I especially enjoyed Rosner’s larger volume, Known by God: A Biblical Theology of Personal Identity, which I suspect provided some grounding for his newest, How to Find Yourself: Why Looking Inward Is Not the Answer.
A large part of his thesis is: “The self-made self is unstable and unsatisfying precisely because the very strategy of expressive individualism is unsound” (pp 57-58).
He expands on the notion of “expressive individualism” early in the book (p 24) stating that:
Self definition is… the culturally endorsed route to identity formation in our day. Today, we have a do-it-yourself, self or a self-made self, which looks only inward to find itself. Academics call this expressive individualism.
The major tenets of expressive individualism can be summarized in seven points:
The best way to find yourself is to look inward.
The highest goal in life is happiness.
All moral judgments are merely expressions of feeling or personal preference.
Forms of external authority are to be rejected.
The world will improve dramatically as the scope of individual freedom grows.
Everyone's quest for self-expression should be celebrated.
Certain aspects of a person’s identity — such as their gender, ethnicity, or sexuality — are of paramount importance.
Table of Contents
Foreword
Preface
Introduction: Stranger in the Mirror
Part 1: Looking for Yourself
Chapter 1: Looking Inward
Chapter 2: A Collective Identity Crisis
Chapter 3: Five Tests of the Good Life
Chapter 4: Ancient Texts and Modern Preoccupations
Chapter 5: Looking Elsewhere
Part 2: You Are a Social Being
Chapter 6: Social Identity
Chapter 7: Known by God
Part 3: You Are Your Story
Chapter 8: Narrative Identity
Chapter 9: The Story of Secular Materialism
Chapter 10: The Story of Social Justice
Chapter 11: The Life Story of Jesus Christ
Part 4: The New You
Chapter 12: Losing Yourself
Chapter 13: Finding Yourself
General Index
Scripture Index
Meanwhile, check out this post, “5 Myths about Your Personal Identity”.