Human Dignity In Christianity
The dignity of human person is scared we humans have a value that cannot put a price on it humans are irreducibly important, if we took anything in this world to match with a person will see that the value of a person is worth more than anything in this world. As the holy father Pope France state “Things have a price and can be for sale, but people have a dignity that is priceless and worth far more than things (Doherty, 2014).” Human beings are made in the image and likeness of God (Ragnar, 2012). Human beings are endowed with the reason and free well, capable of relating to God and one another as human beings by sharing their inner lives with others which they can understand the relationship between man and God. Human dignity is shared by all human beings from conception every single person has same dignity.
The believe of dignity is rooted from God because we are created in the image and likeness of God (Gn 1:26-27). “Life on the earth, however good and desirable in itself, is not the final purpose for which man is created; it is only the way and the means to that attainment of truth and that love of goodness in which the full life of the soul which is made in the image and likeness of God. In this respect all men are equal, there is no difference between rich and poor, master and servant, ruler and ruled, for the same is Lord over all (Leo, 1903). No man may with impurity outrage that human dignity which God himself treats with great reverence, nor stand in the way of that higher life which is the preparation of the eternal life of heaven (Novarum, 1891).”
In Christianity we understand that our dignity has been deepened in measurably we receive our dignity from our creation by the word becoming fresh by God become man. God love human nature and take that nature to itself by becoming man to fulfill his father’s promise in the book of Genesis. There are two forms of expressing our dignity the negative form and the positive form. Negative form person is the kind of good which does not admit of use and cannot be treated as an object of use and as the means to an end. This means that man should be respected and man should not be used as an object to describe or to things that are disrespectful as human persons. The positive form the person is a good toward which the only proper and adequate attitude is love. In this states that all mankind must be respected and love and treated fairly that every person has the same human dignity in common dispute race, religion or skin color we all have the same dignity.
Pope John Paul II One of the most debatable topic on how human dignity is measured in work, like the wage slavery is one thing that is not in content with human dignity. For instances we take people that could not find any work available and are force to work just to stay live and to sustain their families by supporting them in the wage that they get from the work but they are paid less than the labor they have done (May, 2007). The personalist norm expressed by Pope John Paul II almost a century after Rerum Navum’s publishing makes it clearer Pope Leo III’s calls for the employers to recognize the dignity of their workers and of cause vice-versa. “A small number of a very rich men have been able to lay upon the teeming masses of the laboring poor a yoke little better than that of slavery itself (Novarum, 1891). Many people in this around the world in other countries have being denied by their governing
References:
- Doherty, D. (2014, January 1). Pope Francis in His Own Words. Retrieved August 20, 2018, from townhall: https://townhall.com/tipsheet/danieldoherty/2014/01/01/pope-francis-in-his-own-words-n1766489
- Leo, P. (1903). A Light in the Heavens. In P. L. III, A Light in the Heavens. Retrieved August 28, 2018, from https://books.google.com.pg/books
- Ragnar. (2012, August 27). In the Image of God. Retrieved August 25, 2018, from Consider the Gospel: https://considerthegospel.org/2012/08/27/in-the-image-of-god/
