Human life is intimately and ultimately relational

It’s always nice to be reminded that Martin Luther said some of these things way back in the distant past:

"[20] Ebeling indicates that various levels of relationship constitute human identity for Luther: We are always, even right now, four things: coram Deo (in relationship to God), coram mundo (in relationship to the world, which here means the concrete physical world of existence), coram hominibus (in relationship to other people), and coram meipso (in relationship to ourselves). These relationships are all constitutive of human life. In a 1999 article, Marty Stortz describes baptism as the key sacramental indication that relationship defines the Christian life.[15] In baptism, we can see all of these relationships at work: God’s grace is present, the world is actively present in the living water, other people are witnesses and supporters, and the self is newly defined. Human life is coram."