77 Fragmentation and Subjectification 1 person and personhood present a clear warning not to underestimate the forces of alienation and atomisation in modern Western society. This warning concerns the intertwining both of Western theology with individualism and of Protestant religion with modernity. Biblical theology should identify the self as important, while recognising it to be in constant need of others (intersubjectivity). The human person can only flourish in communion. This communion pertains to the triune God, the neighbour, others and the whole of nature in the created world. A Christian vision of connecting or reconnecting the person recognises the deep bond of destiny between what we call the individual, the society and the world. 1.3.2 Healing communities: Zerbe To (re)connect people with others entails encouraging them to show meaningful civic allegiances. Yet, as we have seen in Sub-Section 1.2.4, these allegiances can rapidly become contradictory towards each other. To be a member of a religious community means automatically distinguishing oneself from other communities or communities based on other religious convictions. Similarly, national citizenship in the form of a strong sense of belonging to a certain nation-state can easily become competitive with regard to global citizenship in the form of a sense of belonging to the global world, which has its global problems to solve. This ‘paradox of citizenship’ (Clarkson, 2014) can only be addressed in a society with a collectivistic orientation and a high degree of acceptance of diversity. In such a community-based society, there is room for different social groups and (cultural, ethnic and religious) group influences over the person, although a crucial loyalty to the common good on the part of the groups should be expected. The Mennonite theologian Gordon M. Zerbe (2012) addressed this challenge from a Biblical perspective by investigating the citizenship notion of the Apostle Paul. According to Philippians 3:20, Christians have their citizenship (politeuma) ‘in heaven’. With this affirmation, the Apostle Paul seemed to place his readers in the suspense of a double civic allegiance: on the one hand, they belong by faith to Christ as their Kurios, while on the other hand, they remain part of their own communities in the world. A closer look at the letter to the Philippians, however, reveals the centrality of heavenly citizenship. Paul referred to the heavenly politeuma to motivate his readers to take their daily duties towards their worldly societies seriously, as in the case of Philippi. One could say that he connected the macro-level of the world with the meso-level of the society. It is even possible to identify a meta-level here: a level that surpasses the present world and includes the world to come—that is, the coming Kingdom. As Zerbe (2012) summarised:
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