DOOYEWEERD: The central and radical unity of our existence.

The central and radical unity of our existence is at the same time individual and supra-individual; that is to say, in the individual I-ness it points beyond the individual ego toward that which makes the whole of mankind spiritually one in root in its creation, fall and redemption.

According to our Christian faith, all humanity is spiritually included in Adam. In him the whole human race has fallen, and in mankind also the entire temporal cosmos, which was concentrated in it. In Jesus Christ, the entire new humanity is one in root, as the members of one body.

Our I-ness is, in other words, rooted in the spiritual community of mankind. It is no self-sufficient “substance”, no “windowless monad“, but it lives in the spiritual community of the we, which is directed to a Divine Thou, according to the original meaning of creation.

This is the deep meaning of the central command of love: Thou shalt love God above all and thy neighbour as thyself…

(Herman Dooyeweerd, A New Critique of Theoretical Thought, Vol 1, pp 60-64)

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