Claim. Unification Thought identifies the essence of human nature as heart (Shimjung) and love, characterizing the human being as Homo amans (loving person) — explicitly contesting the dominant philosophical identifications of the human as Homo sapiens (knower, per Greek and rationalist tradition) or Homo faber (maker, per Marxism and pragmatism).
Elaboration. Heart, defined as “the emotional impulse to seek joy through love,” is the core of God’s personality and equally the core of the human personality (A. A Being of Heart). Character perfection becomes possible only when one experiences God’s Heart and inherits it.
The conclusion section (IV. Conclusion) makes the polemical positioning explicit: among the seven characteristics of original human nature, if one had to choose the most essential it is “being of heart.” This directly contradicts:
- Greek philosophy (Aristotle: “reason is what makes a person human”)
- Modern rationalism (Descartes: “Cogito, ergo sum”)
- Marxism (humans as material/social/historical beings of productive labor)
- Pragmatism (humans as tool-using makers)
- Scheler’s typology (Homo sapiens, Homo faber, Homo religiosus)
- Other variants: Homo economicus, Homo liberalis, Homo nationalis
Lee’s claim is that all these touch peripheral attributes but miss the center. Heart is the motivating force behind intellect (which pursues truth), emotion (which pursues beauty), and will (which pursues goodness) — the faculties traditional anthropologies treat as primary are in fact heart’s instruments.
The practical consequence: when humans inherit God’s Heart they “naturally come to feel like loving everyone and everything,” the gap between haves and have-nots dissolves voluntarily through love’s “equalizing function” (a striking claim — wealth redistribution as natural consequence of heart-restoration, not state coercion). This positions UT as offering a third way against both Marxist forced equalization and capitalist permissive inequality. Whether love’s “equalizing function” can scale beyond face-to-face relationships is a serious open question critics will press.
See also. god-is-the-god-of-heart, heart-shimjung-as-core-of-gods-sungsang, original-human-nature-three-fold-framework