The Catholic Vision of the Person

A very short summary

The Catholic vision of the person can be captured in the notion of the “imago Dei,” that is, that the human being is made “in the image of God.” According to this notion, there is a special relationship between God and humanity, because humanity bears some mark or imprint, some divine spark, of the Creator.

This is broadly “theological,” but not specifically Christian nor even “religious” in the sense of belonging to a particular faith observance or practice. As a claim about human nature, it has roots in classical philosophy as much as theology, and is relevant to all domains of human inquiry and activity.

Specifically, the notion that we are made in the image of God implies that human beings:

have intrinsic dignity — an essential value, just as human beings, by their very nature, and not because of their productivity or usefulness to society;

are a special part of the world, made good but less than God — we are a part of and crown of creation, although now suffering in a fallen state;

are made for personal relationship — that we are most fully who and what we are through friendship and communion with others and with God;

are an integral unity, both spiritual and material — that the whole human being includes both body and soul; we are not spirits trapped in bodies, nor merely bodies reducible to material parts;

have a will — with providence over our actions, we are real agents, morally responsible, and oriented to seek and love what is good;

have an intellect — we have the power to know, and indeed were made to seek, and be satisfied by, truth; and

long to transcend the bounds of the finite and material world — that the human mind and heart seek what is transcendent, perfect, and ultimate, in short, that we were made to seek God.

In sum, we might say that the Catholic vision of the person is that human beings are made for a truth and goodness which is transcendent, perfect, and personal.

There are other religious traditions, and indeed classical pagan worldviews, which have affirmed and do affirm these elements of “the Catholic vision of the person.” So none of these claims is explicitly or exclusively Catholic — although they provide background to Catholic doctrine about Christ and the Church: for Catholics believe that Jesus Christ is the transcendent God, divine truth itself, incarnate as a human person, and that the Church is the human community in and through which we can most fully encounter this divine presence.

But though widely acceptable, this vision of the person cannot be taken for granted. Various historical and contemporary worldviews, ideologies, and cultural practices deny part or all of this vision, implicitly or explicitly. Whether one affirms or denies elements of this vision has clear consequences for how one lives, how one treats other people, and how one values one’s own life and others’ — not only how one seeks to address personal and social challenges, but how one even conceives of what those challenges are.

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