Created in God's Image? Human Nature in Dispute
Within the Catholic tradition use is made of thinking in terms of ‘natural law’: through God’s creation, all people share the same human nature, which is unchanging and provides insight for human reason. In modern science and philosophy, however, this long-held view of the essence of being human is being systematically dismantled. In Modern theology the personalist model has been promoted to enter into dialogue with the contemporary context. However, postmodern philosophy seems to undermine its underlying presuppositions.
Natural Law as the Basis for a Universal Anthropology?
The challenge with which believers are confronted with in the (post)modern world – for example through Darwin – is not so much whether evolution and creation are mutually exclusive but rather that humanity, just as every other species, is radically characterized by evolution and interaction with constantly varying environments. The neo-scholastic reaction was to retain a traditional view of humanity through 'natural law' and explaining it as a metaphysical principle. ‘Natural law,’ however, risks degenerating into a particular normative conception of human nature, which increasingly loses touch with the current state of (natural) science and philosophy. Classical natural law thinking clashes with the contemporary experience of ideological and cultural diversity in addition to recent insights in gender studies. However, the basic assumption of natural law thinking, once one of the foundations for human rights, still remains useful: it challenges theologians to search for what a shared humanity could be in dialogue with the sciences.
The Personalist Model: a Way Out or a Dead End Road?
In the wake of M. Scheler, E. Mounier, J. Maritain and others, modern theology developed a personalist anthropology in order to enable dialogue between the Church and the world concerning the question 'what is humanity?'. As such, personalism arrived at the notion that human person is created as a dynamic, historical, relational being. The Vatican II council document Gaudium et Spes subscribes to such a modern theological anthropology. However, our current context has changed dramatically. On the one hand, ecclesiastical discourse today, particularly in regard to sexual and bio-medical ethics, often returns to the metaphysics of natural law – with a resulting loss of ability to dialogue. On the other hand, it appears that personalism itself is indebted to a modern view of the subject which in the past few decades has come under heavy philosophical and theological fire (e.g. the reproach of anthropocentrism). Theologians are challenged to enrich personalism through integrating current philosophical insights, as they are fiercely discussed for in stance in Germany (cf. thinkers such as Jürgen Habermas and Peter Sloterdijk) and France (with for example the legacy of Emmanuel Levinas).
