Theological and ethical perspectives within the theme of human embodiment

Abstract

The author faces the problem of the human embodiment from a theological and ethical point of view. Refusing the platonic-dualistic view of the body he clarifies some implications of the doctrine of the fathers of the church and concentrates only on biblical-theological questions. After examining the concepts of old testament anthropology (nephes, basar, ruach) and of St. Paul's anthropology (sarx, soma) he dedicates considerable space to the text that Paul writes to the Christian community in Corinth on the meaning of the body and of human sexuality (1Cor. 6,12-20). The theological aspect of the text is greatly stressed in that Paul, for the first time, prophetically as a theologian highlights various dimensions of the human body (eschatological, pneumatic and cultic), which show the theological dignity of the human body in the unity and integrity of the whole person. Moreover the author, applying the rules of the theological-moral hermeneutics, tries to underline the importance of the text of St. Paul for our times.