Pastoral Relationship with People with Intellectual ... - Theses

280more fundamental reversal. But the event that from the side of theworld is called reversal is called from God’s side salvation. 6907.2.2 Mutuality: Thou-ness and Coming Down the MountainIt is my assertion that Buber’s conceptualisation of Thou-ness, in terms ofthis extended reflection and my conceptualisation of a liberating foundation ofmutuality, affords considerable merit for which I’m indebted, but also warrantsthoughtful critique.I am indebted to the regard he invests in the other with whom relationshipis sought, a regard he sanctifies in terms of Thou-ness. For Buber, relationshipwith the other is not simply relationship with another human being, but aninvitation to be drawn up into an encounter beyond objectifying constraints, theFace of the Eternal. The invitation to realize such relationship with one’s wholeundivided being represents a sacred calling “... out of the false security into theventure of the infinite – out of the community, that is now overarched only by thetemple dome and not also by the firmament, into the final solitude.” 691 In terms ofthis extended reflection it is thus a calling to infuse the sacred into the temporalrelationship with people with intellectual disability, who live in the institutionalcontext. Far beyond the level of medicalised, objectified regard relationship issought that invites one to see “life face to face with God ...” 692The term ‘Thou-ness’ also affirms the one with whom relationship issought as one who is beyond objectified definition. They are not one who is to bemedically defined or classified, or controlled in a manner that entrenches andoppresses them within the world of It-ness. Buber speaks scathingly of thisinstitutional effect upon the other,But the separated It of institutions is an animated clod withoutsoul, and the separated I of feelings an uneasily fluttering soul-bird... institutions know only the specimen, feelings only the “object”;neither knows the person, or mutual life. 693Thou-ness restores the other to one who is beyond classification andmanagement. It regards the other beyond the limitation and confinement of words690 ibid., 119-20.691 ibid., 118.692 ibid.693 ibid., 44.