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On Being Human: Essays in Theological Anthropology
By Ray S. Anderson
Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1982. 234 pp. $9.95.

The author is a pastor and current Associate Dean of Fuller Theological Seminary. His human sensitivities are revealed in the pastoral situations he recounts and by the literary references which illuminate this book.

In the first section of the book, Anderson sets aside the anthropologies of philosophy, religion, science, and myth because they begin from the human situation. Theological anthropology takes Christ to be the one whose cross and resurrection reveal the true form of humanity. That having been said, however, the book focuses on Adam's humanity which embodies the image of God. Human beings are only contingently related to the rest of the biological world, and the difference between the human and the creaturely is due not to God's creation but to the Word of God. The Word overcomes our creaturely determinism and it differentiates human life into male and female co-humanity. We human beings are sexual before social, and social before individual, so we come to

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individuality only through the other. The Word sets limits for us but does not determine specific actions; our response to the Word leads to an enactment of our authentic possibilities in the form of outward actions.

The middle section develops the theme of the imago Dei which causes a mere creature to be differentiated as a human being. Sin is an inversion of this imago, an inauthentic form of humanity. The imago is intrinsically sexual, expressing at the creaturely level the subordinationist hierarchy of the Trinity; anonymous sexuality or a homosexual orientation violates this image. Dying belongs to our creaturely nature, but death refers to God's judgment, and we must face this death together with one another in hope. In our life-decisions, there is an irreconcilable division between universal ethical principles or human rights and a faith that decides communally under the concrete demand of God.

The last third of the book sensitively develops a Christian pastoral response to the existential problems of human life. The basic human needs of affirmation, relationships, healing, and ultimate significance are met with by election, covenant, salvation, and the eschaton. Liturgy actualizes personhood under the Word of God in "rituals of reinforcement." These communal events address the human needs for integration, sanctification, and immortality. The church is the true order of existence in fellowship, pointing to a personhood that is more an eschatological goal than an event in history.

Two appendices nicely situate the task of the book. The author examines the views of Barth, Brunner, and Berkouwer on the biblical problems of "Body, Soul, Spirit" and imago Dei. These three theologians, plus Bonhoeffer and Kierkegaard, are the author's dialogue partners throughout the text. Asserting that the Bible does not have a "structural ontology of the human person" and that "there is no more important issue for Christian theology than the question of the nature of the human being," Anderson posits a "basic duality of personal being where the body represents the material aspect of life" while the soul/spirit is "an orientation toward God, summoned forth by the divine Word." The imago Dei, though not a central theme of Scripture, nonetheless provides the theological basis for understanding human inter-subjectivity and, in particular, the complementarity of the sexes.

As I read this book, the basic problems, definitions, and the "point" of certain distinctions became clear only near the end. A certain amount of philosophical training is needed for understanding the book. A person with no philosophical background will find it tough going; a person with a strong philosophical background will, I think, find Anderson's use of philosophical concepts unsure or unusual. On most pages I had one or more difficulties. Some sentences are awkward; basic terms are often left unclarified; some historical judgments seem questionable; the texts cited, whether biblical or not, often do not seem to demonstrate the intended point; and arguments at times seem weak. One might wonder why the Christ of the Gospels is given so little place; one might want to

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suggest Calvin's more positive understanding of ethics; and one might hope that the doctrines of creation and Christ's Incarnation might make human experience more valuable for understanding the meaning of being human.

Edward Vacek, S.J.
Weston School of Theology
Cambridge, Massachusetts