UNIVERSITY OF SANTO TOMAS

INSTITUTE OF RELIGION
A.Y. 2014-2015
SCL3: Social Teaching of the Church

TOPIC: CONCEPT OF HUMAN DIGNITY

We are all equal in Human Dignity

I.

II.

INTRODUCTION
The UNIVERSAL DECLARATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS (December 10, 1048)
Characteristics of:
1. Inalienable
2. Inviolable
3. Universal
CHALLENGES facing rights-based conception of human dignity:
1. Criticism from several Islamic nations: Pakistan & Iran
2. Definition of human life (abortion)
3. Understanding on the extent of our rights (do we have the right to secure
assisted abortion?)
4. Political problems: who has jurisdiction over its implementation (global vs.
cultural ethic)
5. Criminal offenses to human dignity (human trafficking)
CHRISTIAN TRADITION ON HUMAN DIGNITY
The Human Person In Creation
1. As the CROWNING GLORY of Gods Creation
- Christian Anthropology:
Places the human person as the most important creature.
The centrality of the human person is the basis for
RESPONSIBILITY and STEWARDSHIP rather than as an excuse to
exploit.
2. FREEDOM WAS LIMITED: Man and woman were free to do what they
please at the garden of Eden, EXCEPT for one: the prohibition to eat
the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil (Gen. 2:17).
- Critique vs modern conception of freedom as
decisionism/expressive liberty
- Emphasis on the role of natural law as a participation (fidelity) to
the eternal law
- Its implications to the notions of: authority and formation of
consciences
3. EMPHASIS on SOLIDARITY and COMMUNION: The human person was
created male and female. Christian Scripture does not intend to
highlight the opposition of gender but their complementarity.
- Critique vs. the modern tendency to view the difference in terms of
struggle
- Sexuality is viewed as an openness to the other. Sexuality is a basic
admission that we can never be self-sufficient.
Prepared By: Ms Malou Santiago

UNIVERSITY OF SANTO TOMAS

INSTITUTE OF RELIGION
A.Y. 2014-2015
SCL3: Social Teaching of the Church

To talk of the human person as sexual is to argue that the human

person is, by nature, social.
4. The SALVIFIC ACTION OF CHRIST: Christ DIVINIZES the human person:
Christ redeems the fallen nature of the human person (He is a
fulfilment of the proto-evangelion,
(Gen. 3:15).
- Christ as MEDIATOR: he makes the transcendent God (of OT) within
our reach the Kingdom of God is now at hand; and he elevates the
human nature to who we really are.
- Eph. 4:21-24: the call for transformation to abandon our sinful
selves in order to go back to who we really are.
- GS, 22: Christ fully reveals the human person to himself and
makes his supreme calling clear.
The Theology of the CROSS: while the cross was the stumbling block
for Jews and the laughing stock for the Greeks, it was a Christian proof
of the love of God.
-

Sacrifice is a concrete expression of love.

The mysterious power of the cross to inspire conversion and
transformation.
Ang tunay na pagmamahal ay pinangangatawanan Tang karanasan
ng tunay na pagmamahal ay nakakapagpabago.

Prepared By: Ms Malou Santiago