ST 611 Creation and the Human Person

Course Description: This course has as its purpose the study of Christian doctrines concerning creation and the created order. By contrast with the anthropocentric perspectives characteristic of much recent theological anthropology, this study will focus on these doctrines in their theological, metaphysical and cosmological dimensions. The main topics to be considered are creation, divine providence and the created order, the nature, origin and destiny of the human person, the development of modern theological anthropology, evil and sin. In conjunction with recent scholarship, this course makes abundant use of the writings of St. Thomas Aquinas.

Learning Objectives: 

1. Articulate central Christian doctrines, problems, questions, and solutions concerning creation, divine providence, evil, sin and human destiny

2. Understand the principal implications of the Christian doctrines on the human person as a unity of body and soul as these appear in the contemporary theological, scientific and philosophical discussions

3. Demonstrate familiarity with significant writings of important authors as a point of reference for exploring the development of the Catholic Church’s understanding of creation, the human condition and human destiny

4. Appreciate the relations between scientific, philosophical and theological accounts of the natural order of the human person

5. Appreciate the centrality of the doctrine of man as the image of God in the theology of Thomas Aquinas