Comprehensive Study Guide to Christian Anthropology

Anthropology Defined: The formal study of human societies and cultures and their development.
Christian Anthropology Defined: The study and belief of what it means to be human in light of Jesus Christ and the revelation He offers.
The Role of Christ in Human Understanding: As stated in Gaudium et Spes $22$ , "Christ, the final Adam, by the revelation of the mystery of the Father and His love, fully reveals man to man himself and makes his supreme calling clear."

The following questions serve as the framework for understanding human identity from a Christian perspective:

Where do we come from? * Humans are created beings brought into existence by God. * God is defined as "being itself" ( $I\,AM$ ). * Biblical Foundation: "Let us make man in our image after our likeness" (Genesis $1:26$ ).
What are we made for? * Humans are created for relationship and for love (love for God and for others). * According to CCC $356$ : "Of all visible creatures only man is 'able to know and love his creator'. He is 'the only creature on earth that God has willed for its own sake', and he alone is called to share, by knowledge and love, in God's own life. It was for this end that he was created."

What are we made of? * Humans are composed of both body and soul. While the body is subject to death, the soul is immortal. * CCC $362$ : The human person is a being at once corporeal and spiritual. This is expressed symbolically in Scripture: "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." * CCC $365$ : Spirit and matter in man are not two natures united, but rather their union forms a single nature. Man, whole and entire, is willed by God. * CCC $366$ : Every spiritual soul is created immediately by God and is immortal.
What gives us our dignity? * Dignity is derived from being made in the image and likeness of God. * CCC $357$ : Being in the image of God, the human individual possesses the dignity of a person, who is not just something, but someone.
What gives us our greatest identity? * Identity is found in being a son or daughter of God and being a temple of the Holy Spirit. * CCC $782$ : "The status of this people is that of the dignity and freedom of the sons of God, in whose hearts the Holy Spirit dwells as in a temple."

How are we made? * Humanity is created "male and female." * Biblical Foundation: "Male and female He created them" (Genesis $1:27$ ). * CCC $369$ : Man and woman are willed by God in perfect equality as human persons, yet in their respective beings as man and woman. Bodily sex is a "given" by God and is unchangeable.
How are we made to live together? * Humans are made for love in relationship and to be a "self-gift." * CCC $372$ : Man and woman were made "for each other." This does not mean they were "half-made," but that they were created for a communion of persons. They are equal as persons ("bone of my bones…") and complementary as masculine and feminine. * Gaudium et Spes $24$ : "Man, who is the only creature on earth which God willed for itself, cannot fully find himself except through a sincere gift of himself."

What is sex made for? * Sex is designed for love and self-gift, which is imaged in the body and inherently linked to new life. * CCC $2332$ : "Sexuality… concerns affectivity, the capacity to love and to procreate…"
What is marriage made for? * Marriage is a covenant between a man and a woman geared toward a lifelong, exclusive union that is open to new life. * CCC $1601$ : The matrimonial covenant is a partnership of the whole of life, by nature ordered toward the good of the spouses and the procreation and education of offspring.
What is a family? * A family consists of a man and a woman united in marriage along with their children. * According to CCC $2202$ , the family is meant to be permanent.

Comparative Analysis: Students are encouraged to consider the answers to the ten foundational questions (Origin, Purpose, Composition, Dignity, Identity, Design, Social Living, Sex, Marriage, and Family) according to the beliefs of current secular culture to contrast them with the Christian anthropological perspective.