A reply to Rob on human dignity and the views of Anders Nygren

 

 

Thanks to Rob for his posting regarding the Lutheran bishop Anders Nygren’s work. Rob has asked the question regarding Nygren’s potential influence on Martin Luther King, Jr. I am not commenting on that influence because we do not have what King offered in response to Nygren nor his confession of Nygren’s influence on him, King. However, Rob asks the fair question regarding whether Nygren’s quoted passage reflects Catholic teachings and perspective regarding human dignity?

Rob believes the answer is “yes”.

I am unwilling to join Rob on this point—especially in the context of Nygren’s views on what he calls “creative love”.

Knowing that we are discussing human dignity, something discussed here at Mirror of Justice in the past, Nygren is quoted as saying, “The man who is loved by God has no value in himself; what gives him value is precisely the fact that God loves him.” I am not disputing Nygren’s point that God loves the individual human person. I am concerned about his statement the person “has no value in himself.”

This point made by Nygren does not coincide with that made by John Paul II who, relying on the work of Jacques Maritain, stated that the dignity that is due man is due him because he is man. This point does not correspond to Nygren’s perspective and his notion of “creative love”. The human person is indeed a part of God’s creation, but it is God who made each person in His image, and it is this image that commands respect, dignity regardless of that which makes one person different and distinct from the other. Nygren’s statement suggests that the person has no value until God decides to love him after his creation—if God decides to love him at all. John Paul II appears to suggest that God wanted to love man and, therefore, created him. God puts the love first. Nygren implies that God’s love of His creation came as an afterthought.

 

RJA sj