Body and Identity: A History of the Empty Self

Angela Franks provides a sweeping intellectual history of identity, particularly in terms of how identity relates to the body, with an emphasis on the importance of Christianity to this understanding.

Modern questions about our bodies and how we see ourselves are often complex and problematic. To better answer these contemporary questions and navigate “identity politics,” Angela Franks seeks to provide a better understanding of identity. She begins by giving three basic meanings of the term: identity through time, the “true” or authentic self, and our awareness of ourselves. She engages with thinkers from antiquity to present day and investigates the decisive developments that Christianity provided. Within Christianity came a new awareness of the distinctive individuality of each person―the “true self”―called by God in a way that often breaks away from the “solid” or fixed structures of identity formation, such as family, class, and nation. This more “liquid” idea of identity continues to evolve in modern times, though without its theistic emphasis on God’s call. The result is a purely liquid self that consists of consciousness and activity, but without a grounded self that is either the object or the subject of consciousness. This is the empty self we have today, one that is given much more to do and less to be.

A comprehensive history of identity, Body and Identity brings the theological history of the self to the forefront in order to address the empty self and how identity is defined today.

Angela Franks is an associate professor of theology at the Catholic University of America.