Fourth Crossroad

The spiritual mistake of attempting self-authorship is exposed. Without the needs of a dependent, created entity, gratitude—the unique love that such an entity can experience and that God cannot—will not be possible. A contrast is drawn between philosophy’s attraction to ideals such as self-authorship or autonomy, and the acceptance of human neediness encouraged by the poem. Not all philosophers champion self-sufficiency, and enable the embracing of human vulnerability to become an objective (care ethics is mentioned in this context). Nevertheless, these attempts to formulate a positive outlook on human neediness still differ from the poem’s. Once again, while a philosopher will argue for some immanent value that accepting needs creates, a religious justification of the same neediness will appeal to the manner whereby such acceptance bonds the believer further to God.