Creation and a Theology of Humanness

Abstract

This article seeks a Christian biblical interpretation for a theology of humanness based on the two Creation stories and the Garden of Eden narrative in Genesis chapters 1–3. The presentation serves as a corrective to the notion that Creation was perfect and that suffering (or mental illness/disability) is caused by the sin of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. The author seeks to develop a theology of humanness which engages Genesis 1–3 with the work of David Pailin's book, A Gentle Touch: From a Theology of Handicap to a Theology of Human Being, and the work of Douglas John Hall in God and Human Suffering: An Exercise in the Theology of the Cross. Particular attention will be given to the conditions of Creation addressed by Hall, which are temptation, anxiety, loneliness, and limits—iImplying that to be human is to experience temptation, anxiety, loneliness, and limits. God, however, becomes human in Jesus Christ to embrace humanness. Through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, God restores the relationship God had with Adam and Eve at Creation, so that Christ is present in the Holy Spirit working in the lives of human beings to bring new life out of death.