What does it mean to be human? The answers to this question are many and varied. To the robot on your computer, identifying and clicking pictures of traffic lights proves that you’re human. For others, to be human is to be wise—we are homo sapiens. What it means to be human is an age-old and puzzling question. Yet traditional African cultures affirm the Genesis story that God created mankind from the ground as male and female.
God created mankind from the ground.
This widespread belief tells us at least five things about what it means to be human. First, we are creatures made in God’s image. Second, we’re finite, having limits and bounds. Third, to be human means to be male or female. Fourth, God created humans for community. Finally, we both depend on and have a duty towards the rest of creation. This article will briefly expound on why these five points are essential for our identity as human beings.
God Created Humans in His Image
First, to be human is to be created by God (Genesis 1:26-27). We are not accidents, but creatures made and known by supreme wisdom. We all are products of divine intentionality and owe our existence and identity to God. To be truly human is to live as God’s creatures—made by him and for his purposes.
We are not accidents, but creatures made and known by supreme wisdom.
Not only are we made, but unlike other creatures, we are created in God’s image and likeness. In ancient cultures, images of wood and stone were believed to mediate the presence of the gods. Likewise, people in places like Mesopotamia and Egypt saw kings and priests as the likeness of the gods. But the Bible teaches that all human beings are made in the image of God, a concept that connotes relational (and representational) existence.
To be human is to have the potential to consciously relate with God as his children (Genesis 5:3), thereby being like Jesus, God’s image as Son (2 Corinthians 4:4; Colossians 1:15; Hebrews 1:2-3). And only as image bearers can we have universal ‘human’ rights.
God Made Us Male and Female
Not only are we created in God’s image, but also, we are made male and female. As the Theological Dictionary of the Old Testament insists, “Only in the polarity of man and woman are human beings made in the image of God.” That is, the complementary male-female qualities properly reflect the image and likeliness of God, and as such, male-female sexuality is fundamental to personhood.
The complementary male-female qualities properly reflect the image of God.
To be human is to be male or female with nothing in between. This means that gender spectrums and their subsequent confusions are not part of God’s good creation, unlike the sexual distinctions, which at creation are ‘very good’ (Genesis 1:31).
Humans Are Bound, Finite Creatures
That we are created male and female means that we are finite. We are beings with distinct bodies, occupying one space at a time in a long chain of causal human existence. We are limited in what we know and can do, and we live in a world uncreated by us, separate from and independent from us. These limits shape our identity in interactions with space and ‘other’ creatures like and unlike ourselves. The confines of space and matter, shaped or unshaped, are molds through which God forms and reforms us. Limitations reveal and remould our humanity.
Limitations reveal and remould our humanity.
We need not fight this finitude. For, by seeking to remove the limits that make us human, we risk losing our humanity. Cybernetics, robotics, artificial intelligence, and genetic engineering all labour to mitigate human limitations. But if our finitude is core to what it means to be human (as opposed to sin and death), then fighting finitude is fighting our nature. We may very well succeed. However, as we race to produce a ‘perfect’ race, we may lose ourselves or modify humanity into robots. To be human is to be limited in knowledge, space, and time—which is good.
Created for Community
Facing our finitude is good because it highlights our need for God and one another. To be human is to have friends and family. We are truly human in a community. But modernisation tends to move us away from human interactions.
It is not good to be alone.
Self-checkouts in supermarkets mean you can avoid one more face. Food takeaways make it easy to eat alone, and Kindle Fire saves you the smiles of a salesperson at the bookstore or the smell of touched books. It is even easier to ‘like’ a flawless Facebook image of a person than the flawed person himself or to replace hearty laughter with a friend over evening tea with laughing emojis on WhatsApp. And the ability to be global citizens also tends to remove the boundedness within which we are seen and known. Yet, to be human is to be a people of a place and a particular period, known by neighbors and tethered to a territory.
Thus, less human touch tends to translate into loneliness and depression. To be human is to exist in dependent relationships with others, for it is not good to be alone (Genesis 2:18). Hence, Africans have always defined Ubuntu (humanness) as existing in community. To be a human being is to recognise the humanity of others and, on that basis, establish humane relations with them. We are truly human when we truly depend on God and other human beings.
We Depend on and Have a Duty Towards Creation
Lastly, to be human is to exercise ‘dominion’ over creation as God’s representatives. This royal rule is for the flourishing of nature and is reflected in responsible stewardship and creation care. Being made from the earth and depending on it, God gave humanity a responsibility to ‘tend and care’ for plants and land (Genesis 2:15), animals (Proverbs 12:10; 27:23), and birds and sea creatures (Genesis 1:26).
Destroying nature dehumanises us.
As creatures dependent on creation, destroying nature dehumanises us. To be human is to be in harmony with creation, which explains why there is an “increased psychological well-being upon exposure to natural features and environments.”
Only God Can Tell You Who You Really Are
It is difficult to ascertain what it means to be human. But our identity and function are tied to our being created in God’s image, as male and female. God made us finite, bound by space and time to live in community and care for creation. To lose this essential truth is to lose ourselves.
