Sacramental Identity: Finding Who We Are Through Participation in God’s Story

Who am I? A theology of personal identity and an answer to that question should be integral to any theological anthropology. For some, the answer is found in what many have called ＂＂expressive individualism,＂＂ an inward turn toward the self and who and what I feel is most authentic to that self. Christians respond that we are no longer that person, we are ＂＂in Christ.＂＂ But do either of these answers truly respond to the realities of both storied and embodied persons living out a life over time and change or the demand for an answer of stability throughout that endless change? Sacramental Identity seeks to answer these questions by grounding personal identity in Scripture, history, and a rich theology of the sacraments of the church. In a time where many are skeptical of the church’s care for the embodied and storied realities of human life, the sacraments invite us into the story of Christ and the church to discover who we are.

T. Ryan Dillon is a PhD student in systematic theology at Ridley College in Melbourne. He is an adjunct professor of theology at Eternity Bible College.