Interconnectedness & Interdependence
Themes Christianity & Christians can rediscover again
Someone asked me for some philosophical books on forgiveness, and I happened to find a few of them. One of them was a book on forgiveness by Dalai Lama and Victor Chan. Lama speaks of the two important components of Tibetan Buddhism, which are emptiness and compassion. I am not getting into the definitions of these two terms, but emptiness doesn’t mean things don’t exist, but an understanding that on a deeper level, it’s impossible to understand the reality. One more aspect which he speaks connected to emptiness and compassion is the theme of inter-dependence. He says that he meditates constantly on these three themes and it helps him to be happy in life. And he says that he doesn’t feel any anger or hatred against the Chinese (whose occupation of Tibet continues) and he has forgiven them. The point is not to get into the life of Dalai Lama (which in itself is a wonderful spiritual reading), but to ask a question emerging from the theme of interdependence or interconnectedness. How is this theme present in other religions or traditions, and especially in Christianity?
Modern physics will speak of the butterfly effect; the frapping of the wings of a butterfly in one corner of the earth can create a tornado in the other end of the world. The famous African concept of Ubuntu is again related to this theme of community. My existence is intimately related to that of my community, or I don’t have an existence without the community. Or human islands really don’t exist there. Some of these traditional communities in different countries include even nature and the creation in their understanding of inter relatedness. Some of the Indian Adivasi groups speak of Jal, jungle and jamin (Water, Forest and Land). Thus, interrelatedness is not just limited to Buddhism (Lama never claims it also). Occasionally it is limited to my land and my people, and there is also some land and people who are not mine.
If you go through the Bible, we might not explicitly come across these words like interconnected, interrelated or interdependence. Jesus summarises the entire list of commandments into two - love of God and love of neighbour. And he also speaks of loving enemies, or preaching the Goodnews to the ends of the world. And the first blessing in the book of Genesis includes an aspect of shepherding the creation (not master-slave). All these are sufficient grounds to say that the echoes of these themes do exist in Christianity and in the Christian literature. And the greatest example in contemporary times is seen in the writings of Pope Francis where he constantly reminds us of interconnectedness; Laudato Si and Fratelli Tutti mentions it so explicitly. It reminds us that socio-economic crisis and ecological crisis are related; the same poor who are affected by the socio-economic crisis pay the maximum brunt of the after effects of ecological crisis.
If we see the life of church and its charitable organisations, this theme of interconnectedness and love are in action. I don’t forget that wars initiated by Christian nations, sexual abuse scandal and some of the other actions by the church or the members of the church forgot those themes absolutely.
A good question to ask is, how much interconnectedness and more clearly interdependence is a basic aspect of Christian life. We might theoretically accept the inter connectedness, but in the real sense, it’s not yet incarnated fully. When there are people who worry about unborn children and forget individuals suffering from racism, casteism, hierarchies and migrant-refugee crisis, there is a difficulty. I believe that the opposite is true also. Thus, interconnectedness is sensed only to a certain extent, with certain people, whom we consider as okay. Jesus felt the kinship with his family, sinners of that time and with pharisees-scribes. Dalai Lama says he meditates regularly on inter connectedness; after ecological retreats or certain social initiatives, some people say they experience a greater connection. Yes, I believe it is the need of the hour.
Some might say that in the post-modern world, where individuality is the key norm, connections are not easy. Yes, we can’t forget the individuality, but appreciating individuality and human uniqueness/singularity needn’t come at the cost of the ability to make connections.
And I will end with one extra clarification that can come from the word inter-dependence. Yes, it’s not absolute dependence or absolute independence. We can appreciate interconnectedness even in master-slave system, where both master and slaves are connected to each other, but the individuality of one is not fully respected. Inter-dependence is almost like Ubuntu where I am I because of my intimate link with others. I need them; they need me; we don’t use the another.
The greatest means to see how much we are ready to accept interconnectedness and interdependence into the centre of the church will be determined by our response to synodality. Synodality is not about having or not having Latin mass, or women’s ordination or any such themes called controversial; it’s about listening to the Spirit speaking through all the baptized to find the spirit guided way for the church in the contemporary world.
