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The following essay below started as an assignment for one of my theology classes. I wrote the entire thing before being made aware of Carl Trueman' seminal book on modern identity, " The Rise And Triumph Of The Modern Self " (Crossway 2020) Assignment You are the preaching and teaching team for a large urban church and have been asked to plan a six week program for the church which addresses issues of ‘personal identity’. The goals it to help church members develop a Christ-centred answer to the question “Who am I?” and to live in ways consistent with that. Produce a plan for sermons and services, small group studies (and other activities) which address the theme of personal identity. Introduction In Scripture it is accepted that a person’s identity is formed relationally, specifically through their relationship with God and relationship with others. Adam and Eve were created by God and given their raison d’etre in Genesis 1. Later on, due to the introduction of sin int...

Thoughts about the most important book of the year for Christians. Full disclosure: Much of the following thoughts are derived from other people’s reviews and summaries and my preliminary skimming of the text. I have only just begun properly reading the actual 400-page work.  Every era of the Church’s history has come with an attendant theological crisis. In the 4th-6th century, various heresies about Jesus Christ and the Trinity forced the Church to clarify its doctrine of God. In the 11th-14th centuries, St Thomas Aquinas and the Scholastics challenged us to sharpen our understanding of reason and revelation. Martin Luther and the Reformers in the 16th century brought about a reckoning in our doctrine of salvation and Church authority. The era we live in will be known as the era of anthropology. A millennium and a half ago, we sorted out the biggest questions of who God was, and now, several significant historical trends have collided to make us question, “Who am I?” Enter Carl T...