Pastoral Relationship with People with Intellectual ... - Theses

281and allows them, from a pastoral theological perspective, to simply be, to be theone they were created to be.For the pastoral carer to thus regard the institutionalised person withintellectual disability is to restore them to the God-given dignity and estimationwith which they and all people were invested through the act of creation,signified by the biblical utterance, “[s]o God created humankind in his (sic)image ... (Genesis 1:27).” 694Through this identification and regard the other is restored to truecreational status. Life, from an interpersonal, relational perspective, is restored.From Buber’s perspective, the investing of such sanctified regard in the one withwhom relationship is sought is nothing less than the reality and evidence ofsalvation. 695Having thus extolled Buber for his honoured conceptualisation of humanlife and relationship a clear point of reinterpretation of Thou-ness needs to betendered.For Buber, Thou-ness, in biblical terms, is the momentary transcendentrevelation that occurs atop the mountain. As with Moses atop Mount Sinai toreceive the 10 commandments (Exodus chs 19-32) 696 and Jesus encountering Godin a cloud before his journey to Jerusalem (Luke 9:28-36), 697 it is a place ofspiritual and philosophical orientation. Of necessity it is far removed from thejoys and sorrows of everyday life, the place where life is lived the vast majorityof the time. It is a place far removed from the objectifying influence of It-ness,sufficiently removed to enable a relationship with the Thou of pure relation. 698This is a place where past and future are lost in the present moment, where theEternal is encountered as unquantifiable Being.This encounter with the Eternal is, by its very nature, momentary. It ishuman nature to move out of the realm of Thou-ness and back to It-ness. AsBuber states, “[a]nd yet in accordance with our nature we are continually making694National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America, Holy Bible,Old Testament, 1.695 Buber, I and Thou, 120.696 National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America, Holy Bible,Old Testament, 65-79.697 ibid., 69-70.698 Buber, I and Thou, 109-115.