What is Man? : Contemporary Anthropology in Theological Perspective
What is Man?: Contemporary Anthropology in Theological Perspective / Pannenberg, Wolfhart; Priebe, Duane A.
Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1970. —
ББК 233 / Pan / 1970
Анотація:
A young German theologian who offers a lively alternative to the theologies of Rudolf Bultmann and Karl Barth has already been spotlighted by Time, Newsweek, and major religious journals in the United States. His work has been acclaimed as remarkably orig¬inal, highly creative, and a model of clarity and conciseness. This book, a nontechnical treatment of the question of man’s nature, marks another milestone in Wolfhart Pannenberg’s brilliant career.
“We live in an age of anthropology,” writes the author. The science of man has become central to contemporary thought, bringing biologists, sociologists, psychologists, historians, and theologians into unexpected contact. Pannenberg, who sees theology as continuous with all other areas of learning, here approaches man primarily from the standpoint of the non theological disciplines.
Man has come to regard himself as the ruler of his environment, and the world as raw material for his transforming activity. But having rejected the old idea of fixed order, humanity must redefine its identity. Pannenberg pictures man as caught in the tension between his openness to the world and his self-centeredness. Man asserts his creative freedom, then finds himself on the brink of total destruction.
Pannenberg further relates man’s attempt to master his environment to the concepts of language, trust in a uglier power, the future, and hope, he individual in society is seen in erms of dualities: masculine-feminine roles, justice and the dangers of legalism, capitalism and Marxism, tradition and revolution. Pannenberg concludes that ultimately man’s nature is historical: the life of each individual is fulfilled and reconciled through its relation to Jesus’ life history.
Time has said that Pannenberg “may well force other theologians to examine again whether the assumed gap between secular and sacred events is all that unbridgeable.” What Is Man?, classified by Pannenberg as “theological anthropology,” raises new questions and controversies that transcend traditional boundaries and unite thinking people everywhere.