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markporter
Fire over Oxford

Date Joined Oct 2003
Total Posts : 263

Posted 2/3/2006 6:42 AM (GMT -6)

What is the content of a person?

OK, so I've been thinking a bit about things and really not getting anywhere here. It started with a thought 'what is the glory of God' - when we behold God on that final day what is it that we will be experiencing? Of course we will experience his love for us, that much is certain - but love for us is very much an external aspect of God - it is outward directed, it isn't pure him in and of himself it is act of self-giving and self-involving. So what is God? Well, he is a person...but what is a person? If a person is mere subjectivity/consciousness/subjective experience then that doesn't really explain much - it makes the human almost entirely passive and non-existent having about as much content as that which they perceive around them - if it is God's omniscience that is his prime attribute then that doesn't really say much for him it says more about his relation to 'knowledge' which is primarily of other things. What is the content of a person? You see, I can begin to see what a person is in relation to other things; someone who sees, someone who has desires toward things etc. etc. but that doesn't really get me anywhere in describing what a person is 'in and of themselves' and what it is about the actual being of a person in and of themselves (rather than in relation to others) which would make one more glorious than another, it leaves almost all the content of a person outside themselves.

Err...yeah.

PotOnWheel
Registered Member

Date Joined Jul 2001
Total Posts : 9890

Posted 2/3/2006 8:14 AM (GMT -6)

Seems like you show well the dog-chasing-its-tail of the question. Maybe take another "tack" (sailing term denoting direction).

Since comparing man and God is folly, get another approach there too.

Try this: Person versus Individual.

Read whatever you can find on the web for "." Google him in conjunction with "person."

Google search...

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&rls=HPIB%2CHPIB%3A2005-19%2CHPIB%3Aen&q=%2B%22Metropolitan+John+Zizioulas%22+%2Bperson&btnG=Search

See:

"Communion and Otherness"

http://www.incommunion.org/articles/older-issues/communion-and-otherness

And:

This...

Metropolitan John Zizioulas shows that in classic Greek culture, ... Thus, “in the ancient Greek world for someone to be a person means that he has ...
http://www.dynamispublications.org/012006.html

And the rest of the Google listings........

Good luck.

- PoW

(o)

Sahid
Megistered Rember

Date Joined Jun 2004
Total Posts : 2013

Posted 2/4/2006 3:34 AM (GMT -6)

I've been asking similar questions. I think it's important to understand that (all?) categories are merely models or interpretations of the world we experience. The Bible teaches that we are created in God's image. If we create the category "person," and make it a subset of whatever it is we share in common with God, that's fine. But we can't really expect the label we've created to reveal something to us about God. After all, we've created the label partly out of our understanding of God. But as Christians we have, by faith, accepted a foundation upon which to build: Jesus. His actions and words are the best place to look when describing God.

All that to say, my best guess for the definition of a person is one who has the capacity for will, action, and relationship to other persons. I hesitate to add much more than that. We see these attributes in the creation stories and in Jesus' willing and acting along with the Father. I also think that the capacity for will requires the capacity for conscious thought.

Watch me fly. Freedom like wings and I will use them. Freedom like wings and I will spread them wide. - Stavesacre

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