Quotes about Personhood

Only a God of love is fully personal. Thus the Trinity is crucial for maintaining a fully personal concept of God. As theologian Robert Letham writes, "Only a God who is triune can be personal.… A solitary monad cannot love and, since it cannot love, neither can it be a person." Therefore it "has no way to explain or even to maintain human personhood.

surprising as it may sound, pantheism is not really all that different from materialism. It is the flip side of the same coin. Materialism states that everything consists of material stuff. Pantheism states that everything consists of spiritual stuff. Both are non-personal. As a result, both worldviews fail to account for human personhood.

Christianity liberates us from any life-denying reductionism that dishonors and debases humanity. It affirms the high dignity of humans as full persons made in the image of a personal God.

The logic against them could not be more elementary. First, the unborn entity is an actual being, it is alive. If this were not so, there would be no need for an abortion. The very purpose of the abortion is to kill that which is alive. Second, this being is human. What else could it be? Feline? Canine? Bovine? As Congressman Henry Hyde once quipped, "No woman has ever given birth to a Golden Retriever." Human beings give birth to human beings.

Using the language of the One-and Many question we contend that in God the one and many are equally ultimate.... Unity in God is no more fundamental than diversity, and diversity in God is no more fundamental than unity. The persons of the Trinity are mutually exhaustive of one another. The Son and the Spirit are ontologically on par with the Father.

If we don't want a baby, we must take responsibility for our actions before a baby becomes a reality. God has made us capable of having babies, and when one has been conceived, it is His intention for that child to come into the world. The moment the child is conceived, he is a person, and to abort a pregnancy is murder of a human being.

Man must reconcile himself to his natural greatness.... he must not forget that he is a person.

For the contemplative there is no cogito ("I think") and no ergo ("therefore") but only SUM, I AM. Not in the sense of a futile assertion of our individuality as ultimately real, but in the humble realization of our mysterious being as persons in whom God dwells, with infinite sweetness and inalienable power.

humble realization of our mysterious being as persons in whom God dwells, with infinite sweetness and inalienable power.

I once wanted to prove myself by being a great actress. Now I want to prove that I'm a person. Then maybe I'll be a great actress.

God could have created us to be automatons who were always choosing the right side, making the right decision. It is an incredible thing, God said "I want persons" who therefore have freedom.

I myself am made up of so many people.