—“Individualism” properly defined, as the mutual respect of humans for each other’s direct connection to God …”—
I don’t know where that comes from, but as far as I now individualism in the marxist, postmodern sense is relatively recent invention, with the unique western tradition of individual sovereignty under rule of law the origin of what we group under the term individualism.
We often conflate that with christian consideration (care) for the individual and christian tolerance for the individual. But we prohibited collective punishment, created law for the individual not family, and created policy for the intergenerational family.
Civilizations all talk about their via-positivas but they cooperate by their via-negativas instead. The purpose of a via-positiva as far as I know is to circumvent the via-negativa, and by habituation, remove it from cognition (metaphysical presumptions).