The Christian Concept of Man

a) Man: An Image of God

Among all the creatures of the visible universe, man is the only being who was created in the
image and likeness of God. His spiritual soul—with its higher faculties: the intellect and the
will—makes him an image of God. Through these faculties, man can govern the rest of visible
creation, and reach the knowledge of and worship his Creator. Sacred Scripture teaches that
man was created “to the image of God,” as able to know and love his creator, and as set by him
over all earthly creatures that he might rule them, and make use of them, while glorifying God.1
By governing the universe through work and the administration of natural resources, man
cooperates and is associated with God’s activity. This shows man’s great natural dignity.
The ultimate goal in the exercise of his natural powers is the knowledge of God and the joy that
ensues from this knowledge:

To contemplate God, and to tend to Him, is the supreme law of the life of man. For we were
created in the divine image and likeness, and are impelled, by our very nature, to the
enjoyment of our Creator. But not by bodily motion or effort do we make advance toward God,
but through acts of the soul, that is, through knowledge and love. For, indeed, God is the first
and supreme truth, and the mind alone feeds on truth. God is perfect holiness and the
sovereign good, to which only the will can desire and attain, when virtue is its guide.2

Man was also endowed, over and above his own nature, with supernatural gifts, which elevated
his natural prerogatives and made him share in the divine life itself. Man lost these gifts as a
consequence of original sin. However, thanks to the merits of Christ and the saving mission that
he entrusted to his Church, man can recover the supernatural gifts. This is done through the
Church’s dispensation of the deposit of truth and the administration of the sacraments. The
ultimate destiny of man—the contemplation of God as he is—will be possible only in eternal
glory. However, even in this life, man can recover the dignity of being a child of God, in the way
instituted by Christ. As he hung upon the Cross, Christ Jesus not only appeased the justice of
the Eternal Father, which had been violated, but he also won for us, his brethren, an ineffable
flow of graces. It was possible for him to impart these graces of himself to mankind directly; but
he willed to do so only through a visible Church.3

b) The Center and Peak of Visible Creation

We cannot measure the greatness of man in purely biological terms, as if he were just the most
evolved of animals. The Book of Genesis attests that Adam, by naming the other creatures,
manifested his God-given dominion over them. At the same time, he acquired knowledge of
himself as a singular being and his differences from the other creatures. It is not possible,
therefore, to describe the singularity of man in terms of some inferior creature. Even less can
we define him through his products. Pope John Paul II asserted that “it is not enough to define
man according to all the bio-physiological criteria, and that it is necessary to believe in man,
from the beginning.”4 bAs we have just seen, it is in his higher powers—the intellect and the
will—that man’s activity resembles God’s. Therefore, these powers establish man as the center
and peak of visible, material creation: Two gifts, which raise him very high between the world
of celestial spirits and the world of bodies, make man great, even since his downfall: the
intellect, whose view surveys the created universe and crosses the skies, yearning to
contemplate God; and will, endowed with the power to choose freely, servant and master of
the intellect, which makes us, in different degrees, masters of our own thoughts and of our
actions before ourselves, before others, and before God.5
c) A Transcendent Destiny

Man’s vocation can attain its total fulfillment only beyond this world. The form of this world,
distorted by sin, is passing away and we are taught that God is preparing a new dwelling and a
new earth in which righteousness dwells, whose happiness will fill and surpass all the desires of
peace arising in the hearts of men.6 The Christian is no expatriate. He is a citizen of the city of
men, and his soul longs for God. While still on earth he has glimpses of God’s love and comes to
recognize it as the goal to which all men on earth are called.7

d) Dignity of the Human Person

(1) As a child of God

The dignity of the human person is founded on the adoption as children of God that Christ has
won for mankind. If this origin is forgotten, human dignity and the due order of human dealings
are threatened. Separated from God a man is but a monster, in himself and toward others; for
the right ordering of human society presupposes the right ordering of man’s conscience with
God, who is Himself the source of all justice, truth and love.8

(2) As a spiritual being

Because of his spiritual soul, each individual is endowed with an intrinsic dignity. This implies
that his nature cannot be treated as a mere means. The reason is that, as a spiritual being, man
has the power to direct himself to his own end. God has given man this power, and he himself
respects it. “The mind [l’esprit] is the original element that fundamentally distinguishes man
from the animal world and that gives him the power to master the universe.”9 Man is in himself
a whole, a microcosm. He cannot be explained by merely natural mechanisms, as if he were just
another segment of the universe.

The Second Vatican Council gives a list of offenses that violate man’s spiritual condition insofar
as they attempt to manipulate man for purposes alien to him: The varieties of crime are
numerous: all offenses against life itself, such as murder, genocide, abortion, euthanasia and
willful suicide; all violations of the integrity of the human person, such as mutilation, physical
and mental torture, undue psychological pressures; all offenses against human dignity, such as
subhuman living conditions, arbitrary imprisonment, deportation, slavery, prostitution, the
selling of women and children, degrading working conditions where men are treated as mere
tools for profit rather than free and responsible persons: all these and the like are criminal: they
poison civilization; and they debase the perpetrators more than the victims and militate against
the honor of the creator.10

e) The Natural Equality of All Human Beings

All human beings have the same free nature created by God. Therefore, they are all endowed
with the same dignity in their mutual relations. “For the Church, all men are equal in dignity
before God; they must, therefore, be so also in the relations, whether free or necessary, which
unite them.”11 This equality does not extend, of course, to their physical capacity or their
moral and intellectual qualities, but only to their identical condition as human beings. This
identical condition and dignity is opposed to any sort of discrimination in their fundamental
rights: Forms of social or cultural discrimination in basic personal rights on the grounds of sex,
race, color, social conditions, language or religion, must be curbed and eradicated as
incompatible with God’s design.12
To this we must add men’s dignity as children of God, a dignity won by Christ for all people
through the means that he instituted and entrusted to his Church. It is important to keep
reminding ourselves that Jesus did not address himself to a privileged set of people; he came to
reveal the universal love of God to us. God loves all men, and he wants all to love him—
everyone, whatever his personal situation, his social position, his work.13

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1 GS, 12.
2 Leo XIII, Enc. Sapientiae Christianae, 1; cf. CCC, 1929–1933.
3 Pius XII, Enc. Mystici Corporis, 6.
4 John Paul II, Homily at Saint-Dennis, May 31, 1980.
5 Pius XII, Address, Nov. 30, 1941.
6 GS, 39.
7 St. Josemaría Escrivá, Christ is Passing By, 99.
8 John XXIII, Enc. Mater et Magistra, 215.
9 John Paul II, Message to the young people of France, June 1, 1980.
10 GS, 27.
11 Pius XII, Address, Feb. 4, 1956.
12 GS, 29.
13 St. Josemaría Escrivá, Christ is Passing By, 110.