The Postmodern Self in Theological Perspective: A Communal, Narrative, and Ecclesial Approach

Abstract

Drawing on the work of Stanley J. Grenz and Paul Ricoeur, this article proposes a communal, narrative, and ecclesial response to what Grenz calls ‘the dissipation of the self’ after modernity. Tracing briefly the rise of the self-sufficient self of modernity attention is then given to the deconstructed self of postmodernity. The article then utilizes the imago Dei as a theological resource, in conversation with Grenz and Ricoeur, for the reconstruction of the postmodern self along communal, narrative, and ecclesial lines. The final conclusion is that the postmodern self receives theological relief in the form of the ‘ecclesial self’ constituted in trinitarian community ‘in Christ’ and through the Spirit within Christ’s new humanity.