How to Find Yourself: Why Looking Inward Is Not the Answer

Messiah Community Radio Talk Show

A Christian Answer to the Identity Angst of Our Culture. In the 21st-century West, identity is everything. Never has it been more important, culturally speaking, to know who you are and be true to yourself. Expressive individualism—the belief that looking inward is the way to find yourself—has become the primary approach to identity formation, and questioning anyone’s “self-made self” is often considered a threat or attack. Prompted by his own crisis of identity, Brian Rosner argues that personal identity is formed not only by looking inward, but also by looking around to your relationships, backward and forward to your life stories, and upward to God. In How to Find Yourself, Rosner equips readers to engage sympathetically with some of the most pressing questions of our day. Challenging the status quo, he offers an approach to identity formation that leads to more secure and joyful self-knowledge: being known intimately and personally by God and following the script of Jesus life story. Challenges the Status Quo: Examines and critiques expressive individualism—the leading strategy for identity formationGospel-Centered: Identifies an approach to identity formation in Jesus’s life story and God’s personal knowledge of his childrenAccessible: Helpful for a wide audience of laypeople, students, and church leadersForeword by Carl R. Trueman: Opens with a message from the author of The Rise and Triumph of the Modern Self Brian Rosner (PhD, Cambridge) is principal of Ridley College in Melbourne, Australia. He previously taught at the University of Aberdeen and Moore Theological College. Rosner is the author or editor of over a dozen books, including Known by God: A Biblical Theology of Personal Identity. He is married to Natalie and has four children.