“I Came So That They May Have Life”: Amative Space and Faith as Vital Concern

Abstract

This article describes four attributes of faith as vital concern—relational spontaneity, responsiveness, receptiveness, and vulnerability—which are key ingredients to subjective and intersubjective experiences of being alive and real. The metaphor, amative space, refers to the processes and dynamics that make faith as vital concern a viable possibility between and among people. The author depicts these processes as four, interrelated dialectical pairs—recognition-negation, surrender-generation, trust-distrust, and disruption-repair. The four attributes of faith as vital concern combined with the processes and dynamics of amative space can be used as a relational model to understand faith experience and interactions of individuals and groups.