One of my areas of interest has to do with the essence of relationship. What is a relationship? How… When… Who… Unto… Why… etc.
So far I have feel like my relational imagination is being expanded by attending to Augustine’s understanding of the Holy Spirit as the perfect relationship of the Father and Son. The Spirit is a living person, dynamic and changing, in a similar way that every relationship is living. This view is not without its criticisms of course.
Consider a woman and a man who meet and begin to relate – their spirit is born. This spirit is their relationship. As they selflessly love the other their spirit/relationship grows strong, (recongizing the paradox if not impossiblity of self-negation).
If they begin to seek their individual best their spirit/relationship grows weak and may even become an evil spirit.
I wondering whether the Church could be understood – in part – as the “spirit/relationship” of Christ and Christ’s followers. It is a dynamic living person. The church is the relationship of Christ and Christ’s community. The church is not a static thing that new Christians are brought into, as much as the church is dynamically and continuously coming into being as the community of Christians relate with Christ.
Peace, dwight
