Martin Buber: Are We Treating People Like Things?

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Are we beginning to treat people more like things? In this episode of Godsplaining, Fr. Bonaventure and Joseph-Anthony explore the thought of Jewish philosopher Martin Buber and his influential work I and Thou. Buber argues that we encounter the world through two fundamental relationships: “I–It,” in which we experience and use things, and “I–Thou,” in which we encounter another person in genuine relationship. What happens when the world of “It” begins to take over? The friars discuss Buber’s concern about the growing tendency to reduce people to their usefulness, why love requires freedom and choice, and how our relationship with God reveals a radically different way of encountering…