What is a Human?

Never before in the West have we asked such pressing questions about the nature of humanity than we do today. Questions of gender, sex, marriage, race, beginning and end of life—to name just a few—swirl around us in crosscurrents often too swift to anchor down. Why is this? And does the church have a clear voice in such matters?

It is clear that we are living in a time of great anthropological confusion. We do not know what a human is.  It is very difficult, therefore, to speak of any of the matters listed above—for they all must be considered derivatively of a precise anthropology.

Dr. David Schrock (who will be teaching our Church in the 21st Century course this fall) commented to me recently, “The doctrine of humanity has not had its Nicaea or its Chalcedon.” By that he meant that the church has not been pressed to clearly articulate its anthropology, as the very basic scriptural teachings on humanity have historically been easy to articulate in whatever culture the gospel has penetrated.

But today is different. The following video is a sermon I preached earlier this month at Geist Community Church. We typically do not feature sermons on this blog, nor do I imagine this will be any great leap forward for the church’s thinking on this matter. But it does start us in the right place: creation in the image of God. I hope you’ll be edified by the message.

• Dr. Nicholas G. Piotrowski is the President and Academic Dean at Indianapolis Theological Seminary.