The Human Person: Three Perspectives for the Twenty-first Century

Q: What does this research mean for the field?

Viewing the human person through the lenses of mystery, process, and porosity offers a necessary alternative to the inadequate uncritical individualism of contemporary Western culture. Novelty: ClaimNovelty.INCREMENTAL. Consensus alignment: ConsensusAlignment.CHALLENGES_CONSENSUS.

Sally Nelson

doi:10.1080/0005576x.2026.2707770

August 21, 2026Baptist QuarterlyOpen Access

The Human Person: Three Perspectives for the Twenty-first Century

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Key Points

To examine multifaceted models of human personhood to address the limitations of dominant individualistic frameworks in contemporary Western thought.
Conceptual and philosophical exploration analyzing the enduring, contextual, embodied, and relational dimensions of human identity.
Identifies uncritical individualism as an inadequate paradigm when used in isolation to understand human nature.
Presents three alternative lenses of personhood: person as mystery, person in process, and person as porous.
Argues that integrating relationality and embodiment provides a more comprehensive framework for 21st-century personhood.

Implication

Conceptual analysis explores three perspectives on human personhood in contemporary culture, highlighting limitations of uncritical individualism.

Abstract

What is it to be a person? This centuries-old debate continues to grapple with the human person understood as contextual yet enduring, individual and relational, embodied and mysterious. This essay explores three perspectives on the human person which offer a response to the (often assumed) uncritical individualism of contemporary western culture, which is useful but inadequate by itself. The person as mystery, the person in process, and the person as porous will be explored.

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Cite This Study

Sally Nelson (2026) studied this question.

synapsesocial.com/papers/6a8c009fbca056c88e6df62e https://doi.org/10.1080/0005576x.2026.2707770

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The Human Person: Three Perspectives for the Twenty-first Century

Key Points

Implication

Abstract

Discussion

Cite This Study

The Human Person: Three Perspectives for the Twenty-first Century

Key Points

Implication

Abstract

Discussion

Cite This Study

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