On Being Human

In a world of escalating violence, the challenge of getting along with others in our diversifying communities is inescapable. As so much of human suffering stems from fearing difference, overcoming this trepidation begins by learning about our neighbors. Yet, coming to grips with otherness is not purely an academic endeavor, for the effects of globalization, ranging from multinational corporations to inter-religious dialogue, have made the process of engaging difference an everyday occurrence. Integrating insights from the fields of theology, philosophy, psychology, as well as mythology, an embodied anthropological subject emerges based precisely in the unavoidable trace of the Other. Through an analysis of the work of Jesuit theologian Bernard J.F. Lonergan, Saracino argues that even as Christian theology is a valuable resource for explaining subjectivity in terms of openness to the Other in mind, will, and body, it is the conversation with contemporary continental theory, particularly that of Emmanuel Levinas, that reveals the concrete, corporeal possibilities of this openness in everyday life. Blending these two discourses, subjectivity is framed as protean, in which the subject is postured, molded, and shaped by the difference the Other brings to the encounter. The risk-filled journey we call being human is not performed only in intellectual propositions or moral dictates, but in an affective, emotive drama with the Other. In asserting that feelings evoked by the Other are the ground of human existence, the field of theological anthropology is pushed to embrace the changing, protean, embodied, and ultimately sacramental dimensions of being human.