More than mere existence: An anthropology of dynamic living

CFLERPA 2023 Award Runner-Up. Introductory paragraph: What is a human? This is the key question for anthropologists, but for Irenaeus of Lyons, “is” is not a static state, rather it is a dynamic becoming. While humans must still be metaphysically defined, one cannot neglect the teleological vision embedded in their design. The distance between who children are at their creation and who they are to become is a process of maturation throughout one’s life. It is dynamic. For Irenaeus, humans are not alive apart from participation in the Life of God. Since they are designed in God’s image, as they grow in their likeness to God, they grow in their humanity. Unfortunately, the Fall prompted man to turn away from God toward Death, sending him down a spiral of deathification. However, through the recapitulative work of Christ—the perfect human—Death no longer rules the land, so man is now able participate with God’s life-giving Spirit in the hopes of one day seeing him face to face and experiencing full human life.