THE DIALECTIC OF HUMAN DIGNITY AND HUMAN FINITUDE IN THE PSALMS AND THE WISDOM LITERATURE

• Douglas Lawrie Religion and Theology University of the Western Cape

DOI: https://doi.org/10.7833/105-0-161

Keywords: Dignity, Finitude, Psalm 8, Job, Ecclesiastes

Abstract

The creation stories in Genesis, when read together, suggest that humans are marked by both dignity and finitude or frailty. This same dialectic appears paradigmatically in Psalm 8 and, it is argued, also in the rest of the Psalter. In spite of the major difference in perspective, the same anthropology is presupposed in Proverbs. In a section of Job and in Qoheleth, however, there are attempts to dissolve the dialectic. In the culmination of his argument, Job speaks of a form of human dignity that stands apart from human frailty; in Qoheleth human frailty eclipses human dignity. It is argued that the main line in the Old Testament maintains the dialectical tension and that Christian theologians should do likewise. Theologically one should indeed go further and speak of human queenship and sinfulness. The paper ends by suggesting than room should also be left for forms of human indignity that stand apart from finitude and sinfulness.