THEOLOGICAL ANTHROPOLOGY: A GUIDE FOR THE PERPLEXED
MARC CORTEZ
Published by T&T Clark International
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All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.
Copyright © Marc Cortez, 2010
Marc Cortez has asserted his right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988, to be identified as the Author of this work.
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
ISBN: 978-0-567-03431-1 (Hardback)
978-0-567-03432-8 (Paperback)
This book is dedicated to my girls
INTRODUCTION
A cow is always simply a cow. It does not ask, “What is a cow? Who am I?” Only man asks such questions, and indeed clearly has to ask them about himself and his being. This is his question. His question follows him in hundreds of forms.1
Jürgen Moltmann
“What is man that you are mindful of him, the son of man that you care for him?” (Ps. 8:4). In raising this question, the psalmist parti cipated in one of humanity’s oldest tasks—understanding itself. Philosophers, theologians, and scientists from every age and tradition have pursued this question endlessly, producing myriad perspectives and answers. Yet we might well wonder why this is such a difficult question to answer. Of course we know what a human person is. We are human persons. Indeed, there seems to be nothing with which we are so intimately involved as our knowledge of what it means to be human. We experience “humanity” everyday in ourselves and in our relationships with the people around us. I might not be able to tell you exactly what a platypus is, but I know all about what it means to be human. As G. C. Berkouwer asked,
Who does not “know” man, whom we daily encounter, and the man that we ourselves are? Is not the problem of the “nature” of man an abstract problem, a strange, reflexive, obvious problem? Is not this “nature” experienced by all of us, in ourselves and in others, in countless relationships, in the heights of human happiness and the depths of grief? Who does not “know” man, whom we daily encounter, and the man that we ourselves are?2
Despite our intimate familiarity with being human, however, we continue to be plagued with uncertainty about what it means to be human. Rather than providing an answer to this anthropological query, modern society is characterized by an ever-growing uncertainty that it is even possible to offer such an answer. For many modern thinkers, there is no identifiable self constituting ...
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About Theological Anthropology: A Guide for the PerplexedWhat does it mean to be human and to be made in the image of God? What does it mean to be a ‘person?’ What constitutes a human person? What does it mean to affirm that humans are free beings? And, what is gender? Marc Cortez guides the reader through the most challenging issues that face anyone attempting to deal with the subject of theological anthropology. Consequently, it addresses complexities surrounding such questions as: Each chapter explains first both why the question under consideration is important for theological anthropology and why it is also a contentious issue within the field. After this, each chapter surveys and concisely explains the main options that have been generated for resolving that particular question. Finally the author presents to the reader one way of working through the complexity. These closing sections are presented as case studies in how to work through the problems and arrive at a conclusion than as definitive answers. Nonetheless, they offer a convincing way of answering the questions raised by each chapter. |
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