Progressive reflections on the lectionary #75

Monday 28th July 2025

Luke 12:13-21 The difference between an individual, and a dividual. It's relational...

This week I look at the parable in Luke’s gospel known as the ‘parable of the rich fool.’ Usually this story is used in one of two ways, there’s a prophetic approach (“this story is telling us don’t be greedy, share your possessions,”) and a ‘sapiential’ or wisdom approach (“this story forms part of the wider strand of Biblical teaching which relates to death and possessions.”) Rather than focus on the content of the parable itself, I’m going to comment on the way that Jesus takes a ‘relational’ approach to the issue, which is out of step with the ‘individualist’ approach that dominates the majority of our thinking and our theology.

While the various commentaries that focus on the parable have plenty to say about the need for us to carefully think about our approach to possessions (on that note, I favour a liberationist approach that argues this is about the unjust monopoly of land and the systematic oppression of it’s inhabitants), they don’t tend to say much about the difference between an individual and a dividual, presumably because they’re not written by social scientists.

That’s a shame, I think.

The passage begins with a man trying to get Jesus to intervene in a family squabble, he wants his brother to ‘divide the family inheritance with me.’ Jesus avoids the bear trap of becoming involved in the challenges of family disputes, then he gives them a one sentence sermon: “Take care! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed, for one's life does not consist in the abundance of possessions.”

Life, in a relational culture is much more to do with the community than it is to do with what resources you have access to. “If you don’t have a village you have nothing,” I was told by a Fijian man when I spent some time there. Other Fijian friends were keen to ask me: “Where is your village?” In Fiji, as in some other Pacific nations, people are not ‘individuals’ so much as they are ‘dividuals’ - theirs is a relational culture.

Briefly, to explain the difference, the concept of an ‘individual’ is one that comes from the post enlightenment thinking of Europe and North America, it emphasises the concepts of autonomy and self-contained identity. According to that way of thinking, the person is whole in and of themselves, with rights, responsibilities and power.

The idea of a ‘dividual’ on the other hand is particularly obvious in cultures that aren’t so tied to what anthropologists continue to describe as a ‘western’ way of thinking, particularly in some of the Pacifica and South Asian nations.

According to a relational way of thinking a person is composed of multiple things, including relationships, exchanges, and shared substances (e.g. food, blood, ritual). To be part of Fijian culture is to take part in lots of shared experiences, it is to realise that you are part of a whole, not whole in and of yourself. That is why Fijian men sit in a circle through the evening knocking back swigs of ‘Cava’ a strange, muddy, slightly psychoactive drink made of a powder made by pounding a root, and some water.

“Dr Simon, do you want high tide, or low tide?” I would be asked, in other words did I want a full bowl, or a half full bowl. I began with low tide, I graduated to high tide by the end of my stay.

The Pacific is a great place for a relational theologian, “Dr Simon, you think like us!” I was told by amused Fijians who were more used to the individualised attitudes of Western visitors.

But the relational way of thinking, common to the Palestine of 2000 years ago, and to the Pacifica people today, insists that we are all connected. It teaches that breaking bonds of connection for apparent personal gain or wealth is the height of foolishness, if you have no village, you have nothing. Get as much wealth as you like, you will still die tomorrow. Be part of a community, however, and you will live forever.

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Image: Photo by Simon Cross