Cosmic Purpose and Self-Identity

Abstract

“Christianity has tried to sustain three theological convictions, each with a psychological correlate: (1) man's nature needs to be grounded in something transcending his nature; he cannot create an ultimately valid self-identity apart from such a ground; (2) man is genuinely free; a major element in his freedom is the ability to choose a self-identity which ignores the ground of his nature and freedom, though he does so at his own risk; (3) man needs and can have hope that the cosmos (of which he is a part) has a potential direction and goal; his ultimate self-identity requires the capacity to envision his own future as coherent with that of a meaningful universe.”