Theories of Identity and the Christian Religion

By Pierce K. Kozlowski

Preface

It is so common, in this day and age, that we refer to identity as the centering principle of the Self. That is, when we live in an atomistic, fragmented society within the Western framework, we find a continual movement towards the individual, in contradistinction to places like East Asia which focuses more on communal connectedness. With that said, seeing how this focus on individual identity has taken high priority within the broader value hierarchy, the question becomes “Why?” Clearly, it’s because this focus seems to have had success within the larger domain of society, or, put simply, focus towards the self has been useful because it acts as an orienting principle that stabilizes the person in some fundamental way, apart from the natural tendency towards chaos. To answer this question more adequately, however, is outside the scope of our objective. A more realistic question that can be reasonably treated, even if only partially, is this: “What is identity?” This will be the subject of our work. From it, I aim to show that identity, as we said, forms from an emergence of conflict with an existing identity and achieves a commitment to a new identity after negotiating through meaningful alternatives. Second, I will integrate my own experience with Christianity throughout to support the existing scientific and theoretical frameworks of identity development theories in relation to adolescence. And third, by performing the former two, to demonstrate that identity is an ordering principle that gives coherence and stability to the conception of Self from an otherwise chaotic, baseline state which humans inhabit prior to socialization.

1.1 Definition of Identity

With that said, we return to the question posed in the preface: what is identity? Rather than giving our own answer, an appeal to the appropriate authorities is in order. Jung initially believed identity to be the unification of the conscious and unconscious Self which can be projected onto the world (Jung, 1923), while Piagiet believed that the recognition of change produced from individual action was the underlying constant of identity as it evolved from one cognitive stage to another (Piaget, 1968). However, it was Erik Erikson who was most educated on the matter. So as to establish his definition of the subject more clearly, the Journal of Canadian Academy of Child Adolescent Psychology provided a probable definition in a literature review using Erikson’s theories: “Identity provides a sense of continuity within the self and in interaction with others (‘self-sameness’), as well as a frame to differentiate between self and others (‘uniqueness’) which allows the individual to function autonomously from others (Ragelienė, 2016).” In other words, one can effectively navigate their social environment and shape their motivations or priorities by clearly delineating between their individuality and connectedness with others, i.e., erecting a clear boundary between a well-defined image of Self and then an image of Self in relation to others. 

1.2 Erkison: Theory of Identity Development

Having stated a rather lucid definition, how does his definition of identity connect to his theory of identity? Erikson (1896-1980), the preeminent psychoanalyst who sat on the skyline of psychology with Jung and Piaget, posited several stages of human development and believed the fifth stage to capture the balance between Identity versus Identity Confusion; adolescents pass into adulthood and along the way go through the process of asking “Who am I” by crisis, and negotiating an answer of “I am this” by commitment. This gap during that stage of life (or, if such growth is stunted and reserved for later in an individual’s life, say that “stage of development”) is referred to as the “psychosocial moratorium.” Through this brilliant but simple construct, we can organize identity development into a clear mode of comprehending identity fundamentally as the development and acceptance of one’s role, and the process by which it comes about in adolescence (Santrock, 2023, p. 144). 

Let’s discuss a personal example. Several times throughout the course of my younger life, I’ve had crises of faith. Now, religion is one of the eleven dimensions of identity as understood within modern psychology (Santrock, 2023, p. 147), and to the ardent atheists types who – from a place of anything but good faith – foolishly insist that identity formation ought to be divorced from or has no relationship to religion, or some equivalent absurdity, I appeal to Carl Jung who was one of the most erudite students of mythology and religion in his day, and would no doubt rush to confound such errors. Having clearly stated this at the outset, we may proceed. Christianity was the bedrock and central to my understanding of reality, so to speak. Even when I was young, i.e., four years old, the wondrous call of the transcendent cried my name from the mountaintops, and each day, I picked up my cross, either in stride or doubt, and tried to move in the ways of the Father as expressed and fulfilled by the Son – being “perfect as my heavenly Father is perfect” (Matthew 5). My role was to be a disciple of the Messiah, to learn of all that he had taught, and to piously assent to all that he had commanded i.e., to love God and to love my neighbor to the greatest extent of which my being was capable (Matthew 22). For context to those who are not actively religious or Christians, this is exactly what consists in being truly Christian. From a psychological standpoint, it’s worth noting my understanding of these principles, and the emotional significance I placed on them in contradistinction to most others my age who were inducted into Christianity and later became disenchanted with it.

1.3 The Departure and Return to God

So let us discuss my crisis. Religion or true Faith, as Kierkegaard says, is the absurd, particularly the Lord of Abraham (Kierkegaard, 1985). How odd a faith, and strange. Who sends their son to atone for the world? What son would be so abundant in virtue and love not only heeds his father but sees it through to its end until his final cry upon the cross? And what of the many other questions every rational person has? I cannot deal with these points with care or sufficiency here, nor is it the subject. But I will say this: it wasn’t until I had thoroughly explored Buddhism, then Judaism, and shortly after word, unofficially thought myself an atheist at thirteen (all of which I did privately, to the outside world I never suffered identity confusion in this way), that I collapsed in tears as I felt all of heaven weep from behind the clouds. I felt as though I had spit in the face of God when I should have rested my head against Him. 

Here we undergo the achievement of commitment. Moving along these lines, the tears I wept were the tears of one who knows their station but strayed, and in feeling helpless and guilty before the thing we love and owe duty to, the sincerely religious weep as so often happens. Yet what followed was a reinvention. A sincere love and affection once again was discovered after having studied the mysteries of world religion and the diversity of culture, in addition to the writings of the Church Fathers. The bonds of affection grew tenfold and brought me full circle to a rebirth within the Faith. To put this sharply, Christianity was as much a part of my Self-identity and inextricably intertwined within the fabric of my being, much like the impression of my mother or father (this is no understatement as my earliest memories apart from being fed in a high chair at two alongside kissing my parents was being read the Gospels by my grandmother). Psychologically, at least seemingly, it was the severity of its significance in my life, and the seriousness with which I treat it. And the amount of times I’ve experienced this in different manifestations often makes minds who are mature in the faith laugh since they understand the absurdity of this, and just how many times one must be reborn in it until finally discovering perfect rest in the transcendence of the first principle, i.e., God. 

To refocus the discussion of this paper, there is a relevant connection. The cycle I went through and went on to repeat according to my progression through the cognitive stages, as Piaget might say, was a superbly accurate caricature of Erikson’s theory, demonstrated by personal experience. The identity I had and concerned myself with was God and the principle of the transcendent; the identity confusion occurred when I called this identity into question upon exposure to other challenges to this identity, creating a crisis of identity; what followed from the crisis was a commitment, wherein I negotiated with myself through several meaningful alternatives in discovering what I am and am not. My new commitment had been a triumphant return to the Faith, but with a refreshed understanding of the subject and a mature acceptance of humble doubt which must accompany the religious journey. This process in relation to the whole is the phenomenon spoken of earlier – the "psychosocial moratorium."

1.4 Garcia: An 'Improved' Theory of Development

While this issue could be further explored if we considered the primary source work of Erikson directly, there is a conception of identity development that metastasized from Erikson called the “Four Statues.” Firstly, there’s identity diffusion, which is a general indecision in the different dimensions of identity and usually occurs at very young ages. Secondly, is identity foreclosure, which is the commitment to an identity prior to any crisis and occurs in mid to late childhood. Thirdly, is identity moratorium, similar to “psychosocial moratorium,” which relates to the development of a crisis regarding a previously established identity. Lastly, there’s identity achievement, which is the acceptance of a new identity or a new outlook or understanding of a previous identity, resulting in what Maslow would likely call an actualized understanding of one’s Self at that current cognitive stage. This revision was put forward by James Marcia from the 1980s to the early 2000s, later giving rise to the eleven dimensions of identity which are clearly defined from self-report surveys as being significant to those within the respective sample populations that were tested but still remaining particularly under-researched as categories of identity (Santrock, 2023, p. 146). Additionally, an indicator of determining whether these Four Statues act in a cycle or repeat several times over the course of one's life, now coined as the “Dual Cycle Identity Model,” is the use of the “Narrative Approach.” This has interview subjects discuss their personal lives in the form of a narrative to ascertain the critical points or factors relating to periods of identity commitment, and a decade-long study supports the theory of crisis and commitment proposed by Erikson and the related four statutes by Garcia, but showed that it recurs cyclically over the course of one’s life (Becht et al., 2021). 

Drawing a crossover between what I described of my prior development, and the modern revisions of Erikson’s conceptions of identity are not difficult. Beginning when I was young, identity diffusion would have been true before I was four, since I was neither consciously aware nor capable of choosing Christ, even if he’d appeared before me; having turned four is when identity foreclosure occurred, as that is when I became consciously aware of things that superseded my cognitive aptitude a year prior, and is also when I began praying on my own and possessed sincere convictions of the Christian faith. It wouldn’t be until around the age of thirteen, or early adolescence, that questions of identity began to form, and that is when I experienced identity moratorium, wherein I questioned commitments to my identity, followed by a new conception consistent with my new state of consciousness (to use the verbiage of Tolstoy), where I negotiated what I would be and believe going forward, experiencing identity achievement. 

2.1 Reflection on the Christian Spirit

Since my first experience, I endured this several times more and still do, albeit with far less severity – I imagine that the state of my consciousness was emerging past the safe walls of the enclosed city, similar to Prince Siddhartha when he decided to escape his walled city to become the Enlightened One. And my “crises” of faith have far less to do with questioning the faith as legitimate (since the purpose of faith necessarily excludes proofs), and far more to do with my understanding of the faith in connection with the present life. When this is shattered and renewed on an almost monthly or even weekly basis, I shout for joy because these are nothing more than the actualization of strength, and the overcoming of weak understanding. I am a man not held back by the misguided dogma of fundamentalism, nor am I limited by the disingenuous ignorance of some atheists who still think religion can be “refuted” by phenomena despite faith having nothing to do with phenomena and everything to do with the state of the inner person. I am joyful because I see beauty in all things, can have fellowship with people of any faith, and constantly come to understand and recall the nature of God when I both comprehend and act out the love of Christ, for it is said, “God is love” (1 John 4). I can happily do this, all the while retaining a perfectly coherent Christian identity in which I give myself up utterly to the vault of heaven, and happily follow Christ to the Cross, infinitely progressing towards the teaching of loving my neighbors and even my enemies. And unless I went through a tremendous journey where I routinely wrestled with God in the faith, as Jacob is said to have done in the flesh (Genesis 32), I would not have the actualized religious identity I have today, to use Maslow’s language. It would be, in the opinion of all the greatest theologians and thinkers, impossible to develop in this way had I not undergone a moratorium followed by achievement in the conceptions of my religious identity. 

2.2 "I am happy Buddhist"

The movie Life of Pi was beloved by my mother and me growing up. We began regularly watching it when I entered the fourth grade in twenty fourteen. One of our favorite and possibly the most insignificant character, when asked his name, sweetly said “I am happy Buddhist.” In similar fashion, I too am the “happy Christian.” My mom, I suspect, would not only agree but be glad at this declaration. We loved this touching film of an estranged, priestly Indian man who comes to grow closer to God by first losing everything, a clear allusion to the story of Job. But it was the clarity and innocent confidence in the soft tone of the otherwise unremarkable character, who in broken English, declared his state of consciousness (as happy) and his identity (the Buddhist). 

Conclusion

This is significant because it ties into the three emerging ideas that I’ve been developing over the course of this paper. The first is the minor premise, that religion is only one of several dimensions of identity. And despite the dismissive views the more disingenuous seculars levy upon religion, and the preposterous declarations that hateful fundamentalists project onto religion, it must still be treated with the same impartial scientific diligence when researched in connection with identity, and furthermore, that it is undoubtedly as significant as any other dimension of identity depending on the genetic and environmental factors influencing it and the experiences of the individual. The second idea is that identity is the substance of who we are in relation to our Self, and the form of how we behave in relation to others. It is a healthy delineation between who you are and who others are, as well as the roles being undertaken, which both evolve according to Erikson’s theory of undergoing crisis in our current identity, and through negotiation of meaningful alternatives, committing to a new identity – including all the revisionist theories of Erikson which have contributed to this idea and have gained empirical support. 

The third idea was the most important one, and while not stated explicitly in the body, it emerges as a consequence of what was said in the body, which is that identity is an ordering principle. This idea is emergent from what was said for two reasons: Erikson, as stated above, comprehended identity to be a continuity within the sense of Self across all situations so one could respond according to the demands of the environment. In tandem with this, I spoke of personal experience within the religious domain of identity, wherein Christianity partook in the continuity of my sense of Self, informing my general conceptions of life and my actions within everyday situations according to the demands of my environment. Since such continuity forms a sort of order wherein a person’s Self is made unique, individuated, and comprehensible apart from others, informing how they behave based on what is perceived as appropriate or necessary, is a type of orderly orientation that maintains a consistent and potentially evolvable sense of Self. For this reason, identity is the ordering principle that orients people away from the natural state of chaos, which occurs prior to socialization, and we have all the psychologists, and especially Erikson, to thank for these once theoretical but now scientific insights. 

Bibliography

1. Becht, A. I., Nelemans, S. A., Branje, S. J. T., Vollebergh, W. A. M., & Meeus, W. H. J. (2021). Daily identity dynamics in adolescence shaping identity in emerging adulthood: An 11-year longitudinal study on continuity in development. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 50(8). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10964-020-01370-3

2. Jung, C. (1923). Psychological types (pp. 552–553). Routledge. https://archive.org/details/Vol06PsychologicalTypes/page/n13/mode/2up (Original work published 1921)

3. Piaget, J. (1968). On the Development of Memory and Identity. Clark University Press. https://commons.clarku.edu/heinz-werner-lectures/19/

4. Ragelienė, T. (2016). Links of Adolescents Identity Development and Relationship with Peers: A Systematic Literature Review. Journal of the Canadian Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 25(2), 97–105. Journal of Canadian Academy of Child Adolescent Psychology. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4879949/#:~:text=Identity%20provides%20a%20sense%20of

5. Santrock, J. W. (2023). Adolescence (Vol. 18, p. 144, 147). Mcgraw Hill Education.

6. Søren Kierkegaard. (1985). Fear and trembling: dialectical lyric. Penguin.