In his new book, A Catholic Guide to Being Human, Dr. John Grabowski offers a reminder that the term “person” is more freighted with theological implications than we often consider. Identifying and unpacking those implications is the first step toward answering what is, perhaps, the greatest question of our age: What does it mean to be human?
The Christian West once had a confident answer to that question, one rooted firmly in the mystery of the Incarnation. The strength of that confidence served as a foundation for a great and humane civilization. That is not to say a sinless civilization, but one in which even the most egregious failings prove the rule of its underlying humanity.
Understanding the human person properly requires that we think carefully about man as both a “what” and a “who.”
Today, we seem to have lost confidence in our answers to the great question. Accordingly, as we have lost sight of both God and man, our world has become less humane, even as we have grown in power and technological mastery. Our sense of ourselves and our place in the world is distorted. We are in danger of becoming, as Grabowski puts it, both “technological
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