Module 1: What does it mean to be human?

Video Clip Introduction (Download RealPlayer)

• To be created “in the image of God” (imago Dei) implies that humans are intended to be  “image bearers” of God. This means that humans are designed to reflect, in small measure, aspects of what God is like. (Genesis 1:26, 27)
  
  
• Humans are therefore multifaceted and complex. At risk of oversimplification, the following aspects describe such human characteristics:
  • communicative, power to think  (Isa 1:18), emotional, creative,  (Genesis 1:1-31)
  • free to choose and act, (John 15:16; Deut 30:19; Isa 7:15), relational-sociable, relational-environmental, responsible and accountable, personal-individual (Ps 139:13-16).
    
    
• Essentially, humans are dependent on Creator-God for life, meaning, understanding and purpose.
  
  
• Humanity is finite – while we, by nature, have the capacity to discover, interpret, and communicate our understandings, the results will always be finite, incomplete, sometimes inaccurate, ever-growing. "
  
  
• Humans are religious beings -  “Humans are religious beings who aspire to understand their existence to know that which is true, good and beautiful.” Heie & Wolfe: 66
  
  
• Humans are cultural  beings -  they seek meaning, understanding, appreciate and create beauty, and communicate our shared meanings through language, symbolism, ritual and negotiated agreements.

  What is our problem and our need?  Rom 3:23; Rom 5:17

• Humanity’s fundamental need is for restoration, wholeness, integrity, and a sense of meaning in response to DIS-integration, alienation, and “homelessness”.
  
  
• Symptoms of dis-integration, dislocation, alienation, and ‘homelessness’ can be readily identifiable in all aspects of society and the environment. (See Brian Walsh, Peter Berger.)
  
  
• The human all share a common predicament – the loss of face-to-face communication and relationship with the creator. – spiritually, mentally, socially, physically, and environmentally – and the consequences of that falling out of relationship. Consequently, humans have no hope of restoration except for the initiative and intervention of Creator-God.

(John 3:16; 1 John 4:19; Col 2:10; 2 Cor 6:16; 1 John 3:1-3)

Discussion Questions:

1.    Describe symptoms of dis-integration, dislocation, alienation and “homelessness”.

2.    What evidence do we see of “the image of God” in humans today?

3.    How do we know what the image of God is like?

4.    How are we dependent on God for life, meaning, understanding and purpose?

5.    What have we lost that keeps us from being whole? How do these problems become opportunities?

References:

Paulien, Jon.  (2001)  ‘Adam, Christ, and God’. Paper tabled at the Philosophy Conference at Andrews University, Berrien Springs, MI, April.

Olsen, V Norskov. (1988)  Man the Image of God: The Divine Design – The Human Distortion, Review and Herald, Washington DC.

Sire, James W. (1990)  The Discipleship of the Mind, Chapter 4, IVP, Downers Grove, Illinois.

Walsh, Brian J.  (1997)  ‘Education in Precarious Times: Postmodernity and a Christian World View’, in Ian Lambert & Suzanne Mitchel (eds) The Crumbling Walls of Certainty: Towards a Christian Critique of Postmodernity and Education, Macquarie Centre, Australia: Centre for the Study of Australian Christianity.

Walsh, Brian J.  (1998) ‘Homemaking in Exile: Homelessness, Postmodernity and Theological Reflection’, in Reminding: Renewing the Mind in Learning, Doug Blomberg & Ian Lambert (eds) Macquarie Centre, Australia: Centre for the Study of Australian Christianity.

White, Ellen. (1903)  Education, Pacific Press.

White, James. (1987) The Shattered Mirror: Reflections on Being Human, Inter-Varsity Press, Leicester, England.

Willard, Dallas. (1998) ‘Spiritual Disciplines, Spiritual Formation and the Restoration of the Soul’, The Journal of Psychology and Theology, (Spring)