Class 1: Christian Anthropology: Man’s Capacity for God

This class focuses on the philosophical vision of the world and of human nature that constitutes the logical premise of Christian Revelation. God can reveal Himself only to beings who are able to welcome His message. These beings need a certain notion and desire of God already available to them at the “natural” level: that is, at the level that comes before the “supernatural” truths to be accepted by faith.

Before the “supernatural revelation” of God, the world itself reveals to the human being the existence of God as the Creator and the ultimate end of everything (“natural revelation”).
The Catechism of the Catholic Church opens with a chapter entitled “Man’s Capacity for God.” This chapter explains that we are made to enter in communion with God. This is the main source of our dignity. “Our heart is restless until it rests in” God (St. Augustine) and our mind can reach God “with certainty from the created world” (Vatican Council I). Without this “capacity for God,” He could not “come to meet us” (second chapter of the Catechism) and we could not believe in Him (third chapter of the Catechism).

This class provides an explanation of the beginning of the Catechism and of the conceptual features of its first chapter, which is mostly about Christian anthropology and philosophy of God.