MAN’S RELATIONSHIP WITH GOD

What happens when two people are reconciled when they have not achieved personality? Well, one example of this happening, is when two young people fall in love. I suppose that so long as the sexes remain separate, there will inevitably be a measure of hostility and distrust between them. In practice this is overcome when a man meets a woman, whom he finds he can trust, and towards whom he feels no hostility. Separateness cannot be explained away; it can only be overcome in union, or in what the parties think is union. Each is attracted to the other, and each sees the other as a real person. But to do this each adopts the consciousness of the other, and in so doing, adopts the vices and weaknesses of the other. They are overshadowed now by an awareness of their common weaknesses. Each recognises the other as a real person, (or so it is claimed), but this is not the recognition of personality, which has overcome evil; it is at best the recognition of the promise of personality, which has become visible through the adoption of a common consciousness. Each desires to honour the other; but it is a tenderness to the flesh that they put into practice. Each desires to be nice, and charming, and polite to the…