How to Find Yourself

In the 21st-century West, identity is everything. Never has it been more important, culturally speaking, to know who you are and remain 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 past crisis of identity, Brian Rosner challenges the status quo by arguing that, while knowing yourself is of some value, it cannot be the sole basis for one’s identity. He provides an approach to identity formation that leads to a more stable and satisfying sense of self. This approach looks outward to others—acknowledging that we are social beings—and looks upward to God to find a self who is intimately known and loved by him. How to Find Yourself equips readers from a variety of backgrounds to engage sympathetically with some of the most pressing questions of our day.

1. Opening Credits
2. Foreword
3. Preface
4. Introduction: Stranger in the Mirror
5. Part 1: Looking for Yourself
6. Chapter 1: Looking Inward
7. Chapter 2: A Collective Identity Crisis
8. Chapter 3: Five Tests of the Good Life
9. Chapter 4: Ancient Texts and Modern Preoccupations
10. Chapter 5: Looking Elsewhere
11. Part 2: You Are A Social Being
12. Chapter 6: Social Identity
13. Chapter 7: Known by God
14. Part 3: You Are Your Story
15. Chapter 8: Narrative Identity
16. Chapter 9: The Story of Secular Materialism
17. Chapter 10: The Story of Social Justice
18. Chapter 11: The Life Story of Jesus Christ
19. Part 4: The New You
20. Chapter 12: Losing Yourself
21. Chapter 13: Finding Yourself
22. Closing Credits