divine personhood:
A theology of consent
This axiom centered on “personhood” and “consent” has been one of the most life-changing discoveries of my life. (For the long story, you can start here.)
In short, the Theology of Consent is a belief that begins with God and His make-up, His being.
God exists not from a substance of material, even some ethereal spiritual matter. God’s being is centered on communion. He is Trinity after all: triune love, peace, freedom, and submission.
As the Creator, the Father extends this being to human beings as He breathes Life into us. He births us. We exist because we come from and live within Him. And thus God gifts us His Image: communion.
When we, as human beings, refuse communion and strive to be our own point of reference in the world, we are rejecting much more than God’s order or preeminent will. We reject true relation with the Divine, our true selves, with the world along with all things whom dwell within it. The crisis is certainly not trivial: we are refusing our very being.
The miraculous truth of this theology rests in the freedom and love of this God who gave us our being in the first place:
(a) God is Love, the only way of being consistent with both communion and freedom. And thus, as Love, He allows us to refuse Him. He does not force or manipulate or intrude. Almighty God is patient, vulnerable, and still all the same perfectly powerful and holy.
(b) And yet, as pure Love, God continues to invite us back to communion with Him. This invitation is a return to relation with Him, with who we truly are, and into freedom and love in the world. In Christ, we can be and commune again healed and whole and together.
references:
Being as Communion (Ziziolas)
New Seeds of Contemplation (Merton)
Being and Time (Heidegger)