127 Christian Anthropology and the (W)Holistic Approach 3 answer to their own internal laws. These modal aspects are always present in the same structure and in mutual coherence. In man, as the highest form of creation in the temporal reality, all 15 are present: the quantitative, the spatial, the kinematic, the physical, the biotic/organic, the sensitive/psychic, the analytical, the formative, the lingual, the social, the economic, the aesthetic, the juridical, the ethical/attitudinal and the pistic/faith (Hengstmengel, 2015; van Woudenberg, 2015). The latter aspect can only function in a reality broken by sin through the faith connection to Christ, who as the incarnate son of God is the transcendental God-with-us. These modal aspects are a way of showing both the complexity of life and its coherence. Dooyeweerd’s approach can be considered fundamentally philosophical. Although his theological elaborations are sometimes subject to criticism (Hengstmengel, 2015, p. 187), he certainly had an impact on theology and Biblical anthropology as practiced by theologians. Dooyeweerd did not enter into discussion about theological issues concerning, for example, the ratio of body, soul and spirit—trichotomy or dichotomy—or the existence of the image of God in man after the fall—the Roman Catholic superadditum, the Calvinistic distinction between a stricter and a wider sense, or the Lutheran rejection of every form of godly image in unreconciled sinners (Stewart, 2003). Notwithstanding, his philosophical ideas led the theologian G.C. Berkouwer (1962) to dedicate an entire chapter of his anthropology to ‘the whole man’ (pp. 194-233), as already noted at the beginning of this section. Berkouwer started this chapter by observing that there is plenty of reason to focus on the whole man because without such a focus one can never truly encounter the mystery of his existence. In relation to man’s physicality in particular, Berkouwer regularly perceived reductionism. With Dooyeweerd, he characterised the Biblical view of man as one that does not seek attention for man himself but reserves all attention for his relation to God. The Biblical view of man is profoundly religious, with explicit attention paid towards all kinds of cosmic and interpersonal relations. Man as man of God (1 Tim. 6:11) perishes by His anger but prospers by His goodness and mercy. Without the connection to God, man is just impossible, a phantom, a creation of abstract thinking who is unable to realise his coherence with what surrounds him. This man, ‘in the impossibility of his being isolated and independent’ is, according to Berkouwer ‘the whole man’ (1962, p. 198). Berkouwer proved convincingly that the typical, non-scientific speech of Scripture does not justify an analysis of man in a trichotomy (body, soul and spirit), nor in a dualistic substance dichotomy (body/flesh and soul/spirit). Biblical terms such as flesh, body, spirit, soul, heart, mind and kidney are,
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