The chiasm of insistence and existence is not a new idea. It is as old as God. As Angelus Silesius writes: God Does Not Live Without Me I know that God cannot live an instant without me; Were I to become nothing, He must give up the Ghost.11 Silesius is putting to verse an idea that goes back to Meister Eckhart, who wrote: It is God's nature to give, and His being depends on His giving to us when we are under [submissive to Him]. If we are not, and receive nothing, we do Him violence and kill Him.12
