The Relational Heart of Christianity

“Relational theology” – or as we sometimes call it “relationary theology” – broadly refers to Christian approaches to Bible-based living that share a central focus on the primacy of love and relationships. Love is the lifeblood of relationships. Love gives relationships depth, meaning, and the capacity to flourish through mutual trust, care and commitment.

True, you will not find the word “relationship” in the Bible, but you may have spotted occasional references to “relational theology” in Christian literature and online. 

Here it might be helpful to know that we have been strongly influenced by Roger T. Forster (1933–2024), the co-founder of Ichthus Christian Fellowship. In his preaching and books he would often use that label to communicate his relationist beliefs.1 But since we have also developed our own thinking over time, it is partly out of respect for Forster and friends that we are coining the term “relationary theology” to take full ownership of our distinctive approach.

Relationary Theology for Today

“Relationary theology” (or “relational theology”) may sound like a modern invention, but we see it as a fresh label for a thoroughly ancient, biblical worldview. Today, people intuitively understand the language of relationship and love. Philosopher Simon May puts it starkly in Love: A History:2

            “In the wasteland of Western idols, only love survives intact”.

In other words, ours is an age where many former sources of meaning have crumbled. Yet, somehow love still remains culturally sacred—perhaps the last bastion of a supreme value in secular society. Thankfully, there is a general consensus that love and relationships matter. People “get it”, even if most of us struggle to “get it right”. That makes relational language not just relevant, but necessary if we want to communicate the gospel in terms our culture can hear.

Relationary Theology and the Bible

You will be hard pressed to find anyone denying that “covenant” is one, if not the central leitmotif of the entire Bible. If you think about it, the Old “Testament” and the New “Testament” are just Latinised translations of brit, meaning “covenant” in Hebrew. Thus, Scripture is summed up in “covenant”.3 More specifically, the Bible is all about the covenant between God and Israel. Covenant, then, stands for the ties of mutual affection which – this time in New Testament language – are concentrated on the body of Christ. Covenant amounts to a marriage-like relationship, a bond of loyalty and loving-kindness between God and believers, one that was initiated by YHWH and is upheld by that very same God in Jesus. And that is the pulse of Scripture that defines the Big Story from start to finish.

Love at the Heart

Being Christians, we obviously believe that Jesus stands at the centre of the Bible and human history, and it was he who distilled all the commands of the Old Testament into the two Greatest Commandments: to love God and our neighbour as ourselves.4 Indeed, “God is love”: the most intimate community of love there is.5 Therefore, Christianity is – or ought to be – all about love and loving relationships. And that is also why, for us “relationary theology” is just “theology”, pure and simple. We seek to live by the principles that Jesus taught.

For these reasons – and more – we would argue that “relationary theology” represents an apt shorthand for the Christian message, and a convenient label that instantly conveys our biblical priorities in culturally relevant ways. 

Watch out for further posts as we continue this introductory series on relationary theology.

Next post: God With Us, Above us and In Us

Notes

1 Roger T. Forster, God’s Strategy in Human History | Volume 1: God’s Path to Victory, pp.19,143; Roger T. Forster, God’s Strategy in Human History | Volume 2: Reconsidering Key Biblical Ideas, pp.193, 207.

2 Simon May, Love: A History – chapter 1 “Love plays God”.

3 The Bible has two big parts — the Old Testament and the New Testament — and those names just come from different languages all saying the same thing: God faithfully upholds his promises with his people unto death (see the cross):

  • In Hebrew covenant is called brit.
  • The Greek word is diathēkē.
  • In Latin it is testamentum.
  • And in English, taking our cue from the Latin, we call it “testament”, but it really means “covenant”.

4 Famous passages about Jesus at the centre: Matthew 5:17; Luke 24:27; John 5:39 and Colossians 1:16-17. The Greatest Commandments are to be found here: Matthew 22:36-40; Mark 12:29-31 and Luke 10:25-28.

5 1 John 4:8,16.