摘要
The thesis of this paper is a refutation of Wale Adenuga’s claim that the human person is nothing but a pencil in the hand of the creator.The paper adopts a hermeneutical approach from an Igbo conception of the human person.It posits that in Igbo worldview,the human person occupies a central position because mankind is at the very centre of existence;hence is seen as the goodness or beauty of life(mma ndu)or the good or beauty that is(mma du{di}).While conceding the plausibility of a pencil being capable of doing great things when guided by a good hand,the paper maintains that from the point of view of Igbo ontology,the human person is distinctively more than a mere pencil in the hand of the creator because mankind is endowed with high intellectual capacity,freedom,and creativity on the basis of which it seen as both the beauty that is(mma du)or the beauty or goodness of life(mma ndu).Thus,the paper concludes that the fact that the human person is endowed with these attributes provides rational grounds to render Wale Adenuga’s concept of the human person as“nothing but a pencil in the hand of the creator”futile.
