Assessment

7000 word essay

Module Aims

Theological Anthropology explores the Christian conviction that we human beings live, move, and have our being in the embrace of God. Theological anthropology is our understanding of ourselves in relation to God. This belief is grounded in Jesus Christ as the meaning of humanity: Christ is the paradigm of the human as intended by the creator.

At the same time, we belong to one another, to our peoples, and to the earth. Thus, anthropology locates our personal selves in wider contexts without which we would not be, or be who we are. It is theological anthropology because we recognise that God (theos) is present and participates in every moment of our experience – as Creator, Redeemer, and eschatological hope of all that we are, of our histories, and of the cosmos. Anthropology also examines the human reality of evil, understood theologically in terms of sin, suffering, and the need for healing and salvation.

Indicative Syllabus:

• An understanding of the imago Dei tradition in theology
• Human beings and the experience of God (grace)
• The Christian understanding of creation and redemption
• Human experience and theological anthropology
• The human person as moral and spiritual subject
• The human capacity for evil and sin
• Suffering, healing and salvation
• Christian selfhood, modernity and postmodernity
• Embodiment, sexuality and theological anthropology
• Christian understandings of human nature and developments in the natural sciences

Bibliography

• — Marc Cortez. Theological Anthropology: A Guide for the Perplexed. London: T& T Clark, 2010.
• — Terence E. Fretheim. God and World in the Old Testament: A Relational Theology of Creation. Nashville TN: Abingdon Press, 2005.
• — Edmund Hill. Being Human: A Biblical Perspective. London: Chapman, 1984.
• — Mary Ann Hinsdale and Stephen Okey, The T&T Clark Handbook of Theological Anthropology. Bloomsbury, 2021.
• — Hans Schwarz. The Human Being: A Theological Anthropology. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2013.
• — John R Sachs. The Christian Vision of Humanity. Basic Christian Anthropology. Collegeville: Liturgical, 1991.
• — Susan, A. Ross. Anthropology: Seeking Light and Beauty. Engaging Theology: Catholic Perspectives. Collegeville: Liturgical, 2012.
• — The Pontifical Biblical Commission. What is Man? A Journey Through Biblical Anthropology. London: Darton, Longman and Todd, 2021.