Learning the Self: Sources of the Self
Before I move on to the book, I will add that Prof. Williams influenced me in more ways than this. He modeled for me a dialogical form of teaching and led me into a deeper understanding of leading and teaching well, specifically in a group setting. He deepened my appreciation of the carefully and wisely spoken word, both by example and by rebuke (for which I am still grateful). He welcomed me with gracious hospitality in several ways and thus shared with me the grace of God while showing me more of how to do the same. Lastly, he taught me how to make a proper cup of tea (a skill for which my wife is regularly grateful!).
I don't know if Sources of the Self, by Charles Taylor, was the first book I read thanks to Prof. Williams, but it is one of two that has deeply stuck with me since then. It is also a difficult book to summarize or write briefly about! Much better thinkers and authors than I have written whole books seeking to grapple with this, or other, works by Charles Taylor. A short and deeply inadequate summary might go something like this: In this book Taylor seeks to examine the modern idea of the self, including its key features and history. Another way to say this is that Taylor asks and answer two questions: How do we conceive of our selves? And, how did we come to conceive of our selves in this way? Taylor seeks to "write a history of modern identity." (ix) In this journey through history and identity Taylor explores the inward turn (how it is that we have come to conceive of our selves largely in isolation and as buffered individuals), the affirmation of the ordinary, and the expressivist idea that our nature is a reality found deep within us that we must discover and align our lives with.
Personally, I have found Taylor's outline of modern identity and tracing of its history to be important and impactful on my own journey as well as my work as a pastor. The ways in which we act as buffered selves regularly cuts us off from connections, with others and with God. I often find myself guiding people into deeper openness. The expressivist individualism of modernity brings with it a deep discontent and, often, a malaise that seems inescapable, but once penetrated by a call to something bigger than myself, once struck by the realization that the truest thing I can align myself to is not some elusive nature within me, but the image of God displayed in Jesus, then joy and freedom begin to break through.
Taylor points out that "To know who you are is to be oriented in moral space, a space in which questions arise about what is good or bad, what is worth doing and what not, what has meaning and importance for you and what is trivial and secondary." Just having this as an outline gives me a starting place when walking in discipleship relationships with people, as together we seek to answer these things in a way congruent with the gospel and the person of King Jesus.
Sources of the Self is a good book. People have said, of Charles Taylor, that he is one of the authors people will still be reading in 100 years. Still, rereading this book was difficult and took a long time. I think I forgot how much reading time I got to have as a seminary student! To be honest, most of us will not read this book, nor do we need to. But if you can, and if something above makes you want to, know that you are digging into a gold mine.
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