Gustav Wingren, Man and the Incarnation: A Study in the Biblical Theology of Irenaeus (Oliver and Boyd: 1959) is an excellent book. Very readable. A bit difficult to find, however!
Athanasius, On the Incarnation Berlin, John Stuart Mill and the Ends of Life Bonhoeffer, Who am I? (poem) Buber, I and Thou Calvin, Institutes Chesterton, The Everlasting Man Dostoevsky, Retribution, in The Brothers Karamazov Frankl, Man's Search for Meaning Fukuyama, The End of History and the Last Man Giddens, Modernity & Self-Identity Gray, Straw Dogs Habermas, Time of Transitions Hoekema, Created in God's Image Kraft, Anthropology for Christian Witness Krötke, 'The Humanity of the Human Person in Karl Barth's Anthropology', in Webster, Cambridge Companion to Karl Barth Lewis, The Abolition of Man MacIntyre, After Virtue Niebuhr, The Nature and Destiny of Man: A Christian Interpretation Pascal, Pensées Price, Karl Barth's Anthropology in the Light of Modern Thought Ricoeur, Oneself as Another Taylor, Sources of the Self & Ethics of Authenticity Thielicke, Being Human, Becoming Human Volf, Exclusion & Embrace
Hmmm. I should be tidying the kitchen, but susanna has just gone to the hairdressers - she will never know I am browsing my book shelves instead!
Id recommend, in no order:
1. Man: The Image of God by GC Berkouwer. Very good at showing the vast extent of aspects of human nature there are, which the Bible sheds light on. I read this on the beach last summer and found it was also v good for squashing mosquitoes, in the hardback edition.
2. Ethics, Bonhoeffer. The few pages on 'bodily life'. Very good defence of the pointlessness and pleasure of living as a physical person.
3. Jonathan Edwards, sermon - 'A divine and supernatural light'. Shows why our view of a person must be such that it is in the affections and desires that conversion is wrought.
4. Schaeffer's 'True Spirituality' - the chapter entitled 'Freedom from my conscience.' Deeply helpful few pages.
'Most, if not all Christians, find that the first step in substantial healing that we can have in the present life is the healing of the separation from ourselves that is the result of the Fall.' p,128.
5. Machen, 'The Christian view of Man' - chapter 12 is good for refuting what he calls the 'empty room view' of humanity.
6. 'The Christian System' by Thomas Robinson (1805). Delightful Anglican reformed theology. There are three volumes, check out volume one and essays 15-19. On 'Man's depraved affections towards God, eachother, themselves and their imaginations...' Here is a typical quote to whet your taste:
Robinson points out that parents often fail to see their children as the Bible would have them:
'How inconsistent will be your conduct, if, while you profess to believe the doctrine of human depravity, you expose them to temptations, as if there were no evil tendencies in their nature!' p.226.
6. Richard Sibbes, vol. 5. p.161-173, Sermon 'The redemption of bodies.' 'Christ is a perfect saviour. He saves not only the soul but the body. Though he begins with the soul, he ends with the body.' p.170. Brilliant warm theology from one of the masters.
7. Charles Taylor, Sources of the Self. Essential reading.
8. Augustine 'De Trinitate' Latter sections deal with relationality in humanity - we are made in the image of the trinity, rather than image of a monistic god. The implications are manifold.
Hope that gives some fun ideas. Look forward to seeing the reading list you come up with.
Jungel has also written some stuff on Justification by Faith and its anthropological import.
You could stick some Zizek in there too - maybe "Tarrying with the Negative" just to balance out against the contemporary turn against the modern turn towards the subject!
Bultmann, Theology of the New Testament, Vol 1, Part 2. Famous for the quote: "Every assertion about God is simultaneously an assertion about man and vice versa. For this reason and in this sense Paul's theology is, at the same time, anthropology." (p. 191) [I've been working on a study paper on Paul's anthropology in Romans for N.T. exam tomorrow ;)]
I enjoyed studying Karl Rahner's essay On the Theology of the Incarnation. It basically explores the relationship between Christology and anthropology.
On that line also you have great swathes of Barth's Church Dogmatics - particularly III.2 of course. He has been criticised for his anthropology being too Christological, but I rather like it!
14 comments:
Gustav Wingren, Man and the Incarnation: A Study in the Biblical Theology of Irenaeus (Oliver and Boyd: 1959) is an excellent book. Very readable. A bit difficult to find, however!
Michael,
Tim's suggestion is an excellent one. The reading list on my blog also lists the following:
Alan Torrance, Persons in Communion: an Essay on Trinitarian Description and Human Participation
Christoph Schwobel & Colin Gunton (eds), Persons, Divine and Human
Fyodor Dostoevsky, Crime and Punishment
Harry R. Boer, An Ember Still Glowing: Humankind as the Image of God
Helmut Thielicke, Being Human … Becoming Human: An Essay in Christian Anthropology
John D. Zizioulas, Being As Communion: Studies in Personhood and the Church
John Paul II, The Theology of the Body: Human Love in the Divine Plan
Miroslav Volf, Exclusion and Embrace: A Theological Exploration of Identity, Otherness, and Reconciliation
Randall C. Zachman, The Assurance Of Faith: Conscience in the Theology Of Martin Luther and John Calvin
Ray S. Anderson, On Being Human: Essays in Theological Anthropology
Stanley Grenz, The Social God and the Relational Self: A Trinitarian Theology of the Imago Dei
Thomas Smail, Like Father, Like Son: The Trinity Imaged in our Humanity
Wolfhart Pannenberg, Anthropology in Theological Perspective
Susan Harding, "The Book Of Jerry Falwell"
Athanasius, On the Incarnation
Berlin, John Stuart Mill and the Ends of Life
Bonhoeffer, Who am I? (poem)
Buber, I and Thou
Calvin, Institutes
Chesterton, The Everlasting Man
Dostoevsky, Retribution, in The Brothers Karamazov
Frankl, Man's Search for Meaning
Fukuyama, The End of History and the Last Man
Giddens, Modernity & Self-Identity
Gray, Straw Dogs
Habermas, Time of Transitions
Hoekema, Created in God's Image
Kraft, Anthropology for Christian Witness
Krötke, 'The Humanity of the Human Person in Karl Barth's Anthropology', in Webster, Cambridge Companion to Karl Barth
Lewis, The Abolition of Man
MacIntyre, After Virtue
Niebuhr, The Nature and Destiny of Man: A Christian Interpretation
Pascal, Pensées
Price, Karl Barth's Anthropology in the Light of Modern Thought
Ricoeur, Oneself as Another
Taylor, Sources of the Self & Ethics of Authenticity
Thielicke, Being Human, Becoming Human
Volf, Exclusion & Embrace
and any Nietzsche, eg The Gay Science - or Brian Leiter, Nietzsche on Morality
Hmmm. I should be tidying the kitchen, but susanna has just gone to the hairdressers - she will never know I am browsing my book shelves instead!
Id recommend, in no order:
1. Man: The Image of God by GC Berkouwer.
Very good at showing the vast extent of aspects of human nature there are, which the Bible sheds light on. I read this on the beach last summer and found it was also v good for squashing mosquitoes, in the hardback edition.
2. Ethics, Bonhoeffer. The few pages on 'bodily life'. Very good defence of the pointlessness and pleasure of living as a physical person.
3. Jonathan Edwards, sermon - 'A divine and supernatural light'. Shows why our view of a person must be such that it is in the affections and desires that conversion is wrought.
4. Schaeffer's 'True Spirituality' - the chapter entitled 'Freedom from my conscience.' Deeply helpful few pages.
'Most, if not all Christians, find that the first step in substantial healing that we can have in the present life is the healing of the separation from ourselves that is the result of the Fall.' p,128.
5. Machen, 'The Christian view of Man' - chapter 12 is good for refuting what he calls the 'empty room view' of humanity.
6. 'The Christian System' by Thomas Robinson (1805). Delightful Anglican reformed theology. There are three volumes, check out volume one and essays 15-19. On 'Man's depraved affections towards God, eachother, themselves and their imaginations...' Here is a typical quote to whet your taste:
Robinson points out that parents often fail to see their children as the Bible would have them:
'How inconsistent will be your conduct, if, while you profess to believe the doctrine of human depravity, you expose them to temptations, as if there were no evil tendencies in their nature!' p.226.
6. Richard Sibbes, vol. 5. p.161-173, Sermon 'The redemption of bodies.'
'Christ is a perfect saviour. He saves not only the soul but the body. Though he begins with the soul, he ends with the body.' p.170.
Brilliant warm theology from one of the masters.
7. Charles Taylor, Sources of the Self. Essential reading.
8. Augustine 'De Trinitate' Latter sections deal with relationality in humanity - we are made in the image of the trinity, rather than image of a monistic god. The implications are manifold.
Hope that gives some fun ideas. Look forward to seeing the reading list you come up with.
As ever,
Peter
The Pannenberg is essential.
Jungel has also written some stuff on Justification by Faith and its anthropological import.
You could stick some Zizek in there too - maybe "Tarrying with the Negative" just to balance out against the contemporary turn against the modern turn towards the subject!
Bultmann, Theology of the New Testament, Vol 1, Part 2.
Famous for the quote: "Every assertion about God is simultaneously an assertion about man and vice versa. For this reason and in this sense Paul's theology is, at the same time, anthropology." (p. 191)
[I've been working on a study paper on Paul's anthropology in Romans for N.T. exam tomorrow ;)]
I enjoyed studying Karl Rahner's essay On the Theology of the Incarnation. It basically explores the relationship between Christology and anthropology.
On that line also you have great swathes of Barth's Church Dogmatics - particularly III.2 of course. He has been criticised for his anthropology being too Christological, but I rather like it!
A few others (I don't think these are repeats)
Bavinck, H. Dogmatics, Vol. 2: God and Creation Baker, 2004, 511-90.
Horton M.S. Lord and servant : a covenant Christology WJK, 2005, 89-156
Middleton, J. R. The liberating image : the imago dei in Genesis 1 Brazos, 2005
Schwöbel C. & Gunton C.E. (eds.) Persons, divine and human T&T Clark, 1991
Shults, F. L. Reforming theological anthropology : after the philosophical turn to relationality. Eerdmans, 2003.
Webster J. “The Human Person” 219-34 in K.J. Vanhoozer (ed) The Cambridge Companion to Postmodern Philosophy CUP, 2003
The Doctrine of Humanity, Contours of Christian Theology , Charles Sherlock, 1996, IVP.
Reformed Dogmatics: God and Creation Volume Two, Herman Bavinck, p. 511-588.
The Sherlock volume is one of the poorest in the whole series, don't you think Guy?
It isn't great, but I didn't want to duplicate titles that others had suggeted and it's the only one on anthropology!
While I think about it, also worth a look:
Entry on Humanity in "New Dictionary of Biblical Theology"
"The imputation of Adam's Sin" by John Murray (P&R)
"Original Sin: Illuminating the riddle" by Henri Blocher, IVP.
Michael
You may want to also have a look at these titles from authors writing from a Christian perspective (Roberts is a psychologist; Smith, a sociologist).
Ray S. Anderson, Spiritual Caregiving As Secular Sacrament: A Practical Theology for Professional Caregivers (London: Jessica Kingsley, 2003).
Robert C. Roberts, Spiritual Emotions: A Psychology of Christian Virtues (Eerdmans, 2007).
Robert C. Roberts, Emotions: An Essay in Aid of Moral Psychology (Oxford, 2003).
Christian Smith, Moral, Believing Animals: Human Personhood and Culture (Oxford, 2003).
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