Human being
When I started attending seminary, I heard in my classes about famous theologians beginning with Church Fathers such as Irenaeus of Lyon, later Saint Augustine, Origen, up to 21st century theologians such as Jürgen Moltmann; then, I wondered, how those theologians get the inspiration to talk about God deeply? What was the occurrence of them compared to my experience in life? How is human nature different or similar in relation to God’s creation? In this paper, I am going to talk about the human being and its human nature, by comparing part of Jürgen Moltmann’s life and my life. I choose Moltmann because his Theology of Hope inspires me.
God’s creation. Human nature has four major dimensions: body and soul, social being, teleology, and temporality. Human life (body and soul) is distinguished by the capacity to know truth, by using reasoning. God created Moltmann and I with the same nature (body and soul), but in a different time and space. Moltmann was born in Germany in 1926 and I was born in the Andes, in 1960. We were good since the beginning “God saw everything that he had made, and indeed, it was very good” (Genesis 1:31). …show more content…
When Moltmann recognized the Lord, he was experiencing a condition of a prisoner. In prison he was struggling, but when he found “his brother Jesus” who feels the same as he was feeling at that time, a radical change of hope came into his mind. Moltmann felt he was not alone in his suffering, but instead God was with him. Conversely, in my case, I knew the Lord in the village where I was born in the highland of Peru. My place has tough weather and poor soil conditions. It rains only during one season. If there is no rain during sowing time, there is no food for us to eat during that year. We completely rely on the Lord. God was and is my source. At that time, although not always all sources available was destined to eat for us (a lot of fresh water, birds, tons of weeds, etc.) my spirit was cheered
When I started attending seminary, I heard in my classes about famous theologians beginning with Church Fathers such as Irenaeus of Lyon, later Saint Augustine, Origen, up to 21st century theologians such as Jürgen Moltmann; then, I wondered, how those theologians get the inspiration to talk about God deeply? What was the occurrence of them compared to my experience in life? How is human nature different or similar in relation to God’s creation? In this paper, I am going to talk about the human being and its human nature, by comparing part of Jürgen Moltmann’s life and my life. I choose Moltmann because his Theology of Hope inspires me.
God’s creation. Human nature has four major dimensions: body and soul, social being, teleology, and temporality. Human life (body and soul) is distinguished by the capacity to know truth, by using reasoning. God created Moltmann and I with the same nature (body and soul), but in a different time and space. Moltmann was born in Germany in 1926 and I was born in the Andes, in 1960. We were good since the beginning “God saw everything that he had made, and indeed, it was very good” (Genesis 1:31). …show more content…
When Moltmann recognized the Lord, he was experiencing a condition of a prisoner. In prison he was struggling, but when he found “his brother Jesus” who feels the same as he was feeling at that time, a radical change of hope came into his mind. Moltmann felt he was not alone in his suffering, but instead God was with him. Conversely, in my case, I knew the Lord in the village where I was born in the highland of Peru. My place has tough weather and poor soil conditions. It rains only during one season. If there is no rain during sowing time, there is no food for us to eat during that year. We completely rely on the Lord. God was and is my source. At that time, although not always all sources available was destined to eat for us (a lot of fresh water, birds, tons of weeds, etc.) my spirit was cheered