The Christian Morality- Understanding of the Human Person

Christian morality
Consists of living one’s life with guidance and inspiration from the Christian scriptures and
traditions. It helps us discover how we should live our lives as a result of our faith in the word
of God which has been revealed to us.

Human Person
The human is person because God is person.
The concept of the human as “being-as-person” is the real seal of that human as “being-as-the-
image-of-God,” and therein lies the true nobility that distinguishes human beings from all
other creatures.
God entered into a great risk in creating the human as person as when God created humans
according to His image, he also gave over to them the mark of nobility such – i.e., freedom.

Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World (Gaudium et Spes)

Gaudium et spes - Ecclesiastical Latin: [ˈɡau̯di. um et ˈspes], "Joy and Hope"
The Second Vatican Council formulated the “Magna Carta” (The Great Charter) for integral
human development.
The Church sees herself as a part of humanity, intimately connected to the “joys and the hopes,
the sadness and the anguish of the human person today” (GS § 1).
Human nature cannot be understood fully without reference to God.

Dogmatic Constitution on the Church (Lumen Gentium)

Lumen Gentium - Latin for "Light of the Nations"
The eternal Son of God, who “for us and our salvation was made man,” is the prototype of
man for others.
The Church, as Dietrich Bonhoeffer said, “is the Church insofar as she is the Church for
others.”
After describing the nature, essence, and mission of the Church in the Dogmatic Constitution
on the Church (Lumen Gentium), the council fathers speak in Gaudium et Spes of the salvific
service of the Church for the integral development of the human person.
“The human person deserves to be preserved; human society deserves to be renewed. Hence the
focal point will be man himself, whole and entire, body and soul, heart and conscience, mind and
will” (§ 3).
“The world of men”
 theater of man’s history,
 heir of his energies, his tragedies and his triumphs;
 world which the Christian sees as created and sustained by its Maker’s love fallen indeed
into the bondage of sin, yet emancipated now by Christ, Who was crucified and rose
again to break the strangle hold of personified evil, so that the world might be fashioned
anew according to God’s design and reach its fulfilment” (§ 2).
Thus, to fully understand human person and Christian morality, the council gave focus on
the “world of men” where men will be preserved and renewed to be the light of nations that
manifests joy and hope as they are created “in the image and likeness of God”.

Sources:
https://www.britannica.com/topic/Christianity/The-human-as-the-image-of-God
https://pages.stolaf.edu/ein/christian-ethics/what-is-christian-ethics/
https://www.kwl.com.au/blog/liturgy/the-human-person-an-introduction-to-christian-
anthropology/