Welcome to Defenders, the teaching class of Dr. William Lane Craig. Today, the Doctrine of Man,

Part 1. For more information and resources from Dr. Craig, go to reasonable faith.org.

Well, today we begin a new locus in our survey of Christian doctrine. For the past many months, it seems like

well over a year now, we've been studying the doctrine of creation. When you think that

the doctrine of creation includes within its scope everything in existence apart from God himself,

then it's no surprise that it should be a subject that would merit such a lengthy and in-depth discussion.

But having completed that locus now, we turn to a brand new section of the course devoted to the doctrine of man.

Psalm 8 raises the question, what is man, that thou art mindful of him?

There are different approaches to answering this fundamental question about the nature of man.

Let's compare and contrast these approaches to anthropology.

First, empirical anthropology.

Empirical anthropology can be defined as a collection for a whole series of

sciences which respectively investigate different aspects of man through the observation of

analyzable phenomena, through experimentation, and through the consequences of the data investigated.

So, for example, empirical anthropology would include studies on the biological origins of man.

Where did the human species come from?

It asks what, if anything, makes humans unique?

What serves to differentiate humanity from the rest of the animal kingdom.

It studies the relationship of the brain and states of consciousness, the famous mind-body problem.

Psychoanalysis and psychology would be included in empirical anthropology as would be social studies.

All of these provide partial answers, at least, to the question, what is man?

Philosophical anthropology, by contrast, tries to answer the question, who is man?

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