Trust · Agency · Threshold
- Trust — relational substrate
- Agency — embodied action
- Threshold — irreversible crossing
- Threshold refused — stall
The covenantal ground — orientation toward a person or reality as reliable before the evidence is complete.
Trust is not certainty. It is what makes risk non-absurd. Each threshold crossed deepens the covenantal memory that makes the next crossing possible.
Faith enacted in the body — the recognition that the one who trusts is a participant, not a spectator.
Agency is where formation happens. It is the site of choice, habituation, and character. Without it, trust remains sentiment. With it, trust becomes virtue.
The liminal crossing — irreversible, morally significant, the moment where the spiral either ascends or stalls.
Thresholds preserve the integrity of freedom. You can stand at one and not cross. This is why faith is not mere cognition but the movement of a whole person.
Trust enables agency. Agency brings you to a threshold. Crossing the threshold deepens trust — which generates greater agency. This is not a cycle but an ascent: each revolution occurs at a higher register of formation.
The spiral does not merely pause — it tends to contract. Trust, untested, atrophies. Agency, unused, turns inward or dissipates. The rich young ruler walked away unchanged, not neutral. The threshold refused is still a threshold encountered.