The Elusiveness of Meaningful Connection
Kathryn Tanner’s chapter has developed the classical Christian idea that God is the creator and sustainer of the world, in order to suggest the ways in which this notion of the creator might be one factor providing persons with a sense of social connection and a hopeful, generous, and caring disposition toward the world that assuages the adverse health consequences of loneliness. In this classic interpretation of God as creator, the idea refers not to the origins of the universe but rather to the all- inclusive dependence of life upon God at all times. This sense of a sustaining divine presence spanning the whole time of one’s life thus contributes a deep sense of one’s connection to the whole order of creation. However, as Tanner notes, people may become inattentive to a presence so pervasive, just as people can become inattentive to the forces of gravity holding them to the surface of the Earth as they go about their everyday life. In more extreme versions of this inattention, the person understands humanity as “alone” in the universe, a sort of metaphysical loneliness that might exacerbate more concrete feelings of loneliness.
Perhaps surprisingly, Chris Masi, from the perspective of a physician and medical researcher, casts a fascinating and fresh perspective on the theological notion that we live in a sustaining connection to creation as a whole. After describing the negative health consequences of loneliness, Masi proceeds to describe a cycle of loneliness in which a person’s sense of isolation frustrates well-intended efforts to make social connections. Masi finds that efforts to intervene and break this
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cycle are not notably successful, in large part because the preconscious disposition of lonely people toward the world is difficult to change. Like Tanner, although using different terminology, Masi’s review of the scientific literature suggests both that the character of one’s general disposition toward the world is profoundly important for one’s connections to others, and that the processes by which these general dispositions change are complex and warrant further scientific attention.
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