Man as

PERSON
 A. Basic Anthropology
of MAN
1.MAN IS A PERSON
2. MAN IS A SUBSTANTIAL UNITY
3. MAN IS A SOCIAL BEING
4. MAN POSSESSES DIGNITY AND RIGHTS
 A. BASIC ANTHROPOLOGY
MAJOR THEMES

1. MAN IS A PERSON

A CONCRETE INDIVIDUAL SUBSTANCE

ENDOWED WITH REASON
 2. MAN IS A SUBSTANTIAL UNITY
-A UNION OF BODY AND SOUL, AN EMBODIED-SPIRIT

MAN POSSESSES A COMPLETE SPECIFIC/UNIQUE

NATURE

What UNIQUE nature?

 MAN IS NOT MERELY AN INDIVIDUAL SUBSTANCE WITH A
UNIQUE EXISTENCE

RATIONAL
FREEDOM NATURE /
TO SELF- INTELLIGENCE
GOVERN IN TO
THE UNDERSTAND
WORLD THE WORLD
 ACCORDING TO ST. THOMAS AQUINAS
THE HUMAN PERSON IS THE MOST PERFECT IN
THE WHOLE NATURE

What makes HP
the MOST
PERFECT?

WITH REASON TO UNDERSTAND THE WORLD

AND WILL TO DIRECT HIMSELF TO TRUE GOOD
 3. MAN IS A SOCIAL BEING

Man is a relational being. He is open to himself and to others

Hence, man is inter-subjectivity, a community

LOVE
4. MAN POSSESSES DIGNITY AND RIGHTS
THE HUMAN PERSON POSSESSES DIGNITY THAT HAS NO PRICE BUT VALUE
IMMANUEL KANT
 TO BE A HUMAN BEING IS TO BE A FELLOW HUMAN BEING

MARTIN BUBER

I EXIST IN THE MEASURE THAT I EXIST FOR OTHERS

FOR AFTER ALL, TO BE IS TO LOVE

E. MOUNIER

THE FACE OF THE OTHER TELLS ME THAT IT IS IMPOSSIBLE

TO KILL THE PERSON WITH THAT FACE

E. LEVINAS
 The human being is created
in God’s image and likeness.
 The Human Person:
An Embodied Spirit
 Original sin is real and is
the source of sinfulness
found in human experience.
 Jesus Christ redeemed the
human race: Life of Grace
in Christ
 Then God said: “Let us make man in our image,
after our likeness. Let them have dominion over the fish
of the sea, the birds of the air, and the cattle, and over all
the wild animals and all the creatures that crawl on the
ground.
God created man in his image, in the divine image he
created him; male and female he created them.
God blessed them, saying, “Be fertile and multiply,
fill the earth and subdue it. Have dominion over the
fish of the sea, the birds of the air, and all the living things
that move on the earth.”
1. Capacity to know and love back: Of all the visible
creatures only man is “able to know and love his
creator.”
2. Important in himself/ herself: He is “the only creature
on earth that God has willed for its own sake,”
3. Sharer in God’s own life: And he alone is called to
share, by knowledge and love, in God’s own life.
Man, though made of body and soul, is a unity.
(GS 14 )
◦ Man as Body: the physical
aspect
of the human person

– Man as Spirit: that

“something” in the
human person which
cannot be seen or
touched
 Spirit: intangible properties of
the human being
◦ Intellect
 The capacity to learn in life
 Form the concept of what is true
◦ Free will
 The ability to decide and to move
towards a decision
◦ Emotions
 Love, hatred, joy, sorrow, boldness,
fear, hope, despair and anger can
enhance the nobility of the person if
they are well-integrated in the
personality.
 Original Sin is Adam and Eve’s abuse of their
human freedom and their disobedience of God’s
command. This sin separated man from God,
darkened the human intellect, weakened the
human will and introduced into human nature an
inclination toward sin
Aurelio Fernandez and James Socias
 “But the gift is not like the trespass. For if the many died by
the trespass of the one man, how much more did God’s grace
and the gift that came by the grace of the one man, Jesus
Christ, overflow to the many.” - Rom 5:15

Through Baptism, the human being shares in the

life of the risen Christ. “It is no longer I who live,
but Christ who lives in me” (Gal 2:20). The
Christian therefore ought to imitate Christ’s
thought, love and actions.
References:
Michael D. Moga, What Makes Man Truly Human? St. Pauls, 1995

Ismael Ireneo Maningas, Filipino Christian Morality, St. Pauls, 1998