Who Am I, Really? The Gospel and the Modern Self w/ Justin Poythress

In this episode, Nate Shannon interviews Rev. Dr. Justin Poythress about his forthcoming book Who Am I and What Am I Doing With My Life? The conversation explores the modern “identity crisis” often expressed in debates about sexuality and gender but argues that these are only surface manifestations of a much deeper question: what it means to be human. Poythress explains that contemporary culture’s emphasis on radical self-creation, amplified by social media, limitless vocational options, and hyper-individualism, has produced both unprecedented freedom and profound instability. When identity becomes something we must invent rather than receive, the result is anxiety, paralysis, and constant comparison. This pressure affects everyone, not just teenagers or those wrestling with gender questions; adults experience it through work, retirement, politics, and online self-presentation.

The gospel, Poythress argues, reframes identity entirely. Rather than constructing ourselves from scratch, we discover that much of who we are is “given”, created by God and shaped in relationship to Him and others. Christianity does not suppress the human desire for growth and transformation but redirects it: true becoming happens through union with Christ, not self-invention. What modern self-help and identity movements seek, meaning, stability, and a better self, is fulfilled in conversion and sanctification. The Christian life therefore answers the identity crisis not by rejecting identity language, but by redeeming it, grounding our being and becoming in communion with God.