“Through Him, With Him, In Him: The Restoration of Man's Original Identity Through Christ” 

The Fall of Man and its consequences is essential to understanding humanity’s relationship with Christ. “Through Him, With Him, In Him: The Restoration of Man’s Original Identity Through Christ” examines how Christ’s full humanity allows humanity to have a better connection with God than humanity had before the Fall. 

Daniel Marcinak found his passion for his essays through his LC Theology and Philosophy classes his first semester. He loved them so much that he is planning on pursuing the two subjects as a double minor, making his Business major to a minor. His passion and love for the subject is evident in his paper, which examines the image of Christ and its importance in human salvation.

“We [students in his theology class] had briefly gone over some of the concepts I touched on in my paper,” in his first semester theology class and that his prompt was to try to present something students  didn't necessarily go over in class, something that they  wanted to go more in depth with.  “I chose one of the sub prompts under that, which was ‘How is Christ the savior of the world?’” Marcinak said.

“If we know that Christ’s image is so in that way we could be saved,” Marcinak explained, “From there, it was, how does that image restore our own image because we are made in the image and likeness of God?”  In the essay, Marcinak defines three different harmonies that exist between humanity and God before the fall and how Christ restores those harmonies and betters them. This contemplation led him down the path of what would become a 2023 Phi Beta Kappa FYE winning paper. Papers eligible for these awards are those written in freshman year Learning Community Classes, where students take a sequence of Theology, Philosophy, and English classes during their Freshman Year. The paper will be published in Inventio and the author will also be recognized in a special ceremony on Catholic University’s Research Day. 

Marcinak was excited when his LC Theology professor and supervising instructor for the paper, Vincent Birch, suggested that he submit his paper to Inventio. The author says it was often challenging finding the balance of describing himself fully while also being precise and succinct, which especially came across in the revising portion of the work. “I enjoy revising,” he said, “But especially with theology, you want to be very careful in the way you present anything just for the sake of remaining consistent, because even small differences in wording can have very big implications.” Through reading the essay, it is clear Marinack took great care to refer to the catechism and the scripture– something he says took up a majority of his research and revision time. 

When asked what he hopes the main takeaway of the paper is, Marcinak says theology is “meant not only to be studied; it’s meant to be lived.” He discussed how this paper helped broaden his own understanding of his faith and he hopes it helps others to understand better as well. His paper is more than what he calls a “scholastic activity”, as it is a way of life, and by understanding the complicated topic of Christ’s image, readers can hopefully find themselves more connected to that image.

Marcinak credits the University’s programs, especially the theology and philosophy departments. In the future, Marcinak is interested in exploring the connection between faith and reason, something he hopes his change to a double minor in Philosophy and Theology will help with. 

Read Daniel’s piece, “Through Him, With Him, In Him: The Restoration of Man’s Original Identity Through Christ,” in the upcoming issue of Inventio’s Volume 8!