Relational Ontologies: Who Needs Them?

Abstract

All humans are mortal, created, contingent beings. None of us can sustain our own existence after physical death, hence we must look elsewhere for eternal life. Christian doctrine tells us that God is love and eternal life can be found in God through being in a relationship of love with him. Arguably, this sustaining relation must exist and not be some form of abstraction to be efficacious – if we are to have eternal life then it seems that we must include relations in our ontology. However, the existence of relations is a problem for many philosophers because of Bradley’s Regress, which denies that relations exist. A solution might be found by replacing a traditional substance-based ontology with a relational ontology in which relations are fundamental. Christos Yannaras’ metaphysics, in which the persons of the Trinity, human persons and the natural world are all relational, provides an example of such an ontology. While they might not be mainstream, perhaps we all need a relational ontology for eternal life.