The Myth of Meaning: 3 Meaning as Gift — Secular Grace in Disguise

The Problem

Even in secular frameworks, meaning is often treated as something given — a resource, a horizon, a framework awaiting human discovery. From existentialism’s “search for authenticity” to structuralist theories of semiotics, significance is imagined as pre-existing, almost like a secularised grace.

The Distortion

This framing smuggles theology back under the guise of secularism. Meaning is cast as a “gift” we receive from the world, history, or culture — echoing divine benevolence — rather than something that emerges through interaction. By treating significance as given, these accounts reproduce the hierarchical logic of providence: humans as recipients, reality as benefactor.

The Relational Alternative

From a relational perspective, meaning is never handed down. It arises through the actualisation of potential in relational networks. Symbols, rituals, and practices generate significance only by their interactions and interpretations. There is no “source” of meaning apart from the processes that enact it. What we call a gift is really an emergent pattern of alignment between potential and actual across systems.

Takeaway

Meaning as gift is theology in disguise. By understanding significance as relational actualisation, we free it from the pretence of inheritance or endowment, and reveal the contingent, perspectival, and emergent nature of all meaningful phenomena.