Part I — How Philosophical Traditions Collapse the Triadic Man

Every philosophy implicitly answers: What is a human?
The triadic model says humans possess:

1. Embodiment — physical, biological, vulnerable existence
2. Intellect — rational, linguistic, symbolic cognition
3. Volition — moral-spiritual agency, the capacity to choose truth or falsehood

Most philosophical traditions collapse the three into one or two dimensions.
Below is a high-resolution diagnostic.

1. Materialist Philosophies

Examples: Physicalism, eliminative materialism, neuroscience reductionism

Collapse: Everything → Embodiment

• Intellect = brain computation
• Volition = illusion

Signature claim:
“Your choices are predetermined by biology or physics.”

Result:
No true agency, no moral responsibility.

2. Rationalist Philosophies

Examples: Plato, Descartes, Enlightenment rationalism

Collapse: Volition + Embodiment → Intellect

• Body = lesser or illusory
• Will = servant of knowledge

Signature claim:
“To know the good is to do the good.”

Result:
Sin becomes ignorance; will is not free.

3. Will-Centric Philosophies

Examples: Nietzsche, Schopenhauer, existential voluntarism

Collapse: Intellect + Embodiment → Volition

• Truth = will-to-power
• Reason = rationalized desire
• Body = instrument of will

Signature claim:
“Values are created by the will.”

Result:
Morality collapses into self-assertion.

4. Mystical/Monistic Philosophies

Examples: Advaita Vedanta, Buddhist non-self doctrine, Neoplatonism

Collapse: Triad → One substance

• Body = illusion
• Intellect = illusion
• Will = illusion

Signature claim:
“The separate self is unreal.”

Result:
No moral agency; salvation = dissolution.

5. Social-Determinist Philosophies

Examples: Marxism, structuralism, Foucauldian theory

Collapse: Volition → Social Forces

• Will = ideology
• Mind = product of class or discourse
• Body = labor unit

Signature claim:
“Freedom is a bourgeois illusion.”

Result:
No personal responsibility; coercion becomes justified.

6. Modern Liberal Individualism

Examples: Locke, Jeffersonian humanism, Rawls

Collapse: Volition → Preference

• Will = self-expression
• Truth = opinion
• Body = rights-holder

Signature claim:
“Freedom is choosing without interference.”

Result:
Moral order dissolves; truth becomes optional.

Part II — How Jesus Christ Affirms the Triadic Man

Unlike philosophical systems, Christ affirms all three dimensions of human nature without collapsing any of them, and He places them in their proper relational hierarchy.

1. Christ Affirms Embodiment

Not as illusion, not as prison, but as good and redeemable.

• Incarnation: “The Word became flesh.”
• Resurrection of the body
• Healing ministry
• Feeding the hungry
• “This is my body”
• Post-resurrection physicality

Christ rejects Gnostic, Platonic, and monistic contempt for the body.

2. Christ Affirms Intellect

But does not place intellect at the top.

• “Love the Lord… with all your mind.”
• Parables activate cognitive discernment
• Rebukes for misunderstanding Scripture
• Dialogues with Nicodemus and scribes

Christ affirms intellect as real, necessary, and truth-directed.
But He simultaneously reveals that intellect alone is insufficient.

3. Christ Affirms Volition as the Decisive Axis

This is where His anthropology is unparalleled.

• “If anyone wills to do God’s will, he will know the truth.”
• “Where your treasure is, your heart will be.”
• “You cannot serve two masters.”
• “Follow me.”
• “Repent.”
• “Whoever wills to save his life will lose it.”
• In Gethsemane: “Not my will, but Yours.”

Here Christ overturns Plato:
Knowing the good does not guarantee doing the good.

The will must align with truth before intellect can see clearly.

Part III — Christ’s Anthropology as Fully Triadic

Christ preserves and integrates all three dimensions:

Embodiment

Real, created good, destined for resurrection.

Intellect

Capable of illumination or darkness; truth-oriented but not sovereign.

Volition

The seat of allegiance, obedience, sin, repentance, and salvation.

No world philosopher before or after Christ articulates all three this cleanly or gives volition primacy without collapsing into voluntarism or determinism.

Part IV — Christ Rejects All Reductions of Human Nature

Against Materialism:

“Man does not live by bread alone.”

Against Rationalism:

“You do not understand because you cannot bear my word.”

Against Nietzschean Voluntarism:

“He who would be greatest must be servant of all.”

Against Mystical Dissolution:

“I go to prepare a place for you.”

Against Social Determinism:

“You must be born again.”

Christ does not collapse the human person.
He restores the person.

Part V — Summary: Christ and the Triadic Man

Christ alone:

• affirms all three axes,
• locates them properly,
• heals their distortions,
• and makes volition the hinge of truth.

He sees humans as:

Embodied → Rational → Volitional
in that precise, irreducible order.

Conclusion

Every philosophical system collapses the triadic man into one or two dimensions.
But Jesus Christ:

• affirms embodiment without materialism,
• affirms intellect without rationalism,
• affirms volition without voluntarism,
• and restores all three as a unity of personhood.

Christ is not a philosopher proposing a model.
He is the only figure in intellectual history who recognizes and redeems the entire human ontology