Relational Identification in Scripture Intro

Over the course of this little series we're going to cover the five major relational identifications that the scriptures use to talk about how people relate to God. While there plenty more than five, these five are the most consistent and the most ingrained of the relational allegories the writers of the scriptures would use to explain the relational dynamics between God and humanity. As we cover each of these relationships, our goal will be to understand how each one informs the way that we see ourselves, see God, and see the world.

  • What is Relational Identification?

    • Identification: The action or process of identifying someone or something or the fact of being identified.

      • Means of proving identity.

        • Present your ticket and identification to board the plane.

      • A person's sense of identity with someone or something.

        • A child's identification with their favorite superhero.

      • The association of one thing with another.

        • The mistaken identification of conservatism with Christianity.

        • The identification of artists with melancholy.

    • How Identification Works

      • The Neuroscience of Identification.

        • Our brains are wired for social connection.

    “What Bentham and the rest of us typically overlook is that humans are wired with another set of interests that are just as basic as physical pain and pleasure. We are wired to be social. We are driven by deep motivations to stay connected with friends and family. We are naturally curious about what is going on in the minds of other people. And our identities are formed by the values lent to us from the groups we call our own. These connections lead to strange behaviors that violate our expectation of rational self-interest and make sense only if our social nature is taken as a starting point for who we are.”
    ~     Lieberman, Matthew D.. Social: Why Our Brains Are Wired to Connect

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        • Your brain is constantly looking to orient your “self” within the world.

          • The so-called “default network” of the brain is the network within your brain that activates when you're not dealing with a particular task and it consists of three hubs

            • Posterior Cingulate Cortex & Precuneus: Combines “bottom-up” or non-directed attention with information from memory and perception.

              • Highly active during internally directed attention: episodic memory retrieval, planning, distracted daydreaming.

              • Precuneus is highly active in self-consciousness and reflective self awareness (comparison of self with others)as well as memory, mental imagery, and the modeling of the views of others (mentalizing).

              • Combined together, these areas seem to be the center of consciousness in the brain.

            • Medial Prefrontal Cortex: Engages in self-processing everything from personal memories and information, future goals and events, family identities and decisions about them, positive emotional information and internally valued reward.

              • Geared towards error detection, conflict monitoring, motivation, modulation of emotional response, and especially social evaluation.

            • Angular Gyrus: Connects perception, attention, spatial cognition, and action and helps to recall episodic memories.

              • Keeps a measure of attention and awareness, position in space, and the anticipated movements of itself and the environment.

              • Location of Wernicke's Area (center of language), and used in interpretation of metaphors.

              • Active during out-of-body experiences.

          • This Default Mode Network lines up with our social network to such a degree that the actual structure of the brain seems to be built around this network.

        • You are constantly using your understanding of yourself as a social creature as the bedrock for your perception of reality.

      • Since this bedrock understands itself based upon our connections and comparisons to others, the orienting modalities of reality are relational in nature.

        • Connections

          • I am an Irishman – Signifies a cultural identification and expectation of core values, ways of seeing the world, acceptable modes of behavior, and expectations of how people will react to me.

          • I am Sarah's husband – signifies an identification that contains covenant promises, expectations of mutual fidelity and care, expectations about how others will see us in relationships, etc.

          • I am a friend of Jesus – signifies an affinity for the good and the holy in the world, a choice to look at the redemptive side of everything, a delight to see the simple things made glorious and the upside down of the Kingdom to Come made manifest (writ large or small)

        • Comparisons

          • I am discerning – causes me to reject conspiracy theories as well as oversimplifications and propaganda and to distrust or devalue the opinion of those that buy into such things.

          • I am a mystic – causes me to mistrust and reject those that claim certainty or who make exclusivist statements without foundation.

          • I am privileged – causes me to question whether my normal is the “normal” of others and motivates me to try and use power wisely.

    • The writers of the scriptures in their own different ways and contexts use the narratives and relational nature of humans to provide a context within which to establish an identification with God.

      • We can only engage with and perceive that which we have already encountered, so we have to use the elements of what we already know to construct a lens by which to see that which we have not yet seen.

        • Perception is a constant game of construction, deconstruction, and reconstruction.

          • Construction is an encounter or experience of reality that is consistent and/or strong enough to create a “rule” about reality.

            • Never touch a black kettle, they will burn you.

          • Deconstruction is an encounter or experience of reality that sufficiently breaks a known rule.

            • Your mother asks you to help her move the kettle and it doesn't burn you.

          • Reconstruction is an encounter or experience of reality that reconciles the construction and the deconstruction.

            • Mom is magic/ Kettles are fine at certain times/ It might have something to do with the fire, cause that also burns.

      • In similar ways, these relational allegories that the writers of scripture use are meant to utilize our existing constructions, play with deconstructions, and aid in a constant reconstruction of how we are supposed to understand ourselves, God, and the world.