Write a self-referential skit where four leading Christian thinkers grapple with the theomorphic suggestion that even shame reflects something primal about the divine nature.
ChatGPT Prompt (condensed)
Scene I – The Dream
The Eagle and Child pub’s back room. Firelight, the smell of ale and old books. C.S. Lewis (“Jack”) sits with a pint. Anselm of Canterbury, Athanasius of Alexandria, and Karl Barth join him at the table.
Lewis: Gentlemen, I had a dream last night. Words in a tongue I’d never heard — but when I woke, one line clung to me: “Human shame is a broken reflection of divine self-neediness.”
Anselm: (arching an eyebrow) That’s… disturbing. You’re not saying God lacks something?
Lewis: I am saying He needs something. Or rather, Someone — three Someones. And that this is not weakness, but His glory.
Athanasius: Dangerous words. But the right kind of dangerous.
Barth: I’ll not run from them. What makes you so certain?
Scene II – The Need in God
Lewis: If the Father is eternally Father, He’s eternally needed the Son to be who He is. The Son eternally needs the Father to be Son. The Spirit eternally needs both to be Himself.
Anselm: Take away the Son and the Father ceases to be Father. That is need — not in the sense of emptiness, but in the sense of identity. Remove one Person and the whole reality changes.
Athanasius: Precisely what I fought Arianism over. Arius’s “God” could exist without the Son — solitary, self-enclosed. The Scriptures show the opposite: “The Son can do nothing by Himself” (John 5:19). “I live because of the Father” (John 6:57). Mutual, eternal need is the DNA of the Trinity.
Barth: And that’s why there is no shame in God — His need is always, perfectly met.
Scene III – The Mirror of Shame
Lewis: Then here’s my thought: shame is what divine need feels like when there’s no guarantee it will be met.
Athanasius: In Eden, need was naked and unashamed — openness met with openness. Once trust broke, that same need became danger. We hid (Genesis 3).
Barth: Human shame is the ache of exposure without certainty of love. In God, the Father’s openness to the Son cannot be shamed; it’s always answered with glory.
Anselm: Which means shame isn’t alien to our design — it’s the fractured shadow of something holy.
Scene IV – Living the Truth
A pause. The fire pops. Lewis looks uneasy.
Lewis: I confess — speaking this aloud felt risky. I wasn’t sure you’d hear me.
Anselm: And yet you needed us to. That’s the thing — you handed us your need, and here we are, still here.
Athanasius: That’s how divine need works — trust offered, trust met.
Barth: Which means, Jack, you’ve already lived your thesis tonight.
Lewis: (smiles) Then let’s toast: to the God whose glory is to need — and whose love is to meet every need without shame.
They raise their pints. The warmth in the room is now more than firelight.
Epilogue
As they linger, a fifth chair at the table sits empty — yet somehow not empty. Lewis glances at it, smiles faintly, and mutters just loud enough for the others to hear:
Lewis: “Whoever has seen Me has seen the Father” (John 14:9).
The others nod in quiet agreement. They drink, the conversation continuing into the night.
Radically Happy 
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