What is the Human Being?: Nature, Soul, Death and Christ in the Tomb, with Thomas M. Ward, Ph.D. (Ep. 17)

"I look up at your heavens, shaped by your fingers,
At the moon and the stars you set firm—
What are human beings that you spare a thought for them,
Or the child of Adam that you care for him?"

Psalm 8

This psalm is surely not the only time we find a biblical author marveling at the mystery of man. Wondering as to what exactly the human person is, and why it is that God the Creator would pay us a moment's notice. And surely it isn't just the authors of Sacred Scripture that have expressed their perplexity when considering what it is that we are; philosophers, poets, stand-up comics, all have ruminated over what exactly we are, why it is that we are so like the other animals, yet how it is also the case that there are aspects of our nature that are radically beyond these other creatures.

Addressing our nature, the Catechism of the Catholic Church phrases matters in this way:

"The human person, created in the image of God, is a being at once corporeal and spiritual. . . . The unity of soul and body is so profound that one has to consider the soul to be the 'form' of the body: i.e., it is because of its spiritual soul that the body made of matter becomes a living, human body; spirit and matter, in man, are not two natures united, but rather their union forms a single nature." (Nos. 362 and 365)

My guest today, on board to discuss all of this in expert fashion, is Thomas Ward. Tom is a professor of philosophy at Baylor University, and has degrees in Philosophy and Theology from UCLA and Oxford, respectively. 

His doctoral dissertation was written on the topic we discuss in this episode, namely, the thought of John Duns Scotus on the topic of hylomorphism, a conceptual framework that has informed much of Catholic thinking over the centuries on the nature of material reality, and the human being in particular. 

1. Tom's Website
2. Divine Ideas by Thomas M. Ward from Cambridge University Press
3. John Duns Scotus on Parts, Wholes, and Hylomorphism by Thomas M. Ward
4. Tom on Instagram
5. John Duns Scotus t-shirt designed by the Curious Catholic Podcast

Support the show

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit curiouscatholicpodcast.substack.com