Prizing highly the marvellous biblical message, the Church's social doctrine stops to dwell above all on the principal and indispensable dimensions of the human person. Thus it is able to grasp the most significant facets of the mystery and dignity of human beings. In the past there has been no lack of various reductionist conceptions of the human person, many of which are still dramatically present on the stage of modern history. These are ideological in character or are simply the result of widespread forms of custom or thought concerning mankind, human life and human destiny. The common denominator among these is the attempt to make the image of man unclear by emphasizing only one of his characteristics at the expense of all the others233Cf. Paul VI, Apostolic Letter Octogesima Adveniens, 26-39: AAS 63 (1971), 420-428..
The human person may never be thought of only as an absolute individual being, built up by himself and on himself, as if his characteristic traits depended on no one else but himself. Nor can the person be thought of as a mere cell of an organism that is inclined at most to grant it recognition in its functional role within the overall system. Reductionist conceptions of the full truth of men and women have already been the object of the Church's social concern many times, and she has not failed to raise her voice against these, as against other drastically reductive perspectives, taking care to proclaim instead that “individuals do not feel themselves isolated units, like grains of sand, but united by the very force of their nature and by their internal destiny, into an organic, harmonious mutual relationship”234Pius XII, Encyclical Letter Summi Pontificatus: AAS 31 (1939), 463.. She has affirmed instead that man cannot be understood “simply as an element, a molecule within the social organism”235John Paul II, Encyclical Letter Centesimus Annus, 13: AAS 83 (1991), 809., and is therefore attentive that the affirmation of the primacy of the person is not seen as corresponding to an individualistic or mass vision.
Christian faith, while inviting that whatever is good and worthy of man should be sought out wherever it may be found (cf. 1 Thes 5:21), “is above and is sometimes opposed to the ideologies, in that it recognizes God, who is transcendent and the Creator, and who, through all the levels of creation, calls on man as endowed with responsibility and freedom”236Paul VI, Apostolic Letter Octogesima Adveniens, 27: AAS 63 (1971), 421.. The Church's social doctrine strives to indicate the different dimensions of the mystery of man, who must be approached “in the full truth of his existence, of his personal being and also of his community and social being”237John Paul II, Encyclical Letter Redemptor Hominis, 14: AAS 71 (1979), 284., with special attention so that the value of the human person may be readily perceived.