FREEDOM of the

HUMAN PERSON

GIAN CARLO C. VILLAGRACIA

General Mariano Alvarez Technical HS 12
 TO THE LEARNERS

Here are some reminders as you use this module:

 Use the module with care especially in turning each page.
 Be reminded to answer the Pre-Test before moving on to the
Learning Module.
 Read and comprehend the directions in every exercises.
 Observe honesty in answering the tests and exercises.
 Do not put unnecessary mark/s on any part of this
material.
 Try to finish a given activity before proceeding to the next.
 12
Introduction to
the Philosophy
of the
Human Person
IMAGO DEI: The Origin of Freedom

GIAN CARLO C. VILLAGRACIA

Copyright 2019

1
 WHAT IS THIS MODULE ALL ABOUT?

This module serves as a learning resource material in understanding the

target competency expected in the curriculum.

TOPIC
IMAGO DEI: The Origin of Freedom

CONTENT STANDARD
The learner understands the human person’s freedom

PERFORMANCE STANDARD
The learner shows situations that demonstrate freedom of choice and
the consequences of choices

LEARNING COMPETENCY
PPT11/12-IIa-5.1: Realize that “all actions have consequences.”

The presented activities or exercises and texts are developed

in order to meet the following objectives:

1. Explain the Imago Dei doctrine as the origin of freedom

2. Correlate the faculty of reason and free will in everyday living

3. Realize that free will must always be inclined with reason

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 PRE-TEST

Read the following items carefully. Write the

letter of your answer in a separate sheet of
paper.

1. IMAGO DEI is a Latin phrase which means

A. Image of God
B. Mage of the Day
C. Image of Day
D. Freedom Day

2. What does philosophia ancilla theologiae means?

A. Philosophy is not like Theology

B. Philosophy is the handmaid of Theology
C. Philosophy bothers Theology
D. Philosophy contradicts Theology

3. What is the first gift given to humankind that is capable of

understanding the order of all things that God created?

A. Free will
B. Courage
C. Reason
D. Aspiration

4. What do you call the second gift which is also known as the faculty of
the mind that selects a desire at the moment of decision from among
the various desires present?

A. Courage
B. Reason
C. Aspiration
D. Free will

5. What did Adam and Eve feel after eating the forbidden fruit?

A. Guilt
B. Anxious
C. Excited
D. Satisfied

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6. It is an outstanding manifestation of the divine image.

A. Subjectivity
B. Freedom
C. Morality
D. Divinity

7. What do you call the inner voice that you hear that falls beneath the
faculty of reason?

A. Whisper
B. Gossips
C. Conscience
D. Inner persona

8. Where does freedom come from?

A. From EDSA revolution

B. From Jean Paul Sartre’s reflection
C. From the philosophers of the ancient times
D. From God

9. As Image Dei, we are bound to do -

A. Things that we want to do because we are free

B. Good and avoid evil
C. What is needed to do even it is bad
D. All that the people ask you to do

10. What is the essence of the Imago Dei?

A. We are given freedom to do anything we want

B. Reason is beyond and over free will
C. Freedom is just a matter of characteristic of a person
D. We are given the reason and free will that goes together

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 REWINDING THE PAST

Do you remember deep ecology? The concept of self-realization

speaks about the dignity of a human person that is co-equal with the
dignity of nature. There is a “deep” understanding of a human person
being one with nature and not being the apex of all species. If so, then
it is not just a duty but a moral and natural duty for us to care for the
environment and later realize that this order contributes to health, well-
being and sustainable development. We have this vocation to notice
things that are not in their proper place and organize them in an
aesthetic way. And most of all, as a human person, we shall be a
stewards of nature who demonstrate the virtues of prudence and
frugality towards mother earth.
But the journey does not end here. This is just the beginning of a
deeper discourse on a human person. And as we engage with the
essentials of being human, we must first talk about FREEDOM.

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 PLAYING THE CONCEPT

It seems that freedom is an easy topic

to discuss. When we see the word
“freedom”, our mind stimulates a lot of
ideas and memories at the same time.
Just like the famous image of these two
nuns present during the EDSA revolution.
When we speak about freedom, we always
incorporate it with the notion of freedom
that we got from a significant event in
EDSA. These people tried to get back the
freedom that is ours, and so they did.
But as philosophers, we ask,
“Is this the real meaning of freedom?”
Or even darker,

“Are we even truly free?”

To begin our discourse on freedom with these kinds of questions, we

might be deceived because of the presence of prejudices we have towards
this concept. This is the immediate reason why it is logical for us to begin
our discussion on freedom with its foundation. That’s why we ultimately
ask:

“What is the origin of freedom?”

We start with a Latin phrase: philosophia ancilla theologiae. This
phrase literally means "philosophy is the servant of theology." This phrase is
famous during the medieval period in philosophy and it was espoused by St.
Thomas Aquinas. There is a misconception here - everybody thought that
theology is above philosophy and vice versa because of the term ‘servant’.
But then again, we shall be clear that we use philosophy to understand
theology – “the idea was to improve theology, not to enslave philosophy.”

But why are we talking about this?

We are going to enter the realm of theology in order for us to

understand the origin of freedom. By the help of philosophy, we shall be
able to comprehend the deep origin of freedom in a theological perspective.
We can understand where freedom begins when we discuss the doctrine of
IMAGO DEI – the image of God. The doctrine speaks about the human
person being created in the image and likeness of God. So, where do we
tackle freedom in this doctrine? Let’s find out!

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 PAUSE AND TRY AN ACTIVITY

Do you still remember the story of the first Temptation?

Read each paragraph carefully. Arrange the story by placing the right
number inside the philosophical circles starting from 1 – 7 respectively.

Adam and Eve heard God calling them. Without thinking, they dived into
the bushes, but God knew where they were. When God asked them if they
had eaten from The Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil that He had
told them not to touch, they blamed each other for their sins.

"Oh come now, that's silly! I hardly think such a lovely fruit would do you
any harm," the serpent lied. "God knows that if you eat from The Tree of
the Knowledge of Good and Evil you'll become just like God, and will be
able to decide for yourself what is right and what is wrong."

One day, Adam and Eve were gathering berries for dinner when she heard
a silky voice behind her. "Has God told you that you can eat the fruit from
all the trees?" the voice asked softly. Eve turned around to see a snake
talking to her.

God was sad that Adam and Eve had disobeyed them. He told them that
they had to leave the Garden of Eden, "From now on you'll have to scratch
a living from the soil. You'll need to make clothes and grow food. Nothing
will come easily -- not even childbirth. And one day, you will die."

"God has told us we can eat all the fruit except for what grows on The Tree
of the Knowledge of Good and Evil," Eve told the serpent.

She felt a strange feeling in the pit of her stomach. She

fidgeted and wondered what was wrong with her.
Suddenly she realized that she was feeling guilty -- she had disobeyed God
and knew she'd done something wrong. As soon as they ate the fruit a
change came over Adam and Eve. They became unhappy and fearful of
God.

The woman looked at the fruit and thought how tasty it looked. She
thought how wonderful it would be to be as wise and powerful as God.
She believed the serpent's lie and ate the fruit and also gave some to
Adam, who was with her, and he took a bite as well.
(answers in page 14)

PAUSE AND ANALYZE THE ACTIVITY

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 Check the answers in page 14! Did you get the correct arrangement?
If yes, were you able to recall that old bible story?
Now, let examine each numbers and how they are related with the
origin of freedom.

The serpent has given them a certain problem to solve – the problem about

#1 ignorance. The creature wanted Adam and Eve to realize their ignorance
among the things around them. There is a feeling of contentment already,
but ignorance pushes man to desire more than what is enough.

Eve justifies what she knows. It is in a human person’s nature to cling on

#2 what you believe is good and true, and here we can see that it is her first
and immediate reaction towards an imposition of ignorance. That’s how a
human being reacts, and it’s all natural.

Here comes the temptation! After hitting hard on man’s pride and realizing

#3 the vulnerability of such being, the serpent stirs up Eve’s faculty of reason
– that what she knows doesn’t matter anymore; since there is a catch that
following one’s own will shall benefit her more than she truly knows.

Eve was totally eaten by her ego. All that she wanted was to be free – free

#4 from ignorance, free from malice, free from all things that may hurt her
especially her pride. This only shows how free will has taken over reason –
the inclination of bodily desire (to be better than God) without logical reason.

The guilty feeling is a mode of conscience. Whenever we do something bad

#5 and we realize that we should not have done that, pushes us towards the
feeling of guilt. This consequence is played by the mind itself – through
reason, overpowering the desires of body, making man feel unhappy.

“Without thinking, they dived into the bushes” – Adam and Eve’s logical

#6 thinking shattered them by guilt and made them feel fear and weary. Now
they blame each other, pointing out who shall be accountable for what
they did. This is what happens when our freedom is abused.

God made them left the paradise. This is a literal manifestation of “all

#7 actions have consequences.” Actions may be bad or good, but the truth
is the reality of consequences as part of man’s reason and will. Adam and
Eve abused their free will, and live the consequences of such act.

Upon breaking down the details of the story, how are we going to discuss
now the origin of freedom? How does IMAGO DEI tells us about freedom?

PLAYING THE CONCEPT ONCE AGAIN!

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 “So God created mankind in his own image,
in the image of God he created them;
male and female he created them.”

It is not difficult to comprehend this verse from Genesis when we fully

understand it through a philosophical perspective. Philosophy makes it
easier for us to understand our faith – hence, philosophia ancilla theologiae.
And so, what does it mean? And how does freedom originates from this?
Let’s take a look on a book entitled Catechism of the Catholic Church
where it explains the origin of freedom.

According to CCC, 1701 says “Christ, in the very revelation of the

mystery of the Father and of His love, makes man fully manifest to himself
and brings to light his exalted vocation.” It is in Christ, “the image of the
invisible God, that man has been created “in the image and likeness” of the
creator. It is in Christ, Redeemer and Savior, that the divine image, disfigured
in man by the first sin, has been restored to its original beauty and ennobled
by the grace of God. This supports the idea of man’s dignity – being created
in God’s image, a being that is GOOD and not evil. Thus, as 1702 says “the
divine image is present in every man.”
Moreover, 1703 wants us to contemplate on the truth about God’s will
to create humankind - Endowed with a spiritual and immortal soul, the
human person is “the only creature on earth that God has willed for its own
sake.”

In 1704, it reveals the gift of God towards man – the gift of REASON
and FREE WILL – as it says, “the human person participates in the light and
power of the divine Spirit. By his REASON, he is capable of understanding the

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order of things established by the Creator. By FREE WILL, he is capable of
directing himself toward his true good. He finds perfection in seeking and
loving what is true and good.”

The origin of freedom – a gift from God!

REASON FREE WILL

Faculty of intellect Faculty of the mind
that is capable of which selects a desire
understanding the at the moment of
order of all things decision from among the
that God created various desires present

Being created in God’s image and likeness!

1705 states the most important part of the doctrine: “by virtue of his
soul and his spiritual powers of intellect and will, man is endowed with
FREEDOM, an outstanding manifestation of the divine image.”

Freedom originates from God as a gift to mankind. The very essence of

man’s freedom is to do what is good and avoid what is evil. Free will is given
to us to incline ourselves to the Supreme Being, and on that note is a
manifestation of true and logical thinking.

IMAGO DEI does not guarantee us a perfection of life. We, humans,

are still bound to error and sin – there is an existence of struggle every
single day since good and evil still co-exist in man. But because of God’s
grace in which we shared with Him, we are being restored every time we
desire to follow His WILL. Our freedom must be towards doing the good so
that Christ’s passion and death shall not be in vain. Our freedom was given
to us in order for us to choose Christ’s in our life, because whoever believes
in Christ becomes a son of God – radiating the very essence of IMAGO DEI.

LET’S STOP AND APPLY WHAT WE HAVE LEARNED

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 Our freedom comes from the Supreme and Highest Being.

The essence of freedom in a human person is to do good and avoid

evil. Free will must always come with a rational and logical intellect. We do
good because we are naturally born as good. We may do bad things, but it
does not take away the gift of freedom within us – there is just a
corresponding consequence that we must be accountable of. So to bring
back the grace of goodness within our personhood, we follow the highest
good of all – doing the right thing always.

Let us apply this concept in our everyday living:

 All actions have consequences

o It is indeed true because of the ORDER of THINGS
o With the faculty of reason, we are capable of
understanding the order of things
o Therefore, in all beings alive, only the human person can
evaluate his/her own actions and the corresponding
consequences that may occur
o Example, we know that cheating is bad. But we want to
pass the quiz and we don’t want to fail it, so we attempt to
cheat and we’re able to pass it. At the end of the day there
is a guilty feeling, and that feeling is because we have
done something wrong. We are free to cheat, but be ready
to face the consequences of cheating.
o Now, what are the consequences? First, you may be able
to pass the quiz but never learned anything in life.
Second, your credentials might be questionable in the
future. Third, there is an order of things – one mistake
might affect all others, like a domino effect.

Let us not forget the concept of St. Thomas Aquinas:

Aquinas views the image of God in three senses. Firstly, the general
sense of the image of God is seen in all people because of their rational
faculty. Secondly, the richer or higher sense of the image of God is seen only
in believers who are being conformed to the grace of God (Christ), though they
are imperfect. Thirdly, the highest sense of the image of God is seen in
believers who have been glorified.
POST-TEST

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 Read the following items carefully. Write the
letter of your answer in a separate sheet of
paper.

1. IMAGO DEI is a Latin phrase which means

A. Image of God
B. Mage of the Day
C. Image of Day
D. Freedom Day

2. What does philosophia ancilla theologiae means?

A. Philosophy is not like Theology

B. Philosophy is the handmaid of Theology
C. Philosophy bothers Theology
D. Philosophy contradicts Theology

3. What is the first gift given to humankind that is capable of

understanding the order of all things that God created?

A. Free will
B. Courage
C. Reason
D. Aspiration

4. What do you call the second gift which is also known as the faculty of
the mind that selects a desire at the moment of decision from among
the various desires present?

A. Courage
B. Reason
C. Aspiration
D. Free will

5. What did Adam and Eve feel after eating the forbidden fruit?

A. Guilt
B. Anxious
C. Excited
D. Satisfied

12
6. It is an outstanding manifestation of the divine image.

A. Subjectivity
B. Freedom
C. Morality
D. Divinity

7. What do you call the inner voice that you hear that falls beneath the
faculty of reason?

A. Whisper
B. Gossips
C. Conscience
D. Inner persona

8. Where does freedom come from?

A. From EDSA revolution

B. From Jean Paul Sartre’s reflection
C. From the philosophers of the ancient times
D. From God

9. As Image Dei, we are bound to do -

A. Things that we want to do because we are free

B. Good and avoid evil
C. What is needed to do even it is bad
D. All that the people ask you to do

10. What is the essence of the Imago Dei?

A. We are given freedom to do anything we want

B. Reason is beyond and over free will
C. Freedom is just a matter of characteristic of a person
D. We are given the reason and free will that goes together

13
 LET’S REPLAY!

 IMAGO DEI means the IMAGE OF GOD

 The 'likeness of God' is moral, for human beings were

created good.

 When man fell, sin corrupted the moral likeness to God

and perverted the will.

 Man lost the supernatural grace that God had bestowed

upon him in the beginning but did not destroy man's
essential identity as a rational being.

 According to Aquinas, he points out that the fallen man

needs supernatural grace from God so that his moral
likeness may be restored.

 Aquinas identifies the image of God primarily in man's

rational faculty, intellect, or reason.

 He points out that rational, intellectual creatures are in the

image of God when he says: 'It is clear, therefore, that
intellectual creatures alone, properly speaking, are made
according to God's image

 FREEDOM is outstanding manifestation of the divine

image.

 The gifts of God to humankind is the faculty of REASON

and FREE WILL

 All action bears a certain consequence

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 Answer Key

Pre-Test

1. A
2. B
3. C
4. D
5. A
6. B
7. C
8. D
9. B
10. D

Post-Test

1. A
2. B
3. C
4. D
5. A
6. B
7. C
8. D
9. B
10. D

Answer in Activity:
#6
#3
#1
#7
#2
#5
#4

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 REFERENCES

(n.d.). Retrieved from https://everything2.com/title/Philosophia+ancilla+theologiae

(n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.scielo.org.za/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S1017-

04992016000100014

(n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.vatican.va/archive/ccc_css/archive/catechism/p3s1c1a1.htm

Vinzons, M. P. (2016). Introduction to the Philosophy of the Human Person. Quezon City: Vibal Group,
Inc.

Media Sources

http://theconversation.com/how-trees-communicate-via-a-wood-wide-web-65368

https://www.officialgazette.gov.ph/2015/02/25/english-speech-of-president-aquino-at-the-29th-
anniversary-of-edsa-revolution/

https://lifeteen.com/blog/more-than-a-rule-book-why-the-catechism-matters/

https://imagodei.dance/

https://www.vectorstock.com/royalty-free-vector/man-raises-his-hands-up-silhouette-vector-
17557912

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For inquiries, feedback and suggestions, please
contact the author through the Division Learning
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