Assignment: Anthropological discussion of humanity, sin and Christianity
1. Explain, as to someone with no background in religion, how the intellect and the will show humans have a tendency to go beyond what humans can grasp.
2. Describe how the concept of sin is related to Christian anthropology and explain how this idea relates to the Christian understanding of God.
We have been created by God in His image. Genesis 1:27 reads, "So God created mankind in His own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them." God is a spirit and so it is not our bodies that are created in His image. We are however created with the ability to think (intellect), feel (emotions) and choose (free will). As a result of being created in God's image in these three ways, we are distinct from other living organisms. Animals can think, feel and choose in a very basic sense however they are guided by instinct and are not relational as humans are.
One way in which this is illustrated is the human tendency to go beyond, to push the limits, to resist conformity. While the animal kingdom functions in the same way that it has been functioning for thousands of years, content with the same diets, nesting sites, migration patterns and mating rituals, man is constantly recreating, innovating, inventing and wondering. This tendency of human kind is directly related to the fact that we have been created in God's image. He created the earth for us to enjoy and discover. As we discover the wonders of nature and copy God's creative spirit in our attempts to recreate and imagine, the original goal was that we turn in our wonder and amazement and give Him glory and honor for His amazing majesty, creativity and power.
Because man rebelled against God in the Garden of Eden and chose to follow Satan rather than God, his nature has been corrupted. Since Adam and Eve, every man born into this world is born into Satan's kingdom, separate from God and with a natural tendency to desire autonomy rather than a relationship with God. As a result his intellect and will, rather than causing him to turn to God in wonder and awe, cause him to go beyond what he can grasp. When man is not focused on God he takes his creativity, intellect and will and explores areas that were not meant for him to experience.