Bad Bumper Sticker Theology
Recently, my family and I took a long road trip. Along the way, a couple of bumper stickers caused me to take a second look. These weren't the average automobile decor, such as "Honor Student at _____ Elementary School" or "[Insert Favorite Sports Team Here]" or "I'd Rather Be [insert favorite hobby]." I realized in just a split second that these bumper stickers were trying to say something profound. Immediately, I also realized that they were quite wrong, and that bumper sticker theology can lead people far astray in their thought processes. For brevity's sake, one example of bad bumper sticker theology will suffice.
Imagine my angst when I saw the following:
A quick search on Google Images reveals that this quote, or some similar version of it, is attributed to a Catholic priest. Not only is this simply wrong, but it is quite disconcerting that a Catholic priest might say something akin. This quote flies directly in the face of the Church's effort to provide the world with a healthy understanding of the human person, which has been going on for two millennia.
Human beings are both spiritual and material. They are not spiritual beings with a shell that encases their spirits, like peanuts. They are not material beings that happen to have a higher spiritual faculty. Human beings are embodied souls, which means that both the soul and the body are indispensable to the existence of a human person. Our physical experience is an integral part of our humanity, as is our spiritual journey toward our beatific end.
The Church has taught us such truth for all of her history, and has most recently synthesized this teaching beautifully in the Catechism of the Catholic Church. In paragraph 362, it states, "The human person, created in the image of God, is a being at once corporeal and spiritual." Just a couple of paragraphs later (no. 364), the teaching continues: "The human body shares in the dignity of 'the image of God': it is a human body precisely because it is animated by a spiritual soul, and it is the whole human person that is intended to become, in the body of Christ, a temple of the Spirit...." The emphases in those two statements are my own because it is important for folks to realize that our bodies are as much a part of who we are as are our souls. In fact, these two basic attributes of the human person will be reunited upon Christ's Parousia and the Final Judgment.
See, God intends for us to live as beings of body and spirit for all eternity. So, let us not separate these two and think that one is less important than the other. Let us make every meager attempt to correct the bad bumper sticker theology that we read while driving on our nation's highways. Let us return to a right and healthy understanding of the human person, body and soul.
Imagine my angst when I saw the following:
A quick search on Google Images reveals that this quote, or some similar version of it, is attributed to a Catholic priest. Not only is this simply wrong, but it is quite disconcerting that a Catholic priest might say something akin. This quote flies directly in the face of the Church's effort to provide the world with a healthy understanding of the human person, which has been going on for two millennia.
Human beings are both spiritual and material. They are not spiritual beings with a shell that encases their spirits, like peanuts. They are not material beings that happen to have a higher spiritual faculty. Human beings are embodied souls, which means that both the soul and the body are indispensable to the existence of a human person. Our physical experience is an integral part of our humanity, as is our spiritual journey toward our beatific end.
The Church has taught us such truth for all of her history, and has most recently synthesized this teaching beautifully in the Catechism of the Catholic Church. In paragraph 362, it states, "The human person, created in the image of God, is a being at once corporeal and spiritual." Just a couple of paragraphs later (no. 364), the teaching continues: "The human body shares in the dignity of 'the image of God': it is a human body precisely because it is animated by a spiritual soul, and it is the whole human person that is intended to become, in the body of Christ, a temple of the Spirit...." The emphases in those two statements are my own because it is important for folks to realize that our bodies are as much a part of who we are as are our souls. In fact, these two basic attributes of the human person will be reunited upon Christ's Parousia and the Final Judgment.
See, God intends for us to live as beings of body and spirit for all eternity. So, let us not separate these two and think that one is less important than the other. Let us make every meager attempt to correct the bad bumper sticker theology that we read while driving on our nation's highways. Let us return to a right and healthy understanding of the human person, body and soul.
