word never means an immortal soul or an incorporeal part of the human being that can survive death of the body as the spirit of dead. This word usually designates the person as a whole or its physical life. In the Septuagint nepes is mostly translated as psyche and, exceptionally, in the Book of Joshua as empneon, that is "breathing being".The New Testament follows the terminology of the Septuagint, and thus uses the word psyche in a manner performatively similar to that of the Hebrew semantic domain, that is, as an invisible power that gives life and motion to the body and is responsible for its attributes.
In Patristic thought, towards the end of the 2nd century psyche was understood in more a Greek than a Hebrew way, and it was contrasted with the body. In the 3rd century, with the influence of Origen, there was the establishing of the doctrine of the inherent immortality of the soul and its divine nature. Origen also taught the transmigration of the souls and their preexistence, but these views were officially rejected in 553 in the Fifth Ecumenical Council. Inherent immortality of the soul was accepted among western and eastern theologians throughout the middle ages, and after the Reformation, as evidenced by the Westminster Confession.
On the other hand, a number of modern Protestant scholars have adopted views similar to conditional immortality, including Edward Fudge and Clark Pinnock; however the majority of adherents hold the traditional doctrine.> In the last six decades, conditional immortality, or better "immortality by grace", of the soul has also been widely accepted among Eastern Orthodox theologians, by returning to the views of the late 2nd century, where immortality was still considered as a gift granted with the value of Jesus' death and resurrection. The Seventh-day Adventist Church has held to conditional immortality since the mid-19th century.
Spirit
The spirit is likewise an immaterial component. It is often used interchangeably with "soul", psyche, although trichotomists believe that the spirit is distinct from the soul.Charles Taylor has argued in Sources of the Self: Making of Modern Identity that the attempt to reduce spirit or soul to the "self" is an anachronistic project claiming historical precedence, when it reality it is a modern, Western, secular reading of the Scriptures.
Constitution or nature of the person
Christian theologians have historically differed over the issue of how many distinct components constitute the human being.Two parts (Dichotomism)
The most popular view, affirmed by a large number of lay faithful and theologians from many Christian traditions, is that the human being is formed of two components: material and spiritual. The soul or spirit departs from the body at death, and will be reunited with the body at the resurrection.Three parts (Trichotomism)
A significant minority of theologians across the denominational and theological spectrum, in both the East and the West, have held that human beings are made up of three distinct components: body or flesh, soul, and spirit. This is known technically as trichotomism. The biblical texts typically used to support this position are and.One part (Monism)
Modern theologians increasingly hold to the view that the human being is an indissoluble unity. This is known as holism or monism. The body and soul are not considered separate components of a person, but rather as two facets of a united whole. It is argued that this more accurately represents Hebrew thought, whereas body-soul dualism is more characteristic of classical Greek Platonist and Cartesian thought. Monism is the official position of the Seventh-day Adventist Church, which adheres to the doctrine of "soul sleep". Monism also appears to be more consistent with certain physicalist interpretations of modern neuroscience, which has indicated that the so-called "higher functions" of the mind are dependent upon or emergent from brain structure, not the independent workings of an immaterial soul as was previously thought.An influential exponent of this view was liberal theologian Rudolf Bultmann. Oscar Cullmann was influential in popularizing it.
Origin of humanity
The Bible teaches in the book of Genesis the humans were created by God. Some Christians believe that this must have involved a miraculous creative act, while others are comfortable with the idea that God worked through the evolutionary process.God's image in the human
The book of Genesis also teaches that human beings, male and female, were created in the image of God. The exact meaning of this has been debated throughout church history.Origin/transmission of the soul
There are two opposing views about how the soul originates in each human being. Creationism teaches that God creates a "fresh" soul within each human embryo at or some time shortly after conception. Note: This is not to be confused with creationism as a view of the origins of life and the universe.Traducianism, by contrast, teaches that the soul is inherited from the individual's parents, along with his or her biological material.
Human nature
Most Christian Theology traditionally teaches that human nature originates holy but is corrupted by the fall. Part of the development of church doctrine has historically been concerned with discerning what role the human plays in “redemption" from that fall.The debate about human nature between Augustine and Pelagius had to do with the nature of sin and its relation the state of the human. Pelagius believed that man's nature was inherently good and taught that all children are born “as a fresh creation of God and therefore good.” For Pelagius freedom is a constitute part of human nature. Humanity’s capacity to choose is inherited and therefore is untainted. Human are capable of following divine laws and live morally. The inherited ability to choose is itself a grace of creation. Augustine believed that all humans are born into sin because each has inherited a sinful nature due to Adam’s Original Sin. Without grace from God humanity is incapable of choosing good and therefore of pursuing God. Salvation then, becomes, either a cooperation between human will and divine grace or an act of divine will apart from human agency. Pelagius’s position was condemned at the Council of Carthage and the Council of Ephesus and the Second Council of Orange. However the councils did soften Augustine’s position on Predestination.
During the Protestant Reformation Monergism had a resurgence through John Calvin’s devolvement of the doctrine of Total Depravity.
Within Protestant Circles a debate happened between followers of John Calvin and Followers of Jacobus Arminius on the nature of grace in the process of salvation. Calvin and Arminius follow Augustine in the doctrine of total depravity. However, Arminians hold that God restores humanity’s free will, concerning the ability to choose salvation where as classic Calvinism holds to a strict monergism.
Synergism and its affirmation of the participation of human will in salvation is the classic Patristic position as well as the position of the Roman Catholic, Eastern Orthodox Church, as well many Arminian influenced Protestant Churches. Whereas Monergism has become the position of most churches that are a part of the Reformed Tradition.
Death and afterlife
Christian anthropology has implications for beliefs about death and the afterlife. The Christian church has traditionally taught that the soul of each individual separates from the body at death, to be reunited at the resurrection. This is closely related to the doctrine of the immortality of the soul. For example, the Westminster Confession states:Intermediate state
The question then arises: where exactly does the disembodied soul "go" at death? Theologians refer to this subject as the intermediate state. The Old Testament speaks of a place called sheol where the spirits of the dead reside. In the New Testament, hades, the classical Greek realm of the dead, takes the place of sheol. In particular, Jesus teaches in Luke 16:19–31 that hades consists of two separate "sections", one for the righteous and one for the unrighteous. His teaching is consistent with intertestamental Jewish thought on the subject.Fully developed Christian theology goes a step further; on the basis of such texts as Luke 23:43 and Philippians 1:23, it has traditionally been taught that the souls of the dead are received immediately either into heaven or hell, where they will experience a foretaste of their eternal destiny prior to the resurrection.
Some Christian groups which stress a monistic anthropology deny that the soul can exist consciously apart from the body. For example, the Seventh-day Adventist Church teaches that the intermediate state is an unconscious sleep; this teaching is informally known as "soul sleep".