Adventist Anthropology

Abstract

This chapter traces the development of the theological ideas that intersect to form a distinct anthropology that undergirds this emphasis on health and helps explain the relationship between Seventh-day Adventist anticipation and activity. The overview falls into two general sections, first focusing on matters of constitution, that is the makeup of human beings ontologically before turning to issues of capability, that is, what humans are intended to and can morally and spiritually achieve. Adventist understandings on both matters were formed in the context of eschatological expectation, resulting in the affirmation of conditionalism and annihilationism and an emphasis on personal sanctification that includes healthful living and caring for the health of others. The emerging view will be located within the broader spectrum of Christian theological anthropology, one that is un-Platonic when it comes to matters of constitution and Wesleyan when it comes to capability.