Dialogue of "Representatives"

Dynamics and challenges

Abstract

The article tries to respond to the difficulties in dialogue of representing a large group of people. The approach is deliberately interdisciplinary. It hopes to elucidate how reflection upon problems drawn from life and developed in the light of revelation can be strengthened by the use of logical models. The problems of dialogue are compared with a gospel passage: Jn 1:19-27. This is followed by a mathematical form of argument. The gospel passage suggests the possibility of using a formal model that helps by giving an abstract representation of a text’s meaning. The chosen passage allows us to glimpse the beginning of a reciprocal and dialogical movement patterned upon the model of relationality described in the “non-standard identity” process of Obojska-Povilus. This would be ideal for bilateral group. What can be glimpsed, however, is the possibility of widening the model to a multilateral group, to say nothing of dialogues where each of the participants must start from the constituency he or she represents to achieve the widest acceptance of the dialogue’s outcomes.