Christian Philosophy

1. Human Nature and
Human Condition in
Christian Philosophy

2. Human Nature and Human Condition in
Christian Philosophy
•It tells the meaning and
importance of human nature and
human condition presented from
the viewpoint of Christian
philosophy.

3. GOD AND CREATION
•Creation and myth
•The meaning of creation
• The kinds of creation
•Adam and Eve in creation
•Concept of original sin

4. Myth
• Myth...(is) not a false explanation (of reality) by means of
images and fables (folktale,legend) , but a traditional
narration which relates to events that happened at the
beginning of time which has the purpose of providing
grounds for the ritual actions of men of today and, in
general manner, establishing all the forms of action and
thought by which man understands himself in the world.
• The term "myth," however, is derived from the Greek
verb mutheo which means "I invent a story." A myth,
therefore, is a narrative.

5. Creation
• Making of something out of nothing. This is the essence of creation.
And this essence can never be realized as true in the absence of
God.
• “absolute nothing”
• Creation is God's making of something out of nothing.
• Christians (Christian Philosophy) believes the Genesis story of
creation while Darwin and the rest of the atheistic evolutionists
believes the evolutionary theory.
• Creation is the work of God; it is valid and true only before the eyes
of a believer.

6. “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.
Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was
over the
surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering
over the waters.
And God said, 'Let there be light' and there was light. “
Genesis 1:1-
3

7. GENESIS 1
This account goes on to describe the seven days of creation:
• in the beginning - God started creation
• the first day - light was created
• the second day - the sky was created
• the third day - dry land, seas, plants and trees were created
• the fourth day - the Sun, Moon and stars were created
• the fifth day - creatures that live in the sea and creatures that fly were
created
• the sixth day - animals that live on the land and finally humans, made in
the image of God were created
• by day seven - God finished his work of creation and rested, making the
seventh day a special holy day.

8. 3 Perspectives of Nothing
• Absolute, mere absence, and privation.
• Absolute nothing does not apply in creation, for it is the total
absence of any form, kind, or degree of being.
• Nothing as mere absence, however, means a negation or
absence of some kind of being. Let us consider an example. We
say "we have no money." Having no money does not mean
money is not real, objectively speaking. The only thing is that it
is "absent" in us.
• Nothing as privation means some kind of being is absent in a
subject that is supposed to possess it. Deafness, blindness, and
the like are examples of nothing as privation.

9. Kinds of Creation
• Accordingly, creation is of two kinds. They are (1) mediate and
(2) direct or immediate
• Mediate creation means God's act of creating life by way of
preexisting material. So, a medium is a prerequisite in the
formation of life. Direct creation, on the other hand, means that
God created life without a medium. So, God created life
directly.
• The creation of man is not direct but mediate; in man's curious
quest of his origin, he arrives at diverse stuffs that explain the
medium which God utilizes in creating man. Some call it matter,
water, or fire, while others call it DNA, and some others still,
rationes seminales.

10. Adam and Eve in Creation and the Concept of
Original Sin
• Adam and Eve, who are traditionally considered as our first parents, are
treated as real individual persons. Once this is established, the
acceptance of the concept of the original sin shall necessarily be
considered as the ever first sin committed by man against God through
the first couple.
• Adam is derived from the Hebrew word Adama which means "soil,"
"clay," or "dust" while Eve from the Hebrew word Hawwa which means
"the Living One." This is why sometimes Eve is referred to as "the mother
of all the living."
• Adam and Eve are the representatives of mankind, the primordial
disobedience and the primary lying which they have done to God must be
taken as the proto- example, or proto-model, and the fundamental basis
of the human wreckage.

11. Adam and Eve in Creation and the Concept of
Original Sin
• Their story must be taken as a paradigm that provides the
explanation of the fact that man has turn away, revolted,
and gone astray from his Creator-which eventually led him
to eternal punishment.
• But despite his fall, the Christian believer continues to
embrace the idea that human nature is good. However,
because of man's sinfulness, his goodness gets
contaminated. It is this human sinfulness that bears the
indelible mark of the human wreckage. Because man
revolted against God, man is broken.

12. GOD CREATED MAN BODY
AND SOUL

13. GOD CREATED MAN BODY AND SOUL
• God is the Creator of man. Man is body and soul.
• Christian philosophy admits that the human body is material
(physical), while the soul is immaterial (spirit).
• Christian philosophy, as propounded by St. Thomas Aquinas, treats
of man holistically as a divided of body and soul so that the body
and soul of man have to be understood as the substantial unity of
man.
• Christian philosophy maintains that man is a unity of body and soul.
Thus, "to speak of the body is to speak also of the soul that informs
it (body), gives it being, and builds it up.

14. GOD CREATED MAN BODY AND SOUL
• The human soul is directly created by God, while the body is
indirectly or mediately created by God.
• Christian philosophy teaches that the human body is
material. Thus, this philosophy takes the spiritual dimension
of man in the sphere of the human soul since man is not all
spirit but both matter and spirit.
• Therefore, in Christian philosophy, to treat of man as a
body is, at the same time, to treat of man as a soul since
the body and soul of man are inseparable (unable to be
separated).

15. GOD AND HUMAN
FREEDOM

16. Human Condition and Freedom
• We are free not because we are, but because god gives as freedom.
Freedom is always a freedom from something or someone.
• Man is free because god gives him freedom.
• Freedom has its basis on its divine origin. Since it comes from god,
then, freedom is founded on the "good." Freedom as such is good,
but sometimes it becomes bad.
• St. Augustine made it clear that freedom itself makes man blind to
its original essence which is goodness.
• There is no freedom apart from the law; laws are meant to regulate,
guide, and control man's exercise of freedom.

17. Kinds of Freedom
1. Freedom from physical constraints or force.
But this kind of freedom is exercised only by
brutes, ordinary forms of animals, and by
imbeciles and infants since this freedom does
not demand from its beholder some form of
associated responsibilities. Birds are free to fly,
fishes are free to swim, infants and imbeciles, all
of them alike, are not responsible for their
exercise of freedom.

18. Kinds of Freedom
2. "Freedom as one pleases." But this kind of
freedom is practiced only by ruffians,
anarchists, and immature individuals. These
people assert that freedom should be absolute.
Obviously, this demand is impossible. This is the
reason why christian philosophers claim that
only immature individuals would think that
there is absolute freedom.

19. Kinds of Freedom
3. "Freedom as one pleases" but the freedom which is
founded on what one is required to do or authentic
freedom." An authentic freedom is attuned with what
is divinely required. Thus, the exercise of freedom is
also the exercise of responsibilities since freedom
cannot be dissociated from responsibility.
The third is exercised by a person who believes that it
is god who gives him freedom.

20. GOD AND THE FALL OF
MAN

21. GOD AND THE FALL OF MAN
• The Adamic fall symbolizes the fall of every man.
• Because man misuses his God-given freedom, he falls.
• As man falls, man starts to crumble, destroy, deteriorate,
and lacerate himself; he is to blame for all these.
• The advent of evil in the world is the consequence of
man's misuse of freedom or man's fall.

22. GOD AND THE FALL OF MAN
• The significance of the fall of man manifests the fact that God had
elevated man. God gave man freedom, intellect, and will. Besides
God created man as His best, greatest, and wonderful creature; the
body of man is so beautifully fashioned so that it can be considered
as the most intricate fabric in the universe. Moreover, God created
man little less than Himself and crowned him with glory and honor
as God gave man the dominion to rule over His Creation, as the
book of Psalms narrates. But the "elevated" man opted to deviate
from God. Thus, he becomes a weakness instead of becoming a
force.

23. GOD AND THE FALL OF MAN
• Man's fall symbolizes man's sin and rebellion against
God. Christian philosophy identifies sin as the
ultimate source of evil. The most devastating evil
which the contemporary man suffers is loneliness
and rejection. This occurs because the contemporary
man lives in a perfectionist society which is ravaged
by hatred, insecurity, jealousy, selfishness, and pride.

24. GOD AND HUMAN
REDEMPTION

25. GOD AND HUMAN REDEMPTION
• The fallen man, the broken man, the sinner, the lacerated, the crumbled,
the lonely, and the rejected need God his Redeemer; and God positively
replied, although man did not ask for His divine mercy. The human
wreckage attracted God so much because of his love for man.
• Through His own initiative, God expressed His love for man by becoming
man Himself.
• In His Love, God averted sin and evil in the world. Through His
incarnation, death, and resurrection, God conquered death, anxiety,
loneliness, hatred, and pride which contaminated man as he fell.
• God gave Himself to man so that man will be redeemed and will be
elevated again.

26. GOD AND HUMAN REDEMPTION
• God offers salvation to all humans, since man is his most beloved
creature.
• Through His incarnation, death, and resurrection. The Father, through
Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit, healed the broken man.
• The redeemed man is a new man, a newly born man from the bosom of
God's grace and mercy.
• Therefore, the redeemed man is no longer lonely and rejected, because
God is always at his side. He is reborn as a member of a new society called
the People of God. The redeemed man believes that his Father is waiting
for him in Heaven, that Jesus Christ assured him of the way to the Father,
and that the Holy Spirit always awakens and illumines his soul so that it
will not be lost in its journey back to the Father.

27. GOD AS THE ULTIMATE
TERMINAL

28. POINT OF CREATION
• God is the beginning and the end or the alpha and the
omega of creation. Thus, since everything comes from God,
everything ends in God.
• The end of everything happens in the Last Day when God
will come to judge the whole of His creation.
• However, because man is God's special and loved Creation,
God calls man to be the leader of creation's "going back" or
return or surrender to God since God gave man dominion
over all His creation.

29. POINT OF CREATION
• Since man has an intellect, which has a speck of the
divine since it aims towards truth, and since God is
the Absolute Truth, man, then, may succeed in
leading God's creation back to Him.
• If man is the shepherd of being and the gardener of
the world, then, man, in the Last Day, will "hand or
turn over" the world to God. And God will judge man
accordingly.