You Are Not Your Own - by Alan Noble

About the Book

Modern life tells us that it's up to us to forge our own identities and to make our lives significant. But the Christian gospel offers a strikingly different vision--one that reframes the way we understand ourselves, our families, our society, and God. Contrasting these two visions of life, Alan Noble invites us into a better understanding of who we are and to whom we belong.

Book Synopsis

Modern life tells us that it's up to us to forge our own identities and to make our lives significant. But the Christian gospel offers a strikingly different vision-one that reframes the way we understand ourselves, our families, our society, and God. Contrasting these two visions of life, Alan Noble invites us into a better understanding of who we are and to whom we belong.

Review Quotes

". . . the success of You Are Not Your Own lies in Noble's winsome, even pastoral way of combining incisive cultural analysis with historic Christian teaching while bringing both to bear on the church's role in society. . . . Noble's book stands as a vital wake-up call for anyone suffering under the delusion that they belong to themselves."

"You Are Not Your Own is a book that will challenge you, bless you and maybe even change you - if you wish to make that change. . . . It takes a non-traditional approach to living in our world - where we often see the mindset of belonging solely to oneself as self-actualizing - Noble's alternative is shocking, eye-opening and lights a fire inside you!"

"You Are Not Your Own is astonishing in its breadth and its depth, but even more remarkable for its compassionate and practical wisdom. This is an exceptional book by an exceptional voice for our times."

"Alan Noble . . . wants Christians to take a step back and examine our idea of freedom. Noble doesn't want our culture to co-opt freedom. Rather, he wants us to get back to the Biblical freedom Christ talks about."

"Alan Noble has dedicated his life to the real things of the kingdom of God, and with You Are Not Your Own he helps us sift through the clutter of modern life to focus on what is most real. Alan understands that the very calling of discipleship is to follow Jesus in our time and circumstances-we cannot follow Jesus any other way. I expect this book will become a touchstone for many, and it confirms Alan as one of the most astute Christian writers of his generation. You Are Not Your Own will shape how you think about your life with Jesus."

"Alan Noble has given us a gift. Using one of the most beautifully articulated truths in creedal history as its guide, You Are Not Your Own examines one of the great sicknesses of our age-the soul-crushing malady of self-belonging. With the learnedness of a professor, the meticulousness of a tutor, and the empathy of a friend, Noble guides the reader through crucial questions around personhood, identity, and meaning. And he does so in a manner that is at once exposing and healing for those exhausted (and seduced) by modern life. Importantly, this book offers more than cultural insight and a Christian anthropology; it offers much needed hope, not by commending religious techniques that only add to the burdens of self-optimization, but by commending Christ-the one to whom alone we must belong. Here is a book that is penetrating, accessible, convicting, and in the end, hopeful."

"Alan Noble's book is exactly what we need. It shows the severe weaknesses of the supposedly liberated modern approach to identity and lifts up the biblical and Christian confessional resources (the sixteenth-century Heidelberg Catechism) that can heal us. As you can see from Alan's copious notes, he has read deeply in the many great critiques of the modern self written over the past two generations. But while powerful and penetrating, these volumes are inaccessible to the average person and therefore they have not gotten the traction in our culture that they should. Alan is, I hope, the beginning of a new generation of scholar-writers who can bring the insights of these thinkers down to earth and apply them in the most practical, compelling, and helpful form. May Alan's tribe increase!"

"Easily one of my favorite books this year. Noble identifies and picks apart the underlying assumptions of how we think about our identity. . . . Self-belonging leads to burnout, anxiety, depression, and injustice. Belonging to God, a life contingent upon his grace, engenders freedom, hope, and love."

"In You Are Not Your Own, Alan Noble offers a deep diagnosis of the dysfunction and disease in our contemporary culture. And he shows that the challenging hope offered in the first question of the Heidelberg Catechism-that I belong not to myself but to Jesus Christ-is the only cure to this sickness. This is a rich book, eloquently and perceptively exploring the damage inflicted by the myth of autonomy and offering the healing resources of the Christian faith. Anyone hoping for a deeper understanding of our contemporary malaise or wanting to explore what it might mean to belong to Christ should read this timely, well-written, and wise book."

"In this timely meditation, Alan Noble reminds us that brokenness, loneliness, and purposelessness will not be conquered by living our best life, finding our true self, or even belonging to the right family, club, or church. To the contrary, our greatest fears and anxieties are not problems to be solved but mysteries to be embraced through the knowledge of self that comes only from knowing that the self belongs to Christ."

About the Author

Dr. O. Alan Noble (PhD, Baylor University) is associate professor of English at Oklahoma Baptist University and a fellow for the Keller Center for Cultural Apologetics. He has published articles in The Atlantic, The Gospel Coalition, First Things, and Christianity Today and is the author of three books, most recently, On Getting Out of Bed: The Burden and Gift of Living. He lives with his wife and three children in Oklahoma City.