Contemplating Humanity

What does it mean to be human? And what makes us more (or less) human? You might think that on a purely biological level, that is relatively easy to answer (or is it?). Or you might be thinking that these are questions only for philosophers and theologians, that our answers to these questions don’t really matter in our day-to-day lives. However, I would argue that the day-to-day implications are enormous, and considering the questions, even if we don’t have all the answers, is more critical now than ever. Not only is it important for the way we live, but the fact that many people don’t answer that question (or even the way they do) has much to do with why there is so much angry, mean-spirited, objectifying, violent divisiveness all around us, not to mention isolation, depression, and the continual desperate search for purpose and meaning.

For the past few years, I have been wrestling with the implications of Imago Dei in us – with what it means for us to be created in God’s image. I can’t help but believe that if we truly understood this at more than a superficial level and embraced not only our own identity as image-bearers of God but also embraced others as image-bearers as well, it would radically change the way we live and the way we act toward each other. We would fundamentally see ourselves and others differently, which would lead to actions more filled with grace, love, mercy, compassion, and peace. For Christians, Imago Dei is at the center of what it means to be human, and a failure to recognize Imago Dei in each other has led us to all sorts of behaviors that are contrary to what God desires.

As I have been reflecting on my books of 2023, I noticed that the books that resonated most with me were books that, in one way or another, addressed this theme. It started with a book for my January Term class at Whitworth, Theology in the Public Square. The book, Dementia: Living in the Memories of God, by John Swinton, caught me off guard. It is not a book I expected to like, in fact, the thought of reading it made me rather uncomfortable. It was not a book that I would have ever picked up on my own, but it turned out to be one of my favorite books of the year. What it means to be human is at the heart of the book, and it is central to how we view and respond to people who have dementia. For the Christian, our humanity is intricately connected to being image-bearers of God. So, when someone has dementia, we must ask if their condition makes them any less human. Does dementia diminish their humanity? Does it make them less of God’s image-bearer? If we answer “yes,” the consequences can quickly turn dark and frightening. But if we answer “no,” it necessitates that we still treat a person with dementia as fully human, fully created in the image of God, and fully deserving of dignity. I have only had limited interactions with friends and family with dementia, but if dementia has ever impacted those you love, or if it is currently, this book is a must-read. Swinton deals with all of this in a masterful way and changes even the language of how we talk about dementia. But the applications go far beyond just dementia, and they are echoed in other books I read this year.

In the same class, we read Becoming Human: The Holy Spirit and the Rhetoric of Race, by Luke A. Powery, which addresses the issue of our humanity from the perspective of race. Powery makes the point that dehumanization is inherent in racial categorizations. It separates those who are worth more from those who are worth less and allows us to treat the lesser as objects rather than humans: “Racism then and now was and is not only about genetics, but about power and control, the power to name what is object and what is subject, what is in and what is out, what counts and what should be discounted, what is human and what is not human.”[1] But the Holy Spirit pierces racial rhetoric and brings a healing power that rehumanizes both the oppressed and the oppressor. After establishing the faults of racial rhetoric, it is this healing power of the Holy Spirit, which is the major theme of Becoming Human, which reorients how we think about what it means to be human.

Throughout his book, Powery often quotes Howard Thurman to make his point about our nation’s history of dehumanizing blacks and how we can move to become more human than we are. So, when my Whitworth classes finished, I picked up Thurman’s book, Jesus and the Disinherited. As an integral part of the Civil Rights Movement in the 60’s, Thurman has a unique voice on matters of race and faith. He knows first-hand what it means to be oppressed and discounted as less than fully human, and he offers great insight into the minds and hearts of those who have been systematically and historically victims of oppression. But he also knows the power and freedom that comes from being made in God’s image, not just for the oppressed but also for the oppressor. He illustrates how actions that fail to recognize the Imago Dei in another not only dehumanize the one who is the victim but dehumanize the perpetrator as well. The solution is not the escalation of retaliatory acts but exercises of nonviolent love, compassion, and mercy of the same kind that Jesus modeled for us. It is only through such behavior that we show our embrace of humanness in ourselves and others. While Thurman calls out the church (especially the white church) for its complicity in using power to dehumanize others, he also points to the church as a point of contact for healing. Interwoven through it all, however, is the importance of our ability to see the image of God in each other.

It is this same idea that has led me to embrace more fully the position of nonviolence and rethink my conservative Christian upbringing that has traditionally championed the right to own and use guns, rationalized “just war”, and advocated for capital punishment as a form of justice. I find it difficult to accept that we, under any circumstances, have the right to determine when a life is irredeemable and when it is appropriate to extinguish another image-bearer of God. I’m sure there are many books on pacificism and nonviolence, but this summer was my first endeavor to read specifically on the topic. I have been looking at Fight, by Preston Sprinkle, sitting on my bookshelf for several years, but in 2023 I finally decided to dive in. I’m glad I did. Sprinkle readily admits that he does not have all the answers, but he lays out a compelling case for nonviolence based on scripture. In doing so, I heard echoes of my own heart, my own sense of how scripture compels us to act in the midst of a world obsessed with using violence to solve problems, administer justice, wield power, and end disputes. Many will disagree with aspects of Sprinkle’s argument and make a case for things such as “just war theory,” but when I lean back into the idea of humans – all humans – being created in God’s image, it seems almost impossible for me to justify taking the life of another regardless of the circumstance. There is much packed into this, but certainly, a Christian case for non-violence is worthy of informed consideration, and Sprinkle’s book is a great place to start. Better yet, the New Testament church is a good place to start. As Sprinkle points out, “When people around the globe think that American Christians are pro-war, enamored with violence, and fascinated with military might, something is terribly wrong. No one in the first century would have made the same conclusion regarding Jesus and His followers.”[2]

Dehumanization can also show up more subtly when we do not recognize the image of God in others or in ourselves. In our modern technological world, we are discovering the dehumanizing effects of devices and applications that are used without discipline or restraint. Looking at others through the filter of a screen, we fail to recognize faces and names as fellow human beings created in God’s likeness. In the process, we lose our own sense of identity and worth. In his book The Life We’re Looking For, Andy Crouch explores our humanity in relation to our technological world and, from a different approach, deals with the question of what it means to be human. For Crouch, our humanity is intricately connected to the Shema Prayer[3], which proclaims our love for the one true God. He uses the prayer to define what it means to be fully human – “Every human person is a heart-soul-mind-strength complex designed for love.”[4] It is when we lose sight of this, which is so easily done in our modern world, that we fail to acknowledge the full humanity of ourselves, as well as others. With this as a basis, Crouch illustrates how technology is often used to dehumanize, but he also points out that, when used well, it can also magnify our humanness. The principles that Crouch outlines can help us reorient not only how we use technology but also how we view the world around us.

How we view the world around us was also a common theme for C.S. Lewis. For Lewis, it is inseparable from our view of what it means to be human. The ultimate, perfect human is, of course, Jesus, and it is when we are more like him, more filled with the Holy Spirit, more a part of His being, that we are most fully human. For Lewis, not only does this make us more human, but it makes us more “real.” What we often see as surreal and “spiritual,” Lewis sees as a clearer picture of reality. In The Great Divorce, this comes through as being more “solid.” As creation moves closer to Christ, closer to perfection, it becomes more tangible and authentic. As creation pushes away from Christ, it becomes more illusory, as a vapor that, in some cases, completely vanishes. If you are looking for it, the same idea appears in various ways in Mere Christianity, The Chronicles of Narnia, God in the Dock, and the space trilogy of Out of the Silent Planet, Perelandra, and The Hideous Strength. All of these remind us with great imagination, of how things could be, and should be, when we find our identity, our humanity, in Jesus Christ. It also reminds us of the direness of forgetting the source of our own humanity and the humanity of others.

So, what does it mean to be human? Does trying to answer the question really matter? The answer to the first question is complicated but critical because the answer to the second question is a resounding “yes.” For the Christian, regardless of where we land on the details and applications, we must begin our answer with Imago Dei. Trying to understand our humanity apart from the image of God is to deny a basic component of our faith. We must also understand that it is not our Christianity that makes us image-bearers of God, it is our creation as human beings. As much as some might try to convince us otherwise, we have not been given the privilege or the right to decide who is an image-bearer and who is not. Who is, and who isn’t created in the image of God, is the wrong question to ask. The question we must wrestle with is, who will I be, and how will I view others because we are?

My full list of books from 2023: (favorites are listed in gold)

• Being Consumed: Economics and Christian Desire, by William T. Cavanaugh

• A Brief Theology of Sport, by Harvey Lincoln

• Becoming Human: The Holy Spirit and the Rhetoric of Race, by Luke A. Powery

• Dementia: Living in the Memories of God, by John Swinton

• Canon and Creed: Interpretation: Resources for the Use of Scripture in the Church, by Robert W. Jenson

• On the Apostolic Preaching, by Irenaeus of Lyons

• Holy Scripture: A Dogmatic Sketch, by John B. Webster

• On the Catechising of the Uninstructed, by Augustine of Hippo

• On Christian Doctrine, In Four Books, by Augustin of Hippo

• The Bible in a Disenchanted Age: The Enduring Possibility of Christian Faith, by R.W.L. Moberly

• Mere Christianity, by C.S. Lewis

• The Great Divorce, by C.S. Lewis

• The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, by C.S. Lewis

• The Problem of Pain, by C.S. Lewis

• A Grief Observed, by C.S. Lewis

• Perelandra, by C.S. Lewis

• The Screwtape Letters, by C.S. Lewis

• Living the Cross Centered Life: Keeping the Gospel the Main Thing, by C.J. Mahaney

• America for Americans: A History of Xenophobia in the United States, by Erika Lee

• Jesus and the Disinherited, by Howard Thruman

• The Life We’re Looking For: Reclaiming Relationship in a Technological World, by Andy Crouch

• Fight: A Christian Case for Non-Violence, by Preston Sprinkle

• God in the Dock, by C.S. Lewis

• The God Strategy: How Religion Became a Political Weapon in America, by David Domke

• Follow Me to Freedom: Leading and Following As an Ordinary Radical, By Shane Claiborne and John M. Perkins

[1] Becoming Human, P. 17

[2] Fight, P. 149

[3] Crouch uses Jesus’ response in Mark chapter 12 to the question of the greatest commandment. “With all your mind” is not traditionally included in the Shema Prayer.

[4] The Life We’re Looking For, P. 33