CHRISTIANITY
Islam
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Judaism
How is the human condition understood in the religion?
by Kendra Hotz
Christians
believe that human beings were created in the image of God. To understand
what it means to be human, then, one needs to understand something
of the divine life. Christians believe that God’s existence
is marked by infinite, loving justice and that God is internally
relational; that is, God is a Trinity of three co-equal persons—Father,
Son, and Holy Spirit—who live in such perfect cooperation
and love that they are one God. Christians also believe that God
is personal, not simply an impersonal force of nature, and rational,
that God acts with intention.
To
say that humanity bears the image of God, then, means that human
beings were created to live in loving, just relationships with one
another. It
also means that our capacity to think and act rationally are crucial
markers of our humanity and that true rationality is inseparable
from love and justice.
To
say that human beings bear the image of God, though, also highlights
the fact that human beings are not God; they are creatures: finite,
embodied, and mortal. Christianity affirms the fundamental goodness
of creation. Because creation flows from the infinite goodness of
God, it exists as the embodiment of God’s goodness. Being
human entails living as an embodied soul, as ensouled flesh, and
this union of body and soul is both essential to our humanity and
good. In other words, Christians celebrate the goodness of embodiment
and reject the notion that the soul is trapped in the body from
which it hopes to escape at death.
Likewise,
Christians do not accept the idea that souls can migrate from one
body to another. To be human is to live an earthly life, body and
soul. Christians extend this affirmation of the goodness of earthly
life, body and soul to their vision of redemption. Christians anticipate
that when God’s reign is fully come to earth, that the earth
will be made new and that human beings will be raised from the dead
to live bodily lives in joyous communion with God and one another.
Although
Christians believe that humanity was created good, they also affirm
that we have fallen from God’s original intention for humanity
so that we no longer live in loving, just relationships with one
another, and our rationality no longer perfectly conforms to the
standards of love and justice. Instead, we use our rational powers
for destructive purposes and live in communities that do not display
the love and justice God intended for humanity. Christian theology
names this fall from God’s intentions sin.
Sin
indicates two things for Christians. First, it names the particular
ways and specific acts through which we violate the will of God.
Second, sin indicates an underlying condition, a brokenness of the
spirit, which expresses itself in particular sins. This underlying
condition is known as Original Sin, a condition of separation from
God shared by all people that prevents humanity from living as God
intends. Sin leads to spiritual and physical death. Because
of Original Sin all persons are in need of God’s redeeming
grace, even children who have not yet committed any actual or particular
sins. Original Sin is also, therefore, the origin
of our particular sinful acts, which emerge from the underlying
brokenness the way that a disease manifests itself in particular
symptoms.
One
theologian, Augustine, described Original Sin as a prideful rejection
of our status as creatures. The first human beings, said Augustine,
wanted to be gods and not creatures; they wanted to live for themselves,
rather than living for the glory of God. When they rejected their
status as creatures, they damaged the image of God in themselves
with the result that they and all of their descendants now suffer
from Original Sin.
The
human condition, then, is one of living as the fallen image of God
so that humanity suffers both spiritual and physical death. Christians
affirm that in Christ, God works to redeem humanity so that we may
live in conformity with God’s will and in joyful communion
with God and one another. Human salvation is achieved through the
Incarnation of Jesus Christ, whom Christians affirm to be perfect
in humanity and perfect in divinity.
Christians
believe that in Jesus Christ God entered human existence in order
to restore humanity to the image of God. Jesus Christ’s
life and death reconcile humanity to God so that we are no longer
alienated, no longer subject to spiritual death. In Christ’s
resurrection from the dead, God overcomes even physical death so
that humanity may live forever in the Kingdom of God in joyful obedience
and delightful communion.
Copyright
©2006 Kendra Hotz
Kendra
G. Hotz serves as Adjunct Professor of Theology at Memphis
Theological Seminary. She formerly taught at Calvin College. Hotz
is an ordained minister in the Presbyterian Church (USA) and coauthor
(with Matthew T. Mathews) of Shaping
the Christian Life: Worship and the Religious Affections
(2006) and coauthor of Transforming
Care: A Christian Vision of Nursing Practice (2005).
Excerpts
from What Do Our Neighbors Believe?: Questions and Answers on
Judaism, Christianity and Islam by Howard Greenstein, Kendra
Hotz, and John Kaltner are used by permission from Westminster John
Knox Press, Louisville, Kentucky. The book will be available for
purchase in December 2006.
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