I’ve been reading a lot of existentialism lately … because, well, why not?

I won’t pretend to understand everything I’m reading, of course. And I’ll confess I’m getting quite a bit of my existentialism from Christian theologists — Bultmann, Tillich, MacQuarrie. But there’s been a fair amount of Heidegger in there. And I’ve spent my time with Martin Buber, as well. So I think I’m getting at least a little bit of the real thing.

What little I’ve understood of existentialist thought so far has included the idea that practical knowledge precedes theoretical knowledge. For example, a child knows who Mommy is long before it ever thinks about the concept of motherhood—or even knows there are such things as concepts. The knowledge is existential rather than abstract. We don’t begin by developing grand theories. We begin by crying, hearing sounds (voices) and, eventually, opening our eyes. We discover who we are in relation to the world we encounter. And we make sense of the world we encounter in relation to how it meets us, or affects us, or can be utilized by us. Only then do we begin, in time, to come up with abstractions—principles, theories, and systems.

How all this relates to the experience of God, it seems to me, is rather obvious. We don’t first meet God in abstract doctrines and metaphysical theories. We meet God in what Martin Buber called “I-Thou” (me-you). It’s best not even to abstract this into “the I-Thou encounter,” or “the I-Thou experience,” because that makes “I-Thou” an adjective of something else. Instead, to borrow from Buber, God is the You we encounter in all other Yous. And to butcher a bit of Tillich and Bultmann, God reveals himself as both our Goal and our Source.

But this kind of thinking speaks to our relationships with one another, as well. Especially today, we are living in a world of theories and abstractions. “You’re a this.” “She’s a that.”

We don’t often encounter one another as You (or, if you prefer, Thou). Social media can take us one way or another with this, but I find it exacerbates my tendency to abstract. I draw my conclusions through watching and judging. I label. I categorize. I filter. But that’s not how I really interact with my friends and my neighbors. Friendship, rather, is experiential. It’s existential. It’s Me encountering You. It’s I encountering Thou. And it only takes place in the context of experience—in the context of relationship, where It becomes Thou and communication becomes possible.

I don’t entirely know why I’m reading so much existentialism lately. I guess you could say it’s been helping. And I don’t for a minute pretend to be an expert on a subject I’ve barely begun. But it seems to me there’s a lesson in here for all of us. I’ll leave it to you to decide (or experience?) what that is.

Mike Ivaska is the pastor of Vashon Island Community Church.