Story
Formed Identity and Spirituality in Psychological
and Theological Dialogue Peter J. Jankowski Bethel University (St. Paul, MN, USA)
pp. 43-69
ABSTRACT: Story formed identity
seems to be an increasingly prominent way for
conceptualizing the self. For the most part
discussions about story formed identity appear to
have existed as somewhat isolated voices within the
respective disciplines of psychology and Christian
theology. This essay is a product of bringing
the two voices explicitly into dialogue with each
other. The discussion in this paper is framed
by an understanding of the dialogical self, and
highlights the ways in which the conversation
between disciplinary ideas is agreeable and where
there is the potential for disagreement. The
potential for disagreement seems to center on the
theological assumption that the transformative
experience of God’s self-giving love may be a
necessary condition for adaptive
self-construction. Ideas about story formed
identity are used to elaborate on the experience of
narrative incoherence, and provide ways to resolve
the tension between voices at the
individual-experiential levels of analysis.