I and Thou

Today I was browsing the used book store, not really with any specific book in mind but just wanting to see if anything caught my eye that was priced in the range of what I was willing to spend.

I started out looking in the music, and not finding anything that I really wanted, I moved on to the books, first in the Christian and Theology section, then to the Judaism section. There I found a copy of I and Thou by Martin Buber. I picked it up and the price was right so I decided to purchase the book.

Strangely enough I have read it, or shall I say skimmed enough to participated in a class discussion and write a review back in undergrad. I wasn’t very interested in a German Theologian at that time in my life, and I am not sure that I am much more interested now, accept for the fact that it does tie into the larger frame of my ethnic and theological understanding of self at this phase in my own journey.

Relatedness and relationship with God are always within the frame of self perception, so as I process reading this book now, will be totally with a different world view than the one I had at 21 years of age. Therefore I do think the work is worth revisiting, and actually being read thoroughly.

After all, developing a theological understanding is framed in how one perceives their connectedness or lack of connectedness to God. The stories in history are different, but at times have common threads of how a people viewed themselves as greater than another people. I would are that there is not as large of a disconnect with the events of the Ancient Hebrews, with Modern Jews, and with African’s brought to America.

If you look the traditional cultures of each and the distain for the peoples by another specific group, the treatment, and the struggles – can you really not see a few commonalities? I wont argue this point, because if you don’t see it you just don’t- or are not willing to. Which ever the case may be I will just give you a few buzz words to ignite your thought process on the matter: Genocide, Concentration Camps, Middle Passage, Slavery.

Each were hated simply because of their identity- ethnicity and/or belief.

So now, over a decade + later than my first introduction to the work of Martin Buber, I cant help but wonder what I will take away from my sitting with his writing. Now everything is sifted through my affinity for myself and my ethnic identity. They are not separable from my perception of my own identity. Therefore these elements are key to my understanding of my own relationship with God. I bask in knowing that I am ‘fearfully and wonderfully made’.

There is no need to envy the way that someone else was formed, because I am exactly how God meant for me to be created. That is my personal belief- my personal theology- but also the way that I view the world also. I am able to respect other peoples and cultures as being evidence of God’s love of variety. We are not all clones of one model. Each of us are a combination of the DNA of procreation that can not be replicated with total exactness.

Scientifically, they claim to be able to clone animals, but I not totally knowledgeable on this science but it would seem illogical that the clone is exactly like the original. My thought is based on what I know about twins. Twins may be identical, but they still have very much so their own personality and individualized characteristics of being. As someone told me once, the only reason people cant tell twins apart is because they don’t take the time to get to know them as individuals. I believe this to be true, because I had aunts who were identical and to me it was ludicrous that people actually got confused about which was which.

I will stand on my personal theory concerning cloning until they can prove that not only genetically, but characteristically they can document that they are exactly the same. I am just skeptical on this matter. And I am definitely leery of eating cloned animal meat. Altered cells, to me, seem abnormal from the beginning- so how can you eat cloned meat and the way your body processes the proteins in the meat not lead to a higher risk of your body forming abnormal cells = cancer.????

Wow – I have walked a long way from my topic- let me get back on track. The relationship between the Creator and the creation is much broader and widespread than an hour or two on Sunday (or Saturday- cant leave out SDA). Ok so there might be someone arguing that I am still leaving others out, but that is not my intention, I am just speaking from within my own frame of reference and not necessarily from a completely ecumenical ideology.

To make it clear, I am quite aware of the reasons that I am a Christian. Not just based on my personal theology and my personal understanding of predestination, but from a historical stance also. What I mean, is IF my ancestors had not been yanked for the continent of Africa the probability of my being a Christian changes drastically – depending on what country or geographic area my ancestors where originally from on the continent.

So with geographic location, ethnic orientation, skin color and personal theology all affecting my world view, I now revisit - “I and Thou” by Martin Buber.