Wolfhart Pannenberg

       T he human need for cosmic connection is one that most, if not all, human beings will experience. Such a desire is a human constant. Modern life has led to reflection upon alienation, the alienation we experience from Space and Time, that is, from Nature and History, that we experience because of the loss of the language of transcendence reflected in the philosophical unwillingness to discuss the Infinite and Eternal that arises because of the dominance of science. Science makes space and time tools for us to manage, and in doing so has improved the human condition. To suppose that we can give rational expression to all things human is to deny the significance of feeling and desire in understanding who we are. The disenchantment of the world that has occurred in modern philosophy and science needs a re-enchantment of the world through all creative, artistic expression, which one could explore in music and art, but is also clearly shown in poetic expression. Po...

My effort here is to explore with theologian the notion of human openness to the world as a way of re-thinking the classical notion of human creation in the image of God. I will do so primarily in dialogue with his Anthropology in Theological Perspective. The hint humanity may be more important than some science suggests lies in the openness of humanity to its world. [1] The ontological priority of humanity rests on the fact that humanity is the one species to whom its existence is a question to which, in the course of life, each individual must answer. Humanity is so open in fact, that we do not know the “end” for which it is here. In contrast, other animals have reached their evolutionary end. Such openness means that human beings do not “have” their human nature, but are on their way toward it. For this reason, as helpful as science is in helping us understanding the “selfish gene,” as Richard Dawkins put it, science will never define the nature and essence of humanity. Wi...