Forming Humanity as Threefold Task

The theological task can fruitfully be framed as that of forming humanity in the face of recognizing our inhumanity when this is interpreted as a restatement of the Twofold Love Commandment. We can identify three distinct phases of reflection on the formation of humanity – the archaic, historicist, and evolutionary. The movement from one to the next does not represent theological or ethical progress, but it does reflect heightened reflexivity of the ways in which the reditus of creation to God lies in our hands – and of our incapacity for this task and our dependence on grace.