Pannenberg, however, seeks the ground of culture in the concept of play following the work of historian Johan Huizinga.[67] Play is central to the development of a theory of culture, first, because it can be found in the behavior of higher animals and thus can be grounded in humans at an instinctual level. However, in human beings, as opposed to animals, play becomes an expression of human freedom and the capacity to transcend their own immediate environment. As a result, play is the concrete process in which human openness to the world is developed in behavior “that is not goal directed, but
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