Two books on Christian Anthropology

In the lead-up to this term, I bought both these books for about $16 through some logos sale. I knew our church was going to do a series on Being Human so I thought these might be worth a read. I was pleasantly surprised at the value for money I received in these books. While dealing with the same general subject they were a bit different in approach or intent.

An Introduction to Theological Anthropology: Humans, Both Creaturely and Divine by Joshua R. Farris

I read this one first as it seemed a bit more heavy and I thought it might be more useful in preparing for our series. This felt like a first-year textbook on Christian Anthropology, which I quite enjoyed. 

It was a bit philosophical in asking some fundament questions on what it means to be a human. If you lose a part of your body you are still you, how much of your physical makes up you? If you copy the plans of an existing boat called the Queen Mary you get a new separate boat, but what if over 100 years the boat was slowly repaired and every part had been replaced, would the boat still be the Queen Mary? What about us, what if every 7 years all the cells in our bodies are replaced? Are you still you after 7 years? How do our memories and personality even work in relation to our physical bodies? What if teleportation in Star Trek was real and one copy of yourself gets destroyed and then remade in another location, are you still you? That process is just replicating each cell in the body, just quicker.

Other conundrums like where do our souls come from - are they part of our genetic makeup? Does God put a soul in every person, does a soul come from a large slab and when a new person is created does it come from there? How independent are they from others' souls in their makeup? What about original sin, where does that fit in with genetics or is that something else? How much technology can we use to improve/augment ourselves, while still being human? Is immortality possible here? How do race and gender affect who we are - does this impact our soul? Can souls end up in the wrong gendered body? When we are said to be able to see God when we die is that with physical eyes and how will that happen if God is invisible, does His nature or ours change so we can see each other?

In the book, it would present issues like this and then give different theories people have come up with. The book aims to always see scripture as a guiding way to help discern what is the best way forward. I did find most of the discussion was dealing with things in the area of "how does this work" when really the Biblical evidence is a bit sketchy. The Bible more asserts what happens, but doesn't really say how it works (this is the case in many fields). I did laugh a little about 70% in while talking about something to do with the afterlife and perhaps marriage or angels, they said scripture isn't clear, so it would be speculation. I thought, wait a second - a whole bunch of what I had read previously could be said as a bit of a speculation.

What I really did appreciate in this book is that it stressed any study of anthropology meant it should consider Christology, for Jesus became fully human. He was the example and anything we say about being a person needs to factor Jesus into it. There were a few references in this area to an author, Marc Cortez which might be worth fleshing out.

While different sides of arguments and theories were put forward the author would state where they were on the issue, stating they were leaning on their reformed tradition and the biblical evidence. I appreciated this, although sometimes I think they more asserted their position in the discussion and didn't offer any counters to some arguments or say why some evidence or thoughts they considered more persuasive than some of the ideas presented. I think the idea was to be an introduction, so someone at an entry level can get a feel for issues covered, of which I did appreciate this, as I like a good thought experiment, even if some of it did seem a little like high philosophy.

Reenchanting Humanity: A Theology of Mankind by Owen Strachan

I appreciated reading this book after the one above. While the first was a bit of a text book this was more of a Christian living book. It was written for a more general audience and didn't really toy with thought experiments but more practical situations. The author also didn't toy with different positions on things but argued for or from one position, if I hadn't read the first book I wouldn't have known that there were nuances or different takes on some positions.

Overall I found this book more Biblical and practical and perhaps more relevant. It had chapters on work, sexuality, race, and technology that sort of overlapped with the above, but felt like it went in a more pastoral and authoritative position. It paints a picture of a big God who is generous and kind to His created people. And God's people in return are made for worship. 

Strachan would lean directly on scripture and then move to address situations we may find relevant today. His cultural observations were pretty on point and are really worth a read on how to respond or untangle some concepts facing when he calls a neopagan worldview. There was also a good chapter on contingency fleshing out how we are dependent beings, are limited by time and how death seems to be a great frustration to our potential. (I am currently reading a book just on this called You're Only Human.).

Owen also writes well. He has good turn of phrases, uses fewer technical words, is clear on where he stands and is hoped filled. While the above book would also land on what you might call a traditional reformed position, I felt like this one presented that view clearly and almost in a matter-of-fact tone. For a little taste, here is how it whole book ends:

Now we have seen the God-man. We have found the one who brings light back into our eyes and hope back into our souls. We see through the Scripture that humanity is a being loaded with potential and promise and dignity and value. We find this in Adam, but we see it especially in Jesus Christ, the true human. Jesus Christ is the one who shows us our telos: to offer obedient worship to God. Truly, he is the new humanity, and he is leading a new exodus to the new heavens and new earth. He is the salvation and ontological restoration we so desperately need; his new covenant blood washes us clean, makes us new creations, and gives us new names.

This, and no other, is the reenchantment of our humanity.

After I read this book I also found out that Owen had written an essay on humanity that is available on the Gospel Coalition website, which is a little taste of this book.

Depending on your temperament, I would probably recommend just reading Strachan's book on this topic, for it was more Biblical and practical. If you would like something more dense and theoretical then the first book would give you some more hooks to hand some ideas on.