This event is part of the Keough School’s Dignity and Development Forum. We invite the global community to join us virtually in March 2022. The Notre Dame campus community is invited to join us in person.
Integral Human Development, a holistic vision of human flourishing articulated in Catholic theology but resonant in multiple global religious traditions, holds that human dignity is not bestowed or taken away by the state, but rather inherent in being human, that is, a person created in the image and likeness of God. The spiritual dimension of the human person is central to this theological anthropology. Secular approaches overlap with this perspective on integral humanity, but can also stand in tension with it. Human beings, it is acknowledged, have overlapping identities grounded in biology and culture. Like other complex systems, we respond, physically and emotionally, in non-linear and dynamic ways to external stimuli. Some scientists posit that consciousness is an emergent property of the brain. In any case, the world routinely requires us to suppress parts of our conscious selves, our complex material and spiritual identity, in professional and public settings. This multifaith panel features a conversation about the complexity of the human person in relation to “integral human development,” a concept that animates the Keough School.