As I mentioned in last week’s column, Martin Buber’s notion of an I-Thou relationship is at the center of his philosophy. God is also at the center of his philosophy. Buber believed that in every I-Thou relationship, God is encountered, God is the Thou present in every finite thou.
I think that there are four mysteries in every I-Thou relationship: the mystery of the I, the mystery of the Thou, the mystery of God, and the mystery of the relationship. Buber claimed that God was the Thou that could never become an It. This means that every time an I-Thou relation happens, both parties, besides meeting one another, also meet God.
For various reasons, every I-Thou relationship is doomed to occasionally slip into an I-It relationship, but the I-Thou relationship can be retrieved. For Buber, to treat another person as an It is immoral. However, in Buber’s philosophical vision, God is the one Thou that can never become an It.
What happens if an I-Thou relationship with God slips into an I-It relationship is that the human person no longer has a relationship with God because God is so much a Person that to relate to God as though God were an It is not to relate to God. Once God is reduced to an It, God is no longer part of the relationship. The human person in relating to God as an It is relating to some kind of idol, but not to God.
When I think of God as a Thou waiting to be encountered by us, I get a special sense of God making His divinity available to us, His being present to us, inviting us into relationship. For me, this is an excellent example of the truth that how we treat other people influences how we relate to God.
Buber claimed that I-Thou relationships could take place between human persons, between human persons and objects of nature, between human persons and animals, and between human persons and God. If we recall that one of the five characteristics of an I-Thou relationship is mutuality, there would seem to be a problem built into an I-Thou relationship between objects of nature and human persons. Objects of nature cannot choose to enter an I-Thou relationship, so how can the characteristic of mutuality take place?
I think of objects of nature as words from God, if you like, as messages from God. By creating trees and flowers, God has shared his beauty, truth, and goodness with nature. That beauty, truth, and goodness are present in nature waiting to be encountered by us. When we do encounter that truth, beauty, and goodness through an I-Thou relationship, we are also meeting God.
I am not a “nature person.” I am not bragging. I am making a confession. Several of my friends are much more sensitive to the beauties of nature than I am. This lack of sensitivity on my part is something I hope to correct. I think Buber’s philosophy can help me do that.
What about human persons and animals? There was a time when I received a Christmas card that pictured a family and the family’s dog, and I laughed and thought having the dog in the picture was silly. I am not laughing anymore, and I have gained some understanding of the special role that a dog can play in a family. I find this role mysterious but wonderful.
The first philosopher in this series about philosophers was the first existentialist, Soren Kierkegaard (1813- 1855), who wondered if his fiancée, Regina, would be an obstacle to his mission to bear witness to Christ. Buber wrote an excellent essay entitled “Letter to a Single One,” which ap- pears in Buber’s book “Between Man and Man.” In the essay, Buber claimed that Kierkegaard misunderstood religion, that Regina need not be an obstacle to Kierkegaard’s mission, that she could have been the way to God.
I agree with Buber. Relating to Regina in an I-Thou relationship could have been one way of meeting God.
As I think about Buber’s philosophy, I find it both beautiful and, more importantly, true. Buber’s philosophy speaks to my experience and illuminates that experience.
God is right at the center of Buber’s philosophy. Remove God from Buber’s philosophy, and the philosophy would make no sense. However, I don’t think it is easy to live by Buber’s philosophy. There is so much in our society that militates against I-Thou relationships that, at times, it seems like Buber’s ideals are not possible to incorporate into your life. I think it is possible, but not easy. I hope I can convince the students at St. John’s University that I-Thou relationships pave a road to human fulfillment.
Father Lauder is a philosophy professor at St. John’s University, Jamaica. His new book, “The Cosmic Love Story: God and Us,” is available on Amazon.com and at Barnes & Noble.