Page 49 - EMCAPP-Journal No. 12

discourse on human and personal identity. tes wholeness, the notions of calling and vocati-
If identity is merely a personal concept, a psy- on become paramount. In this regard, religious
chological issue determined by intra-psychic coherence can be qualified by an agapé-identity
factors (developmental dimension); a social (unconditional and sacrificial love) as exempli-
phenomenon, structured by inter-human com- fied by the notion of a ‘suffering God’ (theopa-
munication, or contextual categories as shaped schitic dimension of the passio Dei).
by tradition and custom, identity becomes to- As Ludwig Feuerbach aptly remarked in Das
tally dependent on intra-human capacity. Ho- Wesen des Christentums: God is not as an ab-
wever, in a Christian approach, ‘more’ is at sta- stract concept (pure action), but a Deity with
ke. This ‘more’ refers to the spiritual realm of a heart (God as pure passion). To this passion
life as embedded in philosophical convictions of God one can add the notion of and ‘empo-
and belief systems: Spirituality as determined wering God’ – Christ as vindicated by the re-
by one’s eventual goal in life (commitments and surrection and the power of the Holy Spirit.
teleology), meaning (logos - Victor Frankl) and Paul qualifies this identity in terms of the hope
religious frameworks pertaining the ultimate in category of ‘parrhesia’: Boldness of being and
life. speech – the resilience of the charisma of the
It is in this regard, that the article argues that Holy Spirit (the inhabitanional presence of the
identity within a Christian, inclusive paradigm, presencing God within human embodiment by
and the quest for an integral model that promo- means of the gifts of the Spirit).

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