ST. BERNARD’S SCHOOL OF THEOLOGY AND MINISTRY
(AT ALBANY, N.Y.)
Master of Arts Degree
COURSE OUTLINE
COURSE: CHRISTIAN ANTHROPOLOGY
Summary:
This course examines a key and foundational theological area, namely the human person: created, fallen and redeemed. The course will examine the data from Scripture, the Christian Tradition and theological debates to understand the nature and the destiny of the human person from a Christian perspective. The course will also explore how this understanding affects and is affected by pastoral and theological concerns such as gender, race, health care, spirituality and authentic personhood in current culture. Throughout the course, the students will have plenty of contact with a wide variety of texts from diverse times and traditions and they will be encouraged to develop skills of interpretation and evaluation of the material so that they can reach their own synthesis.
Session One: Foundations:
An examination of how Christian Anthropology has taken centre stage recently and how it is at the root of many theological and pastoral concerns. Some key issues and themes in Christian Anthropology will be given in outline to provide a structure and map for the rest of the course. The methodology followed in the course, the required reading and the various assessments will be discussed and explained.
I. A Central Theme:
A meditation on Psalm 8
Art and literature: images of the human person
The ‘anthropological turn’ in research and secular thought: origins and culture
The ‘anthropological turn in the theological enterprise
Christian Anthropology: principle of integration and integrity
a ‘touchstone’…
in theology
in pastoral practice
in spirituality
II. Some theories of ‘human nature’
a review and a critique…
Plato and form/reality
Marx and social animal
Freud and the subconscious
Sartre and existentialism
Conditioning and determinism
Post Modernity and negation of ‘nature’
III. Key themes and Concerns
Ontological understanding and Comparative Understanding
Some central themes and questions:
Nature: Existence? Possibility? Meaning?
Human rights and responsibilities
Person and Personhood: authenticity
Freedom and Action
Finitude and Destiny
Community and the Individual
Cosmos and Stewardship
Gender and Complimentarity
Failure, Sin and Weakness
History and the Human
Levels of understanding and growth
Being and Doing
Personal model and Synthesis
IV. Course Methodology and Approach
Time structure
Expectations
Lectures/ Basic Input
Discussion, Analysis and Evaluation
Synthesis and Integration
Contact with Primary Sources
Study: approaches and skills
Assessment: essays, projects and journaling
V. Texts (please bring copies to the class)
Psalm 8
Pope John Pall II, Veritatis Splendor, nn. 46-54
VI. Required Reading
Psalm 8
Pope John Pall II, Veritatis Splendor, nn. 46-54
Sources Book: article from Dictionary of Fundamental Theology
And ONE (or both, if you can) of the following:
Louw, Introduction and Chapter 1
Clement, Chapter 2
Session Two: Old Testament Roots
An outline of the human person as understood within the wider framework of Old Testament theologies will be explored. An examination of some key texts and words that are used to describe the human person in the Old Testament as well as certain developments and tensions that arose during the later period of the Old Testament will be examined. There will be a summary and discussion of the Old Testament vision of the human person and how this can help to inform our current theology and pastoral practice today.
I. General Points
The place of anthropology in the Old Testament
a wider context: salvation, covenant etc.
Issues of historicity and the reading of Old Testament Accounts
A Christian dimension
Creation and Salvation: a reflection and a synthesis
A note on the importance of the Book of Genesis ‘proto-gospel’
II. Some Relevant Terms
Basar
Nefes
Ruah
Leb
Other key terms…
III. Some Accounts
Genesis 1-11 Notes about J and P…complimentarity
Key ideas that emerge in Genesis 1-3
The matter of ‘image and likeness’
Wisdom 3
Sirach 17
Psalm 8
Other texts
III. Summary and Synthesis
A vision of the human person…?
Key features of this understanding
Controversies and Development
Influence and impact for ministry and spirituality
Lessons to be (re)learned…?
IV. Texts
Psalm 8
Genesis 1-11 (especially 1-3)
Book of Wisdom (especially Chapter 3)
Sirach 17
V. Essential Reading
Useful to read the standard commentaries on the above texts for background, depth etc. Plus:
Duffy, Dynamics, Chapter 1
Sachs, Chapter 1
Session Three: New Testament Roots
An examination of the development of the varied New Testament images and concepts of human nature, especially in the light of the incarnation. Terms such as ‘flesh’, ‘spirit’, ‘heart’, ‘body’ or ‘soul’ will be discussed in some detail as well as a number of key texts in Scripture. A particular study of the Pauline and Johannine views about human nature will be made and their influence upon later Christian thought and pastoral practice will be explored.
I. The Centrality and Influence of the New Testament Vision
Basic themes and ideas
Methodology and approach
Context: relation, covenant, salvation
II. Jesus: ‘true God, true man’
Issues in the humanity of Jesus: ‘new Adam’, ‘son of man’ etc.
Jesus and the Spirit: source and model for authentic humanity
Humankind in Jesus’ image: Creature and creator
Will: human and divine
Sin and Redemption
Restoration and more
Relation
III. Key terms and Concepts
Kardia
Psyche
Pneuma
Sarx
Soma
IV. Two writers…
A ‘Pauline’ anthropology
A ‘Johannine anthropology
(a look at some Scripture texts in class to construct some form of synthesis)
V. A Summary and a Synthesis
A vision of the human person in Jesus Christ
Foundational themes and influences
Implications for ministry and spirituality today: Community
Work
Leisure
VI. Texts:
Mt 6: 25-33
Mk 2: 1-12
Lk 15: 11-32
Plus some key texts from the Pauline and Johannine corpus
VII. Essential Reading
Standard commentaries on key Scripture texts to give background and depth, plus:
Schnelle, Chapters 3 and 4
Session Four: The Developing Christian Tradition
A detailed exploration of the post-biblical ideas about the human person and human nature will be made, especially the growth of dualism and some negative views concerning the material and physical aspects of creation. A key part of this session will be to study some specific Patristic texts (from Irenaeus, Tertullian, Augustine and selected Eastern writers) so as to understand the emerging vision of the human person. Later writers such as Julian of Norwich, Hildegard of Bingen, Thomas Aquinas or Martin Luther who have also profoundly influenced the Western church and its view of the human person will also be analyzed.
I. Themes in the Tradition
Influences: Platonism, Stoicism, Asceticism and Gnosticism
Body and Soul: dualism
Image and Likeness
Human work and cooperation: faith, works and merit
Eastern and Western developments: common ground and diversity
II. Some key writers
Justin: body and soul
Irenaeus: the glory of God and Adam
Tertullian: material versus spiritual
Pelagius: human action and divine help
Eastern views: divine action and mystery
Julian of Norwich: threefold being
Hildegard of Bingen: recapturing creation
Aquinas: grace perfects nature
Luther: human nature destroyed
III. Conflicts and Commonality
An emerging view of human nature
Positive views
More negative views
Implications for ministry and spirituality?
IV. Texts:
A number of texts from the writers above will be studied in class: most of these will be found in the course Sources Book. Also, see the itemized bibliography for further background reading. It is suggested that students chose a particular writer to study in more detail and to contribute to the class discussion from this study.
V. Essential Reading
Carr, Chapter 6
Duffy, Dynamics, Chapters 2, 3 and 4
Plus the study of one writer as in IV above
Session Five: The Human Person ‘Fallen’
An examination of the meaning of the ‘Fall’ from its biblical roots to the subsequent interpretation of this data in the Christian tradition. Some key areas such as original human nature, original sin and the consequences of the Fall (especially damaged freedom and death) will be explored in some detail. Influential views and controversies such as Pelagianism, Augustine, the Reformers and the Council of Trent that have deeply affected our current perceptions will be analyzed. The implications of the human person ‘fallen’ and the controversies about this in ecumenical dialogue and for our practice in ministry will be explored.
I. Some theological markers
What is at stake here…?
The complicated issue of an ‘original state’
An ‘original sin’: A state
and an action/dynamic
Or, sin (event) and sinfulness (condition)
Consequences
‘Felix culpa’ (“O happy fault”)
II. The Development of Ideas
Some biblical roots: Genesis 2-3
Romans 5: 12-21
I Corinthians 15
The Tradition: Irenaeus
Origen
Tertullian
Augustine and Pelagius
Church Councils
The issue revisited: Luther and other Reformers
The Council of Trent
Recent thoughts and ideas: Consequences
Social and Structural sin
Common humanity and origins?
III. Particular Themes (from a pastoral slant)
Death and a theology of death
Sickness and suffering
Human conflicts and struggles: objects, abuse etc.
Human freedom and Divine will
Remaining controversies
Indications for ministry today: a central ministry of healing and reconciliation?
IV. Texts
Specific texts from a number of writers and Councils (see Sources Book) to be discussed in class. Again, students are encouraged to study a particular text or writer and use this study in the class contributions (see bibliography for texts, writers etc.)
V. Essential Reading
Sachs, Chapters 2, 6, 8 and 9
Plus some personal study of a writer or text in this area
Session Six: The Human Person ‘Redeemed’
Some biblical concepts and images concerning the human person redeemed will be examined in detail, especially the various expressions of ‘grace’ such as new creation, divinization, adoption and justification. The diverse views in the Christian tradition, both East and West and within the Western Church about the dynamics and workings of grace and redemption will be explored. The implications of these diverse views for areas such as pastoral ministry (e.g. baptism) will be assessed.
I. Grace as a central theme:
Some key themes and concepts: dynamic, state, gratis, authenticity, freedom and cooperation, resistance and choice, vertical and horizontal
Interior and Gratuitous: the experience of grace
Various theories about grace
Problems and issues with grace: thing and relation!
II. Scriptural Perspectives
Divine action and initiative: hanan
Loving fidelity: hesed and emet
The LXX and subtle changes
Charis and its meanings
Christ as grace
III. Expressions of Grace and the Human Person
Divinisation
Adoption/Filiation
New Creation
Justification
IV. Concepts of Grace and the Human Person
Eastern writings
Pelagius and Augustine
Church Councils
Aquinas and the Scholastics
Luther and the Reformers
Council of Trent
Jansenism and the issue of freedom
Grace today: some modern writers: Rahner, de Lubac. Liberation Theology
V. Texts
Selected readings from Scripture and from various writers in the Christian Tradition (cf. Sources Book). Again students are encouraged to select particular writers or texts for a deeper study and use this work to contribute to discussions in class.
VI. Essential Reading
Sachs, Chapter 7
Clement, Chapters 3, 6 and 7
Plus some further study as suggested in V. above.
Session Seven: A New and Renewed Vision
An examination of the ‘anthropological turn’ in theology over the recent past will be outlined. The key teachings of the Second Vatican Council, particularly Gaudium et Spes will be explored. Some conclusions about the vision of the human person that this document and later developments in Roman Catholic teaching offer will be discussed, especially the implications that this has for the Church’s relationship with the world (and for consequent issues such as evangelization). The 2004 ITC document ‘Communion and Stewardship’ will be analyzed.
I. Background
The ‘anthropological turn’ in theology revisited
Examples of the new focus
Significance of the new focus
A relocation of the theological enterprise
II. Gaudium et Spes: an optimistic anthropology?
Background to the document
Human dignity (nn. 12-22)
Community and solidarity (nn. 23-32)
Activity and action in the world (nn. 33-39)
The role of the church in the world (nn. 40-45)
Marriage (nn. 46-52)
The development of culture (nn. 53-62)
Evaluation and assessment…
III. The International Theological Commission Document (2004)
Communion and Stewardship
An update after 40 years…
A revisiting of image and likeness
Image of God: persons in communion
Image of God: stewards of visible creation
Evaluation and assessment
IV. What have we to offer…to learn?
The Christian vision of the human person
O. Clements: ‘The third beauty’
Significance for evangelization
Some initial conclusions for ministry
V. Texts/ Essential Reading
Gaudium et Spes, nn. 13-62
2004 ITC Document on Communion and Stewardship
Clement, Chapter 8
Session Eight: Contemporary Visions of the Human Person
Some recent contributions to the ongoing debate about the human person and human nature will be examined in detail, both through lecture input and particularly through the students’ own research into particular writers or themes. Some key and diverse writers will be studied including Karl Rahner (the incarnate spirit), Hans Urs von Balthasar (person and mission) and Pope John Paul II (theology of the body). The insights of writers and how these insights can help to facilitate our ministry will be explored.
Some case studies of contemporary views about the human person…
I. K. Rahner
Human person as ‘incarnate spirit’ and ‘hearer of the word’
A Christological centre
Grace and nature: the transcendental experience
The communitarian dimension
Critique and assessment: insights for ministry and spirituality
II. Hans Urs von Balthasar
A teleological approach
Person defined in ‘mission’: drama, cooperation and galaxy
Person and Christ
A social dimension
Critique and assessment: insights for ministry and spirituality
III. Pope John Paul II
A philosophical basis: phenomenology and habilitation
The centrality of Christ: reveals humanity
Consciousness and causality
Freedom and transcendence
The body
Critique and assessment: insights for ministry and spirituality
IV. Further writers: some input from project work…
V. Texts
Some selected texts from the writers above are in the Sources Book
VI. Essential Reading
Clement, Chapter 4
The Students’ own research paper
ONE of the following texts:
Pope John Paul II, Redemptor Hominis, nn. 7-17
K. Rahner ‘Concerning the “The Theological Dimension of the Question about Man” in Theological Investigations 17 OR “Concerning the Relationship between Nature and Grace” in Theological Investigation 1
Hans Urs von Balthasar, Theodrama II/II, pp. 394-439 OR The Christian State of Life, Chapter 2
Session Nine: Implications/ applications in Ministry (Part One)
Sessions Nine and Ten will aim to bring together much of the material explored during the course and to integrate it, in a systematic way, with our Christian ministry and our pastoral concerns. In Session Nine, the theology of gender (for example: the meaning and implications of gender, theological methods/approaches or the issue of complimentarity) and the theology of the body will be explored through the examination of some key articles/writers and through class discussion.
I. Summary
Common views and elements: ‘human nature’
Key elements: whole greater than the sum of the parts
Conflicts and tensions
Human person as agent and in relation
II. Gender
The context and situation
Some key writers (Daly, Reuthe, Cross, Fiorenza)
Methodology
Views and insights
Critique and analysis
Some key issues…
Androgyny
Complimentarity
Accidental and essential
Diversity and difference
Implications for ministry: some examples
Implications for spirituality: male and female spiritualities
III. The Body and the Material
Centrality of the issue and the legacy of dualism
Alternative approaches to the body
Christian view of the body
Implications in ministry: the liturgical assembly
Implication for spirituality: prayer and the body, prayer with the senses
III. Evolution
Contextual questions: How we read Scripture
Science and religion
God’s action: deism, pantheism etc. (and miracles…?)
Human origins…and destiny?
Ordering principle(s)
Post Modernity critique
Issues raised in genesis
Various responses
IV. Texts: see Sources Book or material supplied before the class as handouts…
Extracts from various feminist writers (Mary Daly, Rosemary Radcliffe Reuthe and Anne Carr).
Extracts from various writers and articles on the body (Patristic texts, Pope John Paul II, Ashley, pp. 585-605 extract, liturgical documents on the assembly)
V. Essential Reading
A. Carr, Chapters 3, 4 and 10
Sachs, Chapter 4
Article by J. Little (see Sources Book)
Session Ten: Implications/ Applications in Ministry (Part Two)
Building on the work in Session Nine, two further and key implications of our vision of the human person for ministry will be explored. First, the way we approach health care ministry will be analyzed through a discussion paper: “Person or illness: a restoration of personhood in ministry”. Secondly, the way we can approach spirituality, prayer and spiritual direction through a rich theology and vision of the human person will be examined. There will also be a brief meeting with each student to discuss and to assess their process of journaling during the course.
I. Health Care Ministry
A key issue of personhood: person becomes illness
Class based upon the Discussion Paper
A theology of sickness and healing
The role of Christian ministry in healthcare
Some guidelines/ideas for effective ministry
A spirituality of sickness and healing
II. Christian Anthropology and Authentic Spirituality
Anthropological basis: Vocation and discipleship
Know thyself
Relational
Context and situation
Types of person/ types of spirituality
One size does not fit all
Implications for spiritual direction
III. Back to Psalm 8 and our reflections
Integrity and Integration
Touchstone for theology, spirituality and ministry
IV. Individual discussion and Assessment of Journals kept during the course
V. Texts
Healthcare Discussion Paper (see Sources Book)
Extracts from Pastoral Care of the Sick
VI. Essential Reading
Carr, Chapter 10
Clement, Chapter 7
Louw, Chapter 3, pp. 236-299
Healthcare Discussion Paper