The Goodness of Home ― Human and Divine Love and the Making of the Self

In a modern world characterized by a precarious job market, class inequality, and a global migrant crisis, Natalia Marandiuc asks the question: How does home affect one's identity? In this wide-ranging contribution to Christian theological anthropology, Marandiuc argues that love attachments function as sources of subjectivity and enablers of human freedom. Human loves and the love of God are co-creators of the self and they situate human subjectivity in a relational home. Paradoxically, the depth of human belonging, dependence, is thus directly proportional to the strength of human agency, independence.

Building upon Søren Kierkegaard, research in the neuroscience of attachment theory, and contemporary constructions of the self, The Goodness of Home makes original contributions to several central issues in contemporary Christian theological anthropology. Love is understood as central to the building of subjectivity, which is seen as an intersection of desire and need. For Marandiuc, the self is a complex process of becoming rather than a static entity with essentialist features. She looks at human difference in terms of the formation of particular subjectivities through particular loves. Ultimately, she depicts human love as interwoven with the infinite streams of divine love, forming a sacramental site for God's presence, and playing a constitutive role in the making of the self.

Natalia Marandiuc is Assistant Professor of Christian Theology at the Perkins School of Theology, Southern Methodist University.