ABSTRACT
Human being is the object of study in the social and many of the natural sciences; it is the focal subject of the humanities as the name implies. Human being is also important in the study of theology, in that it represents one corner of the triangular worldview. The study of human being gives holistic theology its dialectical method as one moves back and forth between the concepts God, world and humanity. The dialectic implies that theology can give to the study of humanity insights uniquely expressed in terms of nature and the religious ideal. The dialectic implies that rather than so-called value-free, objective portraits of humanity given in isolation from nature and the religious ideal, we are better served by frank admission of the context of humanity within our worldviews. Comparative theology is especially useful in this regard in that it highlights the contextual features of one's worldview across cultural and traditional boundaries.
