Original scientific paper

Paul’s Anthropology – Pessimistic and Optimistic Vision of the Human Being

Marinko Vidović orcid.org/0000-0003-0746-023X ; Catholic Faculty of Theology, University of Split, Split, Croatia

Abstract

By studying Paul’s discourse on the human being in his original writings, one notices that what characterises it the most is its pessimistic and optimistic vision of the human being. Such a vision is rooted in the Old Testament anthropology and is reflected in the terminology that expresses the constitutive‑structural reality of the human being that is clearly manifested in some texts that the author studied (Rom 1:18‑3: 20; 7:14‑25; 1 Cor 15:45‑49) through the lenses of Adam‑Paul typology (Rom 5:15‑21). Paul’s pessimistic view of the human being is a fruit of his realistic view of history, his observation that the human being is lost and alienated. He, however, reaches these conclusions in the light of his faith and experience of what God already did in Christ. The historical human being, although created by God, lives in »the shadow of Adam«, personally ratifies Adam’s disobedience to God and attempts to realise himself/herself apart from God. That old human being becomes necessarily an idolater and a being that is torn between his/her wanting and acting. Without the correct relation to God the Creator and Saviour in Jesus Christ, he/she loses his ground and purpose and, through that, the possibility of his/her realisation according to the mind of God. Through faith in God, through Christological witness and soteriological experience, Paul sees the human being optimistically as a being of God’s special care and commitment that has been fully revealed in the history through the resurrection of Jesus, who is recognised in faith as the Son of God and Messiah – Christ. In Christ, God has committed himself fully for the lost and human being who has been previously given over to adversarial forces. God pulls out the human being from the reign of sin and death, liberates him/ her from his egoism, and inserts him/her into the dynamism of the glorious, resurrected existence. That new dynamism is the source of salvific optimism or optimism of salvation that also has consequences in the historical life of the human being. The current historical human being can already enter into the dynamism of his/her realisation by relying in faith on God’s work in Christ, i.e., by living in Christ who is historically manifested as the life of the new creation. Paul’s anthropological optimism is Christologically‑soteriologically grounded and concerns the whole humanity, which he expresses through Adam‑Christ typology. In this article, the author starts with the introductory observations on Paul’s rootedness in the Old Testament anthropology, on reliance of his anthropological terminology on the Old Testament terminology, and then on two texts (Rom 1:18‑3: 20; 7:14‑25) the author illustrates, first, his pessimistic vision of the human being and then optimistic (1 Cor 15:45‑49), which the author calls optimism of salvation of the human being in Christ and presents as Paul’s discourse on life in Christ, i.e., on the being and life of the new human being.

Keywords

anthropology; human being; idolatry; new human being; spirituality; optimism; pessimism; dividedness; corporeality; resurrection; to live in Christ.

Hrčak ID:

243108

URI

https://hrcak.srce.hr/243108

Publication date:

31.8.2020.

Article data in other languages: croatian

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