Man: As some Western

Philosophers see him

 Socrates: 470-399 BC
 Strategy: Dialogue (asking & questioning
the people)

 Agora: a market place, where he asked

questions to the people

 Philosophical contribution: He sought to

discover the truth because he saw the
importance of knowledge and of wisdom.
 For him: wise man is he who knows
what is right, and if he knows what is
right he does what is right.

 His task/purpose: to help people give

birth to the correct insight.
“Correct insight will lead to correct
doing”
Plato: 428-348 BC
 He is a student of Socrates
 Man: is a knower and possessor of
immortal soul.

Soul – is independent to the body but

it is temporarily imprisoned in the
body because of some reasons
Aristotle: 382-322 BC
 He is the Father of Logic
 He is a student of Plato
 He is the teacher of Alexander the Great

 Man: is a rational animal.

 is not the center of the universe, only
a part of it
St. Augustine: 354-430
AD
 Father: a government official
 Mother: St. Monica

 Man: as the great mystery

 Mystery is not something we cannot
know nor understand but it is something
we cannot fully grasped because there
is more to learn
Rene Descartes: A
rationalist
 He is a technician of doubt
 He is a father of modern philosophy

 “Cogito, Ergo Sum” – “I think, therefore I am”

-man is certain that he is existing since he cannot
doubt if he is not existing.
Therefore, since he is thinking, he is doubting
Man – is doubting everything unless he arrives to
the “incontrovertible & absolute proof”
Friedrich Wilhelm
Nietzsche
 He is an atheist.

 Man: is a rare phenomenon in the vast cosmos

which has no known limits and no
recognizable order.

 For him: without God man can absolutely free

 His notion of God: is dead philosophy
- We cannot prove the existence of God
Man: As some Eastern
Philosophers see him
Confucius

4 Virtues of man
1. Wisdom (Chi)
○ It is combination of the three virtues

2. Ritual/propriety (Li)
○ It is humbling oneself to pay respect to
others
○ It is putting others first and the oneself is
second
Confucius

3. Righteousness (Yi)
○ It is doing what we ought to do.

4. Human heartedness (Jen)

○ It is consideration to others, loving
and doing to others what you wish
others to do to you.
 Mencius (student of Confucius)

 4 beginning of man’s original

nature
 1. Jen – it is feeling of commiseration
○ (to suffer/ to symphatize)

 2. Yi – it is feeling of shame & dislike

 3. Li – it is feeling of modesty & yielding

towards the good

 4. Chin –it is a sense of right and wrong
Lesson 2.2 Christian Concepts of Man

I. LEARNING OUTCOMES:
* Explain the Christian concepts of man. (U)
* Explain each of the four aspects of man.
(U)
* Rate one’s relationship with his personal
God. (EV)
* Devise a way for man to improve his
relationship with God. (C)
* Examine man’s activities in his relation
with the mother Earth. (EV)
 Man in God's Image (CCC)

The Four Aspects of Man (355)

"God created man in his own image, in the image of God
he created him, male and female he created them" (Gen
1:27). The following will examine these four aspects of man:

1. He is in the image of God

2. He unites in his nature both the spiritual and material
worlds
3. He is male and female
4. He enjoys a friendship with God
 1. The Dignity of God's Image - The Human Person
(356-357)

In material creation only man can know and love

God. He was willed by God for his own sake and he is
called to share in God's own life. "What made you
establish man in so great a dignity? You are taken with
love for him" (St. Catherine of Siena).

Being in God's image makes the individual a

person a "someone" and not a "something." He is
capable of self-knowledge and of having friendships with
other persons. He is called into a Covenant with God
and can make a response of love not known by any
other creature.
All for Man (358)
God created everything for man. "For
man is more precious in God's eyes than all
other creatures. For him the heavens and the
earth exist. God did not spare his own Son for
the sake of man. Nor does he ever cease to
work until he has made him sit at his right
hand" (St. John Chrysostom).
2. Body and Soul - Truly One

Man - Body and Soul (362-363)

Using symbolic language, the Bible says that

God willed man to be both corporeal and spiritual.
"Then the Lord God formed man of dust from the
ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of
life and man became a living being" (Gen 2:7).

In Scripture "soul" can mean human life or the

entire human person. "Soul" especially means man's
spiritual principle.
In God's Image (364)

Animated by a spiritual soul, the human body

shares in the dignity of "God's image." The human
person, body and soul, is meant to become a temple of
the Spirit. In man, the material world can freely raise its
voice in praise of the Creator (Second Vatican Council).
Only One Nature (365-368)

The spiritual soul is the "form" of the body. Man is

not the union of two natures. In man, spirit and matter
form one nature. God creates every spiritual soul
immediately. It is not "produced" by the parents and
does not perish at death. It is reunited with the body at
the final resurrection.
 When Paul writes about "spirit, soul,
and body" (1Thess 5:23) he used the
word "spirit" to mean that the soul has a
supernatural goal of union with God. The
biblical word "heart" also means the
place where the person decides for or
against God.
3. Male and Female

Equality of Man and Woman (369-370)

God willed that man and woman would

have perfect equality as human persons. "Being
man" or "being woman" is a good reality and
each possesses an inalienable dignity.
God is neither man nor woman. He is pure
spirit. The different perfections of man and
woman (as mother, father, husband, wife) reflect
God's infinite perfections.
Made for Each Other (371-373)

Man and woman were created for each

other. Because man was alone, God created
a "helper fit for him" (Gen 2:19-20). When
God fashioned the woman, the man cried out
in wonder, "This at last is bone of my bones
and flesh of my flesh" (Gen 2:23)
acknowledging that woman shares his
humanity.
 God did not make man and woman
incomplete, but he created them as a
"helpmate" for each other. In marriage, by
becoming "one flesh," they can transmit
human life and cooperate with God in
creating.

Although called to "subdue the earth"

(Gen 1:28), man and woman must not destroy
creation.
4. Created in Original Harmony (374-376)

Man was created in friendship with his Creator,

in harmony with himself and with all creation, and in
a state surpassed only by the new creation in Christ.

Our first parents, Adam and Eve, enjoyed an

original "state of holiness and justice" by which they
shared in divine life. While remaining in this divine
intimacy, they would not suffer or die. They also
possessed a personal inner harmony and a
harmony with each other, and with creation. This
was called "original justice."
 44 Man is by nature and vocation a
religious being. Coming from God, going
toward God, man lives a fully human life only
if he freely lives by his bond with God.

45 Man is made to live in communion

with God in whom he finds happiness: When I
am completely united to you, there will be no
more sorrow or trials; entirely full of you, my life
will be complete (St. Augustine, Conf. 10, 28, 39:
PL 32, 795}.
 46 When he listens to the message of
creation and to the voice of conscience, man
can arrive at certainty about the existence of
God, the cause and the end of everything.

47 The Church teaches that the one true

God, our Creator and Lord, can be known with
certainty from his works, by the natural light of
human reason (cf. Vatican Council I, can. 2 § 1:
DS 3026),
 48 We really can name God, starting from
the manifold perfections of his creatures, which
are likenesses of the infinitely perfect God, even
if our limited language cannot exhaust the
mystery.

49 Without the Creator, the creature

vanishes (GS 36). This is the reason why
believers know that the love of Christ urges them
to bring the light of the living God to those who
do not know him or who reject him.
Christianity: God’s
salvation
I. Theory of the Universe
God created the world
God exists

II. Theory of Man

Man is in relationship with God
Man is unique because he has the ability to love
freely like God
Man is created in the image and likeness of God
III. Diagnosis of Man
- limited
- fall to sin
- misused of freedom
- disrupted his relationship with God

IV. Prescription: God’s salvation

Old Testament – it is manifested through
redeeming the people from the
bondage of slavery in Egypt.
New Testament – God sent his son (Jesus)
1/4
1-3 St. Augustine’s life before his conversion.
4-6 Virtues of Man (Confucius)
7-8 Descriptions of Western Philosophers
9-10 Descriptions of Eastern Philosophers
11 Teacher of Alexander the Great
12 Nietzsche’s notion of God
13 He is a student of Socrates
14 It is feeling of shame & dislike
15 It is a sense of right and wrong
16 He is a technician of doubt
17 Mother of St. Augustine
18 Student of Confucius
19-20 Composition of man
1-3 womanizer, gambler, drunkard
4-6 Wisdom (Chi), Ritual/propriety (Li), Righteousness (Yi),
Human heartedness (Jen)
7-8 Occidental people, more on the head & less on the heart
9-10 Oriental people, more on the heart & less on the head
11. Aristotle
12. Dead philosophy
13. Plato
14. Yi
15. Chin
16. Rene Descartes
17. St. Monica
18. Mencius
19-20 Body & soul
 TEST III. Choose the options carefully. Write
the letter of your answer on the space before
each number.
 (51-70 items)
 Write:
 A = if X and Y are both TRUE
 B = if X is TRUE and Y is FALSE
 C = if X is FALSE and Y is TRUE
 D = if both X and Y are FALSE