I find it difficult to write a meaningful review of this book because it says a lot of good things and yet it took too long to say it... and its not even 200 pages. As the author bio describes on the back cover, "Mark Sayers is a highly sought-after speaker, commentator, and thinker in the areas of faith and culture." Although I had never heard of him until reading this book, I can believe the bio is accurate. Sayers presents both a good analysis of how identities are being created in various ways in the 21st century as well as a solid biblical theology of personal identity within community.
Unfortunately, he spends so long - eight chapters or 77 pages - describing the various ways in which individuals present themself, some of which becomes overly repititious, that you cannot wait for the solution to be presented. In and of itself, that is not necessarily a problem, though when the solution is covered in two chapters (admittedly 90 pages in total) it seems to be a combination of not enough detail and too much broad stroke theology. Again, there's nothing signficantly wrong theologically or in terms of argumentation, the writing style (at least to me) just doesn't seem to fit the initial "analysis" provided in the opening chapters.
An intereseting book with good things to say, though it really seemed to this reader to be an awkward read.
This book was provided for review by Thomas Nelson publishers.
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