I'm looking for a book recommendation

[Darnok]

Hello,

Could someone recommend <> to Catholic anthropology.

Thanks in advance.

 

[reggieM]

Hello,

Could someone recommend <> to Catholic anthropology.

Thanks in advance.

I’m pretty sure that nothing like that exists.
Anthropology is a field of science and it just goes by it’s own rules and has it’s findings and studies.
The Catholic Faith doesn’t really have a scientific aspect in that sense. There’s no Catholic physics or Catholic biology. There’s “Catholic history” – but that’s just history of the Catholic Faith.
Catholicism will teach us what God has revealed and sometimes scientists make claims or do experiments (cloning, embryotic research) that conflict with the laws of God.
But again, I don’t think there is what you’re looking for – although I could be wrong about that!

 

[utunumsint]

Hi Darnok,

From Fides et Ratio paragraph 60:

I cannot fail to note, especially in the context of this Encyclical Letter, that one chapter of the Constitution Gaudium et Spes amounts to a virtual compendium of the biblical anthropology from which philosophy too can draw inspiration. The chapter deals with the value of the human person created in the image of God, explains the dignity and superiority of the human being over the rest of creation, and declares the transcendent capacity of human reason.

From Gaudium et Spes, paragraph 14 and 15:

1. Though made of body and soul, man is one. Through his bodily composition he gathers to himself the elements of the material world; thus they reach their crown through him, and through him raise their voice in free praise of the Creator.(6) For this reason man is not allowed to despise his bodily life, rather he is obliged to regard his body as good and honorable since God has created it and will raise it up on the last day. Nevertheless, wounded by sin, man experiences rebellious stirrings in his body. But the very dignity of man postulates that man glorify God in his body and forbid it to serve the evil inclinations of his heart.

Now, man is not wrong when he regards himself as superior to bodily concerns, and as more than a speck of nature or a nameless constituent of the city of man. For by his interior qualities he outstrips the whole sum of mere things. He plunges into the depths of reality whenever he enters into his own heart; God, Who probes the heart,(7) awaits him there; there he discerns his proper destiny beneath the eyes of God. Thus, when he recognizes in himself a spiritual and immortal soul, he is not being mocked by a fantasy born only of physical or social influences, but is rather laying hold of the proper truth of the matter.

1. Man judges rightly that by his intellect he surpasses the material universe, for he shares in the light of the divine mind. By relentlessly employing his talents through the ages he has indeed made progress in the practical sciences and in technology and the liberal arts. In our times he has won superlative victories, especially in his probing of the material world and in subjecting it to himself. Still he has always searched for more penetrating truths, and finds them. For his intelligence is not confined to observable data alone, but can with genuine certitude attain to reality itself as knowable, though in consequence of sin that certitude is partly obscured and weakened.

The intellectual nature of the human person is perfected by wisdom and needs to be, for wisdom gently attracts the mind of man to a quest and a love for what is true and good. Steeped in wisdom. man passes through visible realities to those which are unseen.

Our era needs such wisdom more than bygone ages if the discoveries made by man are to be further humanized. For the future of the world stands in peril unless wiser men are forthcoming. It should also be pointed out that many nations, poorer in economic goods, are quite rich in wisdom and can offer noteworthy advantages to others.

It is, finally, through the gift of the Holy Spirit that man comes by faith to the contemplation and appreciation of the divine plan.(8)

God bless,
Ut

 

[reggieM]

My mistake in post #2 - yes, there are good resources. I misunderstood the terminology. The Summa has a lot on this topic - although it’s not a “for dummies” version, there are popularization of that in various forms (Peter Kreeft has one).