Relationship with God: Introduction

Christianity is not a religion about God; it is a relationship with God. I start all my semesters off with this idea. Too often we think of Christianity like it is a philosophy or a prescription for how to be a good person or how to get to Heaven, and while those may be the result of Christianity, they are not the essence of the Christian experience. Christianity can not be thought of, simply, as a list of particular action or words, although, as I will discuss late in this book, these actions and words are essential as they point us to the greater purpose of Christianity. Christianity is not a religion or a study of God; Christianity is a relationship, an encounter, with God. When we think of Christianity as a subject, something to be mastered or perfected, then the focus of Christianity becomes the one who masters or perfects the actions and the words prescribed by Christianity. Instead, we need to think of Christianity more in terms of an encounter with a Truth greater than us. Christianity is a relationship, or rather, the development of a relationship with God who should be the focus of our actions and words.

To what end? What is, what is the purpose of Christianity? When we enter into a relationship, whether it is a relationship with a person or an idea or a place, assuming we enter into that relationship properly oriented, and I will explain that later, we open ourselves up to the possibility of discovering  more about who we are. That is, it is within the context of relationship that we discover our authentic self. Now, if we think in terms of a relationship with God, then we are talking about a relationship with one who knows us perfectly and, if we are properly oriented, we can discover more perfectly who we are. One of the important threads that will carry through this book is the concept that we are made in the image and likeness of God. In fact, in Scripture, the first reference God makes regarding humans is in Genesis 1:26. God says, “Let us make human beings in our image, after our likeness.” The fact that this is the first thing God says about humanity reveals this to be a fundamental Truth to who we are. Further, if we are in a relationship with the one who created us, then  as we grow to know God, we, in fact, grow to know ourselves. Christianity, then, is not so much about the actions and words as their own end; those actions and words serve to help us to develop a relationship with God whereby we discover our Authentic Self.

But what is so great about discovering our Authentic Self? Modern sentiments of “self” are described as fluid or subjective. The self is defined in terms of autonomous individualism. But if the self is defined by that which is created and if the self is fluid and prone to change, then there is no objective or transcendent self. We are only material. Christianity presupposes (and most humans intuitively believe) that the Authentic Self is transcendent and beyond simple material definition. Therefore, as I will discuss in the first chapter, in order to know that which is beyond our capacity to understand we must be in relationship with one who is beyond that same capacity to understand. In the material sense, people seek to be their Authentic Self, no matter how that is defined, because it is the ultimate source of happiness. Modern ideology tells us that to be happy we have to be free to be ourselves, however that is defined. Christian anthropology agrees with this concept. One is happiest when they are who they are made to be. However, modern ideology also seems to limit that sense of Authentic Self to that which is materially True about us. The modern Authentic Self is limited to that which we can perceive. As one does live out their material Authentic Self, they do experience happiness, although that happiness seems to be fleeting as the material Authentic Self is changing perpetually as one encounters the world and others in more complex ways. That sort of happiness, then, is only temporary. Christianity points us to a happiness that is not fleeting. Christianity points us to a relationship with the Transcendent God in whose image and likeness we are made and in that relationship we begin to discover the transcendent nature of who our authentic self is. The result of this knowledge of our transcendent Authentic Self is what St. Thomas Aquinas calls Beatific Vision, or a sense of transcendent happiness.

               The temptation in Christianity is to abandon the material Truth that surrounds us and that we can perceive in this world. But the first question I would ask is “Why would God create the world if it was not important in some way?” The material Truth that we experience always in this earthly life must have a purpose beyond just itself. The concept of material Truth pointing us to transcendent Truth of who we are is Sacramentality. In this blog I will explore the nature of who we are, the role of the material world and other people in knowing the authentic self, the reasons why knowing the Authentic Self is so difficult, and various ways Christianity assists us in knowing our Authentic Self.

We are called to be happy. We are made to be happy. But it is a happiness beyond our own expectation and our own ability to provide. We must start with a relationship with One who can provide.

Henri and Summit Lake at Mt. Evans