For a paper I'm writing on theological anthropology, I'm trying to...
Ben Myers@_BenMyers_
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Jun 16, 2024
~4 min read
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For a paper I'm writing on theological anthropology, I'm trying to show how Christian thinking about salvation entails certain commitments about the human person. The question I'm trying to answer is: What conditions does soteriology impose on anthropology?
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I'm struggling with this but here's what I've got so far. I would welcome your ideas and suggestions!
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1. Creation-fall-redemption (or goodness-plight-solution): These three ingredients can be used in lots of different ways, but a Christian theory of the person will need all three
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2. Continuity principle: a Christian theory of the person will need to show that it's the same personal identity at each moment of the creation-fall-redemption schema. It's the same person from past to present and from present to future
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3. Corporate principle: there has to be a link between the personal and the corporate. Different theories of the unity of human nature have been brought in to try to explain this link. Not all theories of the person will explain it, but as a minimum the link has to be posited
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4. Christ principle: there has to be a link between Christ and human nature, both corporate and personal. While point 3 above is often explained using philosophical theories, this principle is usually explained (or at least illustrated) with metaphors (e.g. legal metaphors)
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5. Internalisation principle: Language about sin and salvation has to show that it is human nature itself that is affected. The human plight and its solution cannot be merely externalised (e.g. by making the person totally subject to higher powers). Theories of agency arise here
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6. (These are not necessarily in a coherent order yet...) Creature principle: The limitations of human nature can't be identified with fallenness, even though human fallenness might be explained on the basis of these limitations. Likewise salvation isn't the removal of limits
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7. Cosmic principle: Christian soteriology posits a link (whether ontological or moral or something else) between the human person and the created order as a whole
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8. Church principle: There is a close link between theories of the person and theories of the church. It was only tacit in most ancient theologies but is fully explicit in theology today and is sometimes adopted as THE overriding principle
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I guess the core of what I really want to say lies in points 3-5: the corporate principle, the Christ principle, and the internalisation principle. It seems to me that a lot of the most fruitful thinking about the human person has been located in these three areas
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Augustine & Origen are exemplary for developing these three principles. Irenaeus has a strong account of 3 and 4. Patristics generally think of 4 in the light of 3. Barth reconfigures 3 as a subset of 4 (and less successfully tries to reconfigure 5 as a subset of 4)
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Anselm, Aquinas, and other medieval thinkers took pains to elaborate the implications of 5
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Schleiermacher was the first of many modern thinkers to use ecclesiology (point 8) to attempt a coherent explanation of the Christ principle (point 4)
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In some cases a principle might just have to be posited because no explanation has been figured out yet. But since theological anthropology aims at coherence, not just assertion, I think efforts in this area can be judged by the quality of their explanations of these principles
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For example, Augustine's theory of original sin (used to explain principle 3) and Schleiermacher's theory of community (used to explain 4) and Anselm's theory of free will (used to explain 5) can be evaluated for their coherence and effectiveness
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Since explanations of these principles often import theories from elsewhere, they can be evaluated according to how well they cohere with other doctrinal commitments. E.g. liberation theology uses Marxian theory to explain how corporate liberation leads to personal transformation
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Other examples: ancient Christians used a Platonist theory of privation to explain the internalisation principle (5). Modern theologians have used narrative theories to explain the continuity of the person (principle 2)
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Karl Barth's use of 'actualism' is another example of a theoretical tool that is used to explain some of the fundamental principles of theological anthropology (in this case, especially principles 3 and 4)
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The case of Barth is interesting. You wouldn't quite say that he has imported philosophical tools to solve theological problems. It's more like developing his own huge metaphysics to solve discrete theological problems. Medieval realism belongs to this category too
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Also: Augustine takes a basic privation theory and uses it to develop a far-reaching account of human agency as the mechanism by which good can turn to evil and vice versa. Big metaphysical machines have been erected to solve the small & tricky problems in anthropology
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OK I think that's all I've got for now. I have criticisms of some contemporary trends in theology which seem to rest on assertion rather than explanation. But I don't want the thread to become interminable
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