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2 - Making Up a Life

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 November 2024

Judith Wolfe
Affiliation:
University of St. Andrews
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Summary

This chapter begins by interrogating the ideal of authenticity as a paradigmatic modern response to the crisis of master narratives. It critically examines practices of narrative selfhood, and discusses the ways in which social roles offer scaffolds for the development of a self without fully constituting such a self. Role-playing – the inhabitation of social and narrative roles – is an outstanding example of the exercise of imagination, its double function of finding and making, and its for-the-most-part inherited, moulded, and largely habituated practice. The chapter concludes with a theological discussion of the ways our habitual imagination of selfhood can be broken open without pretence that we might be able to find a fully realized authentic self beneath our narrative and social roles.

Type
Chapter
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The Theological Imagination
Perception and Interpretation in Life, Art, and Faith
, pp. 37 - 66
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2024

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  • Making Up a Life
  • Judith Wolfe, University of St. Andrews
  • Book: The Theological Imagination
  • Online publication: 09 November 2024
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009519847.002
Available formats
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  • Making Up a Life
  • Judith Wolfe, University of St. Andrews
  • Book: The Theological Imagination
  • Online publication: 09 November 2024
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009519847.002
Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • Making Up a Life
  • Judith Wolfe, University of St. Andrews
  • Book: The Theological Imagination
  • Online publication: 09 November 2024
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009519847.002
Available formats
×