The Individualizing Presence

January 25th, 2011 | 1 min read

In all its varieties the Christian sense of the presence of God individualizes, i.e. transforms particular human beings into individual persons.

When it dawns upon me that I live in the present, and can become present to my present, because God becomes present to me, I begin to realise my infinite dignity and uniqueness of being singled out by God.

God becomes present to me as my God or God for me and places me as his singled-out creature in the presence of my creator. This marks me off from my physical, communal and personal environments but also relates me to them as one who is meant to live his life in this world in the presence of God.

Discuss.

(Hopefully normal blogging will resume soon--I'm trying to polish up this manuscript so I don't embarrass myself and Mere-O!).

Matthew Lee Anderson

Matthew Lee Anderson is an Associate Professor of Ethics and Theology in Baylor University's Honors College. He has a D.Phil. in Christian Ethics from Oxford University, and is a Perpetual Member of Biola University's Torrey Honors College. In 2005, he founded Mere Orthodoxy.

Topics:

Theology and Practice

The Individualizing Presence

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