What Does It Mean to Be Human?
19 February, 2018 // in The Coffeehouse Cleric // by Alex Rowe.
What follows below is a short piece I wrote for Durham’s Christian Union, ahead of their week of events called Human. If you’re in the Durham area, I encourage you to check it out.
How do we make sense of our humanity? This is one of the perennial existential questions, one which we have wrestled with for millenia. Yet over the past two- or three-hundred years there have been significant developments in human understanding, which makes the weightiness of this question more pressing than ever.
The advent of modern science has encouraged us to see ourselves in increasingly materialist terms and has thus challenged the validity of the question itself. If we are just animals amongst other animals, albeit highly evolved, why should we think ourselves special? Why waste all this time ruminating over what makes us unique or distinct? Additionally, we are increasingly aware of our differences from one other. In our ever-globalised planet, we encounter people with vastly differently experiences and perspectives than our own. The popular patterns of thought we call ‘modernity’ and ‘postmodernity’ often prioritise the individual over the community. Are we therefore mistaken when we try to define our common humanity in anything more than the loosest of terms?
The task of ‘making sense’ of our humanity is one of which none of us are exempt. Of course, there are some who seem more preoccupied with this endeavour than others — we might think them bookish, too cerebral, their heads stuck in the clouds — but the truth is, we all do it. It comes very naturally to us. When we choose to stay late in the library instead of taking a much-needed break; when we call grandma even if in her old age she sometimes forgets who we are; when we wake unusually early to catch the sunrise with someone we love. In the daily decisions we make, we show where our priorities lie and demonstrate what we value most. We are making sense of our humanity, of our world, and even of God.
Each of us in our lives will know both immense joy and inexpressible pain. We are all capable of great goodness as well as causing deep hurt or offence. Life is wonderfully complex. When we attempt to make sense of what it means to be human we need to take this seriously. We must not, because we cannot, explain it all, and we must refuse any answers that are reductive, be they from science or sociology, philosophy or psychology, or, indeed, religion.
For me personally, Christianity makes the most sense of what it means to be human. It offers no simple explanation, but instead a perspective from which to continue to understand, to make sense, of life in all its vivid variegation. It affirms our deep-seated intuitions about the way things are, or ought to be — that we are made to be whole and not feel broken, for love and not division, for community and not isolation — and though it challenges us to face up to our inadequacy it also invites us to experience healing and renewal. In short, Christianity offers the possibility of a life in which our humanity is enabled to be all that it is intended to be.
Our hope is that this week of events, called Human, will create opportunities to explore further what this all means. We’re just getting started. There is so much more to be said. Why not join us?
Thank you for reading. The Coffeehouse Cleric is a Medium publication dedicated to asking the big questions of life. It features writing on three main areas: minimalism, spirituality, and learning. If you enjoyed this piece, please do share it with friends and family on social media.
