• I and Thou, pages 78-79
• Martin Buber
In the relation with God uncondition exclusiveness and unconditional inclusiveness are one. He who enters on the absolute relation is concerned with nothing isolated any more, neither things nor beings, neither earth nor heaven; but everything is gathered up in the relation. For to step into pure relation is not to disregard everything but to see everything in the Thou, not to renounce the world but to establish it on its true basis. To look away from the world, or to stare at it, does not help a man to reach God; but he who sees the world in Him stands in His presence. “Here world, there God” is the language of It; “God in the
world” is another language of It; but to eliminate or leave behind nothing at all, to include the whole world in the Thou, to give the world its due and its truth, to include nothing besides God but everything in Him—this is full and complete relation.
• Martin Buber on Education
• Informal Education (infed)
I and Thou, Buber’s best known work, presents us with two fundamental orientations - relation and irrelation. We can either take our place ... alongside whatever confronts us and address it as ‘you’; or we 'can hold ourselves apart from it and view it as an object, an
“it”'. So it is we engage in I-You (Thou) and I-It relationships.
• Martin Buber: Post-War Zionism Meets Existentialism
• Existentialism Primer
Buber’s I and Thou is based on the belief in a direct, personal dialogue between God and each individual. Though Buber is not widely read, the influence of this work is apparent in many Judaic and Christian theological works.
Though composed from a religious perspective, I and Thou has also affected secular moral philosophers and social commentators.
Buber suggested there were two basic attitudes towards existence: orientation and realization. “Orientation&lrquo; refers to the utilitarian, objective analysis of objects in the environment for use. One potential use is increasing one's knowledge of yet more objects.
“Realization” refers to the metaphysical, subjective experience of life and one’s inner meaning....
Buber described the I-Thou relationships as timeless; they are in the present and eternal. This is because genuine relationships between subjects reflect the Eternal Thou of Creation (God). This glimpse into the nature of God is extremely complex. According to Buber's theory, God has endowed humanity with the ability to love others - it is God’s love and our consciousness of that love that give rise to this ability. The
“Thou” consciousness of the other individual is also essential. Two creations of God, created in love, can love each other. bringing each individual closer to God.
• My Influences – Martin Buber
• Vic Burton
In his magnum opus, I and Thou, Buber proposed that as humans we have two ways of relating: a monologue and a dialogue. We can relate to a person, a cat, or a tree by means of a monologue, called I-It relating, or by means of a dialogue, called I-Thou relating. In Buber’s vocabulary, we address another by speaking either the primary word I-It or the primary word I-Thou. When a teacher sees her student and says
“Hello, Janice,” she may be addressing her with the impersonal word of “thingness,” I-It, or with the personal word of
“encounter,” I-Thou.
• Franz Rosenzweig: His Life and Thought
• Franz Rosenzweig
In the ecstasy of this nearness, the “Thou” is silent, it does not answer him, neither the “Thou” to which he cried out in despair, nor the “Thou” he longs for and loves.
• Our Awesome God
• Pastor Ron Thomas
• Rodgers Baptist Church, Garland, Texas
God is omnipresent. God is ever near us. In verse 7 [of Psalms 139], David asks, “Whither shall I go from Thy Spirit? Or whither shall I flee from Thy presence?” This passage does not teach pantheism. God is not a tree, bush, flower, or mountain. This passage teaches that God maintains His personhood. God remains “other than,” His creation. The psalmist addresses God as “Thou,” a person, not a thing or idea or force. No matter where you go in creation, God is present!
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