The common theme these voices herald is joy. They assume that the delight of God in trinitarian fellowship is nothing if not an invitational that he longs for us to join. The defining relational motif for humankind is not that we need to work as hard as we can, or at least harder than we are. It is not to do our best or to guarantee that our children will have a better life than we had. It is not about being right or the acquisition of power. Each of those (and other visions like them) play into the hand of shame’s anxiety.
