Introducing Anthropology

A Biblical Doctrine of Mankind might be our biggest need in the church today.

If you were to ask me where I’m currently seeing the most damage from unthoughtful theology – a lack of Biblical reflection – I would say it’s in the doctrine of Humanity – or anthropology. I’m not sure that’s the doctrine where we’re most ignorant of – but it’s where we are most seeing the effects.

Both in the church, and especially in the world, we’re suffering from, we’re reaping the consequences of neglecting a theological anthropology.

We can’t adequately answer the question – what is a human? Or what is humanity?

It’s shown by the question of transhumanism – how can our tools and our technology become a part of us? And what’s the difference – or is there one – between glasses, a prosthetic arm, and a computer chip in your brain? Is there a difference between a pacemaker – medical technology inside of you – and uploading your consciousness and DNA? And if so, why?

It’s shown by our current disdain – or at least annoyance with physical bodies. Not that they don’t work… I’m striving to cram like a decade’s worth of doctor’s appointments into one deductible year this year. And it’s a sad realization in my mid-30s that things stop working.

But I’m not saying we get frustrated that our bodies don’t work. I’m saying, culturally, we are frustrated with the fact that we have bodies.

Trivia question – what’s the top-grossing movie of all time? Avatar. #2 is one of the Avengers. But #3? Avatar’s sequel.

I’ve never seen any of them. Because apparently my home address is under a rock.

But here’s how one author talks about Avatar:

Set 100 years in the future, it is the story of humans on a distant moon, Pandora, inhabited by a race known as the Na’vi – tall, blue-skinned humanoids. In order to infiltrate this race, humans use specially created hybrid bodies called ‘avatars.”

While there is much that can account for the record-breaking success of this movie – the innovative special effects, for example – it is surely no coincidence that it suggests a view of personhood in which one’s body is entirely exchangeable. The main character, Sully, is in fact paraplegic. Yet via his avatar, he is able to enjoy the use of fully working limbs. Underlying the movie is the assumption that your body is little more than a costume. You can inhabit a completely different body – even that of a different humanoid species – without it changing who you are. Your personal identity may be expressed through your body, but it is in no way dependent on it. You could just as easily be you in another body entirely. [1]

We could make the same point from Ready Player One, if we wanted. Or the Matrix. It’s this common theme that if we could escape our bodies to be who we truly are, we would find real joy and satisfaction. Our bodies aren’t that important to who we truly are, they’re simply the means by which we express who we truly are.

Take a step back from Science Fiction, and you still have Social Media and the “Keyboard Warriors” and the idea that finding our “True selves” is all about our psychological state, not an embodied state.

And so, if the body doesn’t matter, why should it have a voice in our gender and sexuality? Why should my body get to determine these things, especially if my psyche or soul or heart or whatever you want to call it feels differently? Who died and made my body king?

But more than that, because we don’t know what defines us as human beings, we’ve arbitrarily raised up certain things, where now adays, what makes you you indeed is gender and sexuality. It seems like that’s the arbitrary decision of what’s most important.

And I say arbitrary because – if we don’t know what we are, we don’t know how to make ourselves flourish. We don’t understand the goal. We don’t understand what is the good life – or if there is one.

And so, it’s 2025 and here we are. Technology is moving faster than our theological reflection. Culture is moving faster than our understanding of humanity.

And so, it’s of great benefit that we come to the doctrine of Humanity. I’m excited for this next round of posts. I hope they serve as a blessing to you.

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[1] Sam Allberry, What God Has to Say about Our Bodies: How the Gospel Is Good News for Our Physical Selves (Crossway, 2021), 49–50.