You Are Not Your Own: Belonging to God in an Inhuman World

by Alan Noble

Resignation has the greater pull on us because the anthropology that shapes our society presents no actual ends for human existence, no purpose, only an increasing number of means. Justifying your existence is not a definitive action, it is an ongoing process. You’re always journeying and never arriving. If you’re responsible for meaning in your life, you can never cease the labor of creating and sustaining moments of significance. If you’re responsible for defining and expressing your identity, you can never cease expressing, never cease discovering and fine-tuning your identity. Because your personhood is irreducibly complex, there is never an end to your searching. If you are your own, you can never stop evolving and progressing and perfecting yourself through technique. The perfectibility of human life through rational methods of efficiency is the bedrock of modern public values. If you are your own and belong to yourself, you belong nowhere and everywhere at once. You will perpetually struggle between your autonomy and the desire to surrender to a larger community of belonging. Resignation is the natural posture of a people with no ultimate ends to pursue.