83 Fragmentation and Subjectification 1 (God-person, person-God, person-person)’ (Beech, 2019, p. 135). Beech & Beech (2019) mentioned four building blocks for constructing knowledge on this basis. First, it is important to recognise knowledge’s extents and limits—in the way the Book of Job teaches. Second, it is necessary to understand epistemological foundations from Scripture—that is, to work on good exegesis and avoid eisegesis. Third, one needs to acknowledge the Great Divide and recognise the reality of cognitive dissonance and the impact of human emotions over thinking processes. Finally, it is necessary to avoid justified false belief (Beech & Beech, 2019, pp. 135–139). The relational epistemology that Beech (2021) proposed can help in achieving a more humble handling of truth, which, on its turn, fosters intersubjectivity. We only know very partially, and our partial knowledge is still highly influenced by our culture. To consider truth as a divine Person means to set aside the felt need to defend it to or impose it on others. It opens up a way to listen to other cultural, ethnic and even religious perspectives, to learn more. In this manner, a relational epistemology can inform and help Christians to hold onto their own framework of reality and to find a deep motivation in it to live faithfully together with people who do not share their basic conceptions of life, the creational and moral orders, and all sorts of other potentially deeply divisive topics. A relational epistemology provides for a humble reliance on the living Truth that can and will stand up for itself. It cannot undo fragmentation, but it is helpful in bringing people with different frameworks into communication with each other and—thereby— diminishing the strong trend of disintegration of the frameworks. After adding Beech’s (2021) relational epistemology, Zerbe’s (2012) plea for politeuma and Zizioulas’ (2021, 2023) radical personhood theology to the conceptual scheme, a clearer idea of a possible Christian response becomes visible: Conceptual scheme of fragmentation and subjectification Level Structure Threat–Outcome Response Direction to take Macro: world Ordered framework Disintegration– alienation Communicating frameworks Relational epistemology Meso: society Peaceful coexistence Atomisation– detachment Healing civic allegiances Heavenly politeuma Micro: person Relational flourishing Alienation– atomisation (Re)connecting persons Personhood as communion SUBJECTIFICATION FRAGMENTATION
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