Teaching Series On Identity

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 into the world, a person’s relational orientation to God becomes binary: You are either an enemy of God or a child saved by grace (Ps 1.1-6, Eph 2.1-5, Rev 21.6-8). In relation to others, the Scriptures take on an ancient society approach to human identity; you are inextricably a member of some tribe or nation and your identity as an individual cannot stand alone from that membership. 

In today’s society, several trends have taken place that has created something of a crisis of identity. The term “identity crisis” was coined by psychologist Erik Erikson around the 1960s in his research on child development. Since then, it has become commonly accepted that an individual must at some point in his or her life “discover who you are”. The plight of modern society is captured well in the hauntingly echoey lyrics of the song “How To Disappear Completely” by Radiohead:

That there

That's not me

I go

Where I please

I walk through walls

I float down the Liffey (River)

I'm not here

This isn't happening

An effective church teaching program requires two kinds of skillful exegesis: that of Scripture and of your people. In my essay I intend first to outline some general factors and trends in the Western context that have contributed to a loss of confidence in self identity. Then I will describe my teaching material, which is organized into three main types. The cornerstone will be a six-part sermon series that broadly follows the redemptive contours of Creation-Sin-Redemption. Alongside that will be a paper that I write that provides further information on what the Bible says about identity. This paper will be available for everyone in the church, but it is meant to be read by key leaders so that they will be ready help church members who have questions and objections. Finally, there will be a seminar series that seeks to address key issues in culture and society that relate to identity. 

The Western Context: Self, Self-expression, and Authenticity

Charles Taylor traces the development of the modern understanding of self from the era of the Protestant Reformation, from Martin Luther’s declaration that he “cannot and will not recant anything, for to go against conscience is neither right nor safe” He notes the importance of the Enlightenment in celebrating reason and creating a formal distinction between the individual mind and the external world (e.g. Descartes’ cogito, ergo sum), and he emphasizes the role of the Jacques Rousseau and the Romantics in turning the collective consciousness of the West to self-expression as the highest ideal.

The post-war Existentialists further cements this in the cultural mind through the notion of existential freedom. Jean-Paul Sartre, writing from the fallout of the two world wars, there was a loss of faith in human nature, in a sense of community, and collective identity. What results is the radically self-centered notion that to exist is to be free. “‘Man is condemned to be free; because once thrown into the world, he is responsible for everything he does.” Not only that, but to live in denial of the responsibility to create oneself is to live in bad faith, meaning that it is one’s inescapable responsibility to experience the anguish of self-creation. 

Sartre understood his view of the human condition to be one of anguish, but as the idea filtered into the popular mind, it has taken on a particular note of triumph and positivity. We are encouraged to be who we want to be, create our own meaning and purpose in life, discover our own identity, and all of these instructions are viewed as uplifting and freeing. Consider the lyrics of the British pop singer Natasha Bedingfield:

I am unwritten, can't read my mind

I'm undefined

I'm just beginning, the pen's in my hand

Ending unplanned

Putting this all together, one way to summarize the crisis of identity from a historical perspective is to observe that, whereas in the past the default way to find individual identity is within the context of the collective, today the prevailing belief is that each individual is both free and responsible for forging their own identity. In the past, one was defined by belonging to a social group, whether it was a religion, nation, tribe, or tongue. But today, the shackles of the community are thrown off and one is free (or condemned) to be their own person.

Sermon Series

The overarching goal of the preaching series is to help the congregation understand the fundamental importance of having your identity be shaped by biblical convictions. A general fallen condition focus that spans across the series is seeing the folly and futility of having to find or create your own identity. An apologetic challenge is to acknowledge and address the negative idea in our culture of abiding by tradition and social expectations. It is assumed that living how someone else tells you to live is not just unpreferable, but also a moral compromise (i.e. bad faith). A challenge in the sermon series is showing how living the way God wants humans to live is not just right, but also joyful and for the benefit of humanity. 

The structure of the sermon series will roughly follow the biblical plotline, starting with creation and sin, and addressing identity after the cross and resurrection of Christ, acknowledging eschatological tension, and finally finishing with a foretaste of the identity project fully restored in the new heavens and earth.

1) Identity as Creature

Passage: Genesis 1.26-31

The starting point for a biblical view of human identity is, not surprisingly, as a creature of God. Brian Rosner identifies five truths that the Genesis narrative makes about humans:

1. Humans beings are special

2. Humans are social beings

3. Humans are sexual beings

4. Humans are moral beings

5. Humans are spiritual beings

What I would highlight in this sermon is the first point, which is a direct implication of the imago Dei. The thesis of Rosner’s book is that the recovery of healthy human identity is understanding oneself in relation to God and in proper proportion, that is he being the transcendent Creator of life and we being his special creatures. 

2) Identity as Sinner

Passage: Genesis 3/Rom 5.12-17

To understand the fundamental problem of self identity, a reckoning with sin must be had. Stanley Grenz puts the question in this way: “What happens when the concept of the infinite within the finite, upon which the self-expressive self depends for its sense of stability and for its ability to overcome its own particularity, proves to be an unstable center?” The consequence of the unstable center is “the sense of a free-floating self without any semblance of a fixed identity” Downstream of this ivory tower analysis, we experience this as a constant and neverending pressure to define ourselves. At a popular level, Akos Balogh identifies three experiences: “1. Success and failure is now the individual’s responsibility, 2. We need more validation from others than ever before, 3. Modern identity is more fragile than ever”

The promise of the gospel comes in the reversal of the curse of sin. “For if, by the trespass of the one man, death reigned through that one man, how much more will those who receive God’s abundant provision of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ!” (Rom 5.17). Even in a sermon about sin, the hope of the gospel needs to be held out.

3) Identity as a Child of God 

Passage: Romans 6.1-14

The blessing of our relationship with God is found in experiencing the full blessing of being his child. This blessing is found through our spiritual union with Christ. The emphasis is on a definitive break from the old way of life and into the new. Finding healing in identity is a journey, and key to the journey is working out daily and in increasing measure our intimacy of fellowship with God through the Spirit. 

The application that Paul makes in Romans 6 to the theological truth of spiritual union is putting to death sin. So as we find freedom in being known by God, we express it and confirm it through battling personal sin. 

4) Identity as a Member of Christ’ Body

Passage: 1 Peter 2.9-10

Grenz writes, “The image of God does not lie in the individual per se, but in the relationality of persons in community.” He further explains that a reconstruction of the social self must be perichoretic in the sense that it takes into consideration our being in Christ (and thus, the Trinitarian God) as well as in ecclesial fellowship.

Where this idea is made clear is in Peter’s declaration that “one you were not a people, but now you are the people of God”. 1 Pet 2.9, his purposeful invocation of Sinai covenant language indicates that this social identity as God’s people has always been the redemptive trajectory.

5) Identity in Partial Redemptive Fulfilment

Passage: 2 Corinthians 4.7-12

Acknowledging that I will probably have to find a better title, the goal of this sermon is to bring to focus the now-but-now-yet nature of the Christian life in the present, and bring it to bear on our identities today. There are two main points to cover here. Firstly, that at this time while we have not been fully claimed to God face to face, while we only see through a glass imperfectly (1 Cor 13.12), we are at work in fulfilling God’s mission by bearing the treasure of the gospel in jars of clay. This is the main point for Paul in 2 Cor 4.10, in which he says “we always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may be revealed in our body”  

The second point is to highlight hopeful physical suffering as a necessary implication of the Christian life at present. Here it is helpful to note Kelly Kapic’ meditations on physical suffering. “The Christian tradition sees sickness as a genuine problem worthy of both attention and lament rather than something to be ignored as meaningless”

6) Identity in the New Heaven and New Earth

Passage: Revelation 21

Rosner writes of the critical importance of being known by God at the last judgment, “Making Jesus’ not knowing someone the decisive criterion of judgment is particularly disturbing. The verdict ‘I never knew you’ is highly personal.”

This is the ultimate consequence of identity failure in God’s eyes. However, the eschatological converse of that fate is the fulfilment of being known by God in enjoying his full, unrestrained presence in Jesus’ return. “Look! God’s dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them.” The conclusive gift of salvation is God himself, and knowing this final destination for God’s people will determine the hope with which we live today. To define ourselves by this hope is to let go of worldly anxieties of self-definition and to see them as the pale, fruitless letdowns that they truly are.

Fading is the worldly pleasure

All its weak pretence and show

Solid joys and lasting treasure

None but those of Zion know

Biblical Waypoints: Paper On Identity For Leaders

By providing supplementary reading for leaders, they can then assist in the pastoral care and ongoing teaching of the church. 

A Theological Anthropology

In this paper I will introduce the idea of a theological anthropology. It is crucial that we are not only known by God, but Christians seek to renew their minds with robust biblical answers to questions like, “who are we?” and “what is our purpose?”

Stephen Wellum identifies a renewed interest in anthropological questions, such as “what is man?” and “what is our purpose?” in our day and attributes it to the disintegration of the Christian worldview as the dominant worldview in the West and the “rise of competing “isms,” as represented by the larger categories of modernism and now postmodernism (e.g., Marxism, secular humanism, existentialism, nihilism, deconstructionism, etc.)” He further cites the rapid development of technology as a circumstance that has accelerated the problem. 

Additionally, it would be helpful to provide a basic biblical look at identity through the framework of Creation-Fall-Redemption:

Creation - The original plan

• Main point: God created us

• God created us to be in relation with him

• God created us to fill the earth and “inculturate” it, i.e. with society

• God created us to worship, love, and obey him

Fall - What we lost because of sin

• Loss of relationship with God

• Loss of metaphysical certainty

• Loss of social bonds

• Loss of a “given” identity

New Creation

• A new identity: 2 Cor 5.17

• A renewed relationship: Col 3.10

• A new ethic: Eph 4.24, Col 3.12-14

• A new hope: 1 Cor 13.12
  
  

Supplementary Seminars - Engaging Secular Ideas

The church in the case study is medium-sized, with a spread of ages that is commonly found in churches today: Good representation from young to old, but with a doughnut hole in the category of adults 25-35. The church has high levels of education, likely doing a little better than the area, which boasts 65% of the population having post-secondary education, and a further 15% with post-graduate education. These two data points suggest that there is a significant dropout rate of attendees after university education and when they start work. A typical experience of someone born into the church might be growing up in the church, raised by Christian parents, attending Sunday school, etc, but experiencing a crisis of faith after going to university. 

In acknowledging and combatting this problem, it is crucial not to patronize or make straw men out of secular ideas, but in this teaching series to show serious engagement with what the world is believing outside of the Church. To that end, my seminar series seeks to take a clear-eyed and non-judgmental look at some of the key trends and belief systems related to identity today, and offer critique from a biblical perspective. The goal of this seminar series is to complement the preaching series, which is most overt in establishing a biblical view of identity. 

I have outlined five seminar topics, which I will briefly describe below:

Progressivism and the gender debate

Our current moment in gender politics is the latest chapter in a historical march of progressivism. Progressive ideology is founded on the conviction that history is on an “inevitable march upwards towards the light” of freedom, justice, equality, and social utopia. A century ago, the progressive agenda encompassed giving women in America the right to vote, but today it has progressed to speaking of sexual liberation as a civil rights issue, and unironically utilizing notions of “sexual minorities” Progressives see gender and transgender rights within this framework and believe that the issue is fundamentally a matter of justice. This lends formidable ideological power to the movement, since its proponents do not view their cause as a special interest but a matter of creating a fairer and better society for all people. 

This seminar will seek to critique the progressive worldview and address its tenets from a biblical worldview. One of the key teaching points is to compare the ways in which Jesus was notionally progressive, but in a way that is rooted in the eternal, immovable truths of God and Creation rather than human progress. His interaction with women were radical for his day, but grounded in the conviction of the imago Dei, thus women should be treated with dignity because of their identity as God’s special creation rather than as a tactic to restore the gender power balance. A notable work to include and recommend would be Another Gospel?: A Lifelong Christian Seeks Truth in Response to Progressive Christianity, written by a former Christian pop band member who tells her personal journey of returning to the historical Christian faith after being exposed to progressive Christian theology.

Sex as identity

The sexual revolution of the 1960s laid the ground work for elevating sex as one aspect of a person’s identity to the be-all-end-all. Similarly, sexual practice is no longer just one aspect of human existence but the ultimate expression of one’s freedom. Because of the prevailing progressive attitude in the West, it is important to acknowledge that secular culture sees sexual liberation as a moral good, not just as one idea among a marketplace of many. It is crucial to show that God neither demonizes sex itself nor does he villainize those with aberrant sexual inclinations. From an apologetics standpoint, it is also helpful to shine light on how culturally and historically unique the modern Western view of sex is. As is described by Jenell Paris, “Sexual identity is a Western, nineteenth-century formulation of what it means to be human.... Perceived as innate and as stemming from inner desire, sexual identity has to be searched out, found, named and expressed in order for each person to be a fully functional and happy adult”

A strong biblical treatment of sexual identity would emphasize its goodness. It was part of creation order, and thus intrinsic to God’s original plan for human flourishing. Thus, the key to experiencing sexual liberation is not found in absolute freedom from constraint but in rediscovering and embracing its divine design in creation order before being marred by sin. Grace Morillo articulates a biblical view of sex in view of the modern culture’s drive to make sexual identity the cornerstone of social identity. She cautions the need to teach distinctions between sexual orientation and behavior. “It is crucial for pastors, counselors, and lay leaders to understand that orientation alone does not determine, nor should it determine, sexual behavior, and that the condition of attraction, orientation, or identity is not necessarily matched by sexual activity.”

Critical Theory

If we are serious about engaging with young, highly-educated, urban Christians, the subject of Critical Theory is unavoidable. As an idea in the social conscious, it is not just just one way of social thought as much as it is a nascent alternate religion, according to Richard Delgado. Critical theory has Progressive presumptions and is originated with good intentions as it is a secular attempt to reckon with the idea of justice and equality for all people. It has relevance to the idea of identity through the cousin concept of intersectionality, the notion that social justice must be found at the intersection of various ways of looking at an individual, race, sex, gender, ethnicity, class, age, etc.  

Tim Keller has written a biblical critique of Critical Race Theory and social justice in which he points out that the concept of justice is not unified and will differ depending on which social theory one applies, libertarian, liberal, utilitarian, or postmodern. He concludes that addressing this from a Christian perspective requires presenting a biblical view of justice that addresses the defective areas of alternate views of justice. He also emphasizes how the biblical view of justice has built-in safeguards against domination. This is a crucial apologetic point to make, as the culture has a deeply rooted fear of oppression and subjugation. 

The Internet And Social Media

A discussion of identity, especially for teens and young adults, would not be complete without a reckoning of one of the chief agitators of identity confusion. 

Ron Cole-Turner draws a direct connection between online social media platforms and their intention of allowing their users unprecedented control over their other-facing identity. “Social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter allow users to create an online identity with preferences, photos including ‘selfies’ and links to other users. These platforms allow users to present and edit their identities or profiles in accordance with their subjective desires and aspirations as well as in response to feedback from others.” The purpose of this seminar is to show that social media as a tool is inextricable from this goal. What action points to take then? I am reluctant to make a strong claim that a faithful Christian must entirely relinquish the use of social media, but merely saying “approach” with caution does not seem serious enough. Unfortunately, we have allowed Facebook to become an indispensable part of the modern world. Perhaps the wise message is to say, “proceed with extreme caution, and be sober about the dark, magnetic forces of social media and the impossibility of authentic identity on it.” 

Who Tells Your story? Workshop On Testimony Writing

The final seminar is more like a workshop. In order to bring a satisfying conclusion to this teaching series on identity, which at times can be information heavy, a great exercise to train my church members in is writing and sharing their personal testimony. A Christian testimony tells the story of God’s work in an individual’s life to bring them out of darkness and into his wonderful light. It is deeply subjective, but when done well it highlights God as the hero of the story. This workshop will bring to fruition all the previous lessons about defining ourselves not by our own efforts but by locating ourselves within God’s grand redemptive history.

Works Cited

Bainton, Roland H. Here I Stand. Meridian, 1995. 

Balogh, Akos, et al. “Feeling Anxious About 'You'? Why Modern Identity Can Be Crushing - The Gospel Coalition: Australia.” 2 Dec. 2020, au.thegospelcoalition.org/article/feeling-anxious-about-you-why-modern-identity-can-be-crushing/. 

Childers, Alisa. Another Gospel?: a Lifelong Christian Seeks Truth in Response to Progressive Christianity. Tyndale Momentum, the Tyndale Nonfiction Imprint, 2020. 

Cole-Turner, R., 2019, ‘Commodification and transfiguration: Socially mediated identity in

technology and theology’, HTS Teologiese Studies/ Theological Studies 75(1), a5349. https://doi.org/10.4102/hts.v75i1.5349

Delgado, Richard. Critical Race Theory: the Cutting Edge. Temple Univ. Press, 2013.

Grenz, Stanley J. “The Social God and the Relational Self: Toward a Theology of the Imago Dei in the Postmodern Context.” Horizons in Biblical Theology, vol. 24, no. 1, June 2002, pp. 33–57. EBSCOhost, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=lsdar&AN=ATLA0001412967&site=ehost-live.

How To Disappear Completely, Nigel Godrich, Radiohead - Parlophone, Capital, 2 Oct. 2000, www.youtube.com/watch?v=nZq_jeYsbTs&ab_channel=rebus101. 

“Identity.” Psychology Today, Sussex Publishers, www.psychologytoday.com/au/basics/identity.

 Kapic, Kelly M. Embodied Hope: a Theological Meditation on Pain and Suffering. IVP Academic, an Imprint of InterVarsity Press, 2017. p44

Keller, Timothy. “Tim Keller - A Biblical Critique of Secular Justice and Critical Theory.” Life in the Gospel, 30 Sept. 2020, quarterly.gospelinlife.com/a-biblical-critique-of-secular-justice-and-critical-theory/. 

Morillo, Grace. “Sexual Identity.” Journal of Latin American Theology, vol. 11, no. 1, 2016, pp. 115–121. EBSCOhost, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=lsdar&AN=ATLAn3961221&site=ehost-live.

Newton, John “Glorious Things Of You Are Spoken” https://hymnary.org/text/glorious_things_of_thee_are_spoken 

Paris, Jenell Williams. The End of Sexual Identity: Why Sex Is Too Important to Define Who We Are. IVP Books, 2011. 

Rosner, Brian S., and Jonathan Lunde. Known by God: a Biblical Theology of Personal Identity. Zondervan, 2017. P75-79

Sartre, Jean-Paul. Nausea. Penguin Books, 2020. 

Taylor, Charles. Sources of the Self: the Making of the Modern Identity. Cambridge University Press, 2012. 

“The fight for recognition as sexual minorities who are just another kind of sexual, for women, for bodies, for Australians, is an intersection of competing d/u/e/l/s.” Lewis, Briggite. “Creating A Self In 21st Century Australia.” Redress, Aug. 2015. p11

Unwritten, Natasha Bedingfield, Danielle Brisebois, Wayne Rodrigues - Photogenic, 29 Nov 2004 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b7k0a5hYnSI&ab_channel=NBedingfieldVEVO 

Wellum, Stephen J. “The Urgent Need For A Theological Anthropology Today.” SBJT, vol. 13, no. 2, 2009, pp. 2–3.