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St Francis Magazine Vol 8, No 4 | August 2012
I have turned Beit-Hallahmi’s scheme into a simple diagram, with
his three layers of identity stacked above each other:
The following points about this model are worth highlighting:
a) “Collective identity” concerns the way a whole symbolic group
is labelled and distinguished from other groups by its identity markers.
Collective identity refers to “our” identity as a whole tribe or
class or nation.
b) By contrast, “my core identity” and “my social identity” are both
held by the individual. 69 This is why they are shown as a pair in the
diagram, separated from the collective identity. A person’s social
tite model as a potentially useful framework for discussing issues of identity, but
work on this has only just begun and it remains to be seen whether this model or the
terminology will stand the test of time.
69 I do recognise that to define core identity as “who I am in my inner self” this is an
over-simplified way of expressing it. Is Self an intrinsic entity or is it always developed
and defined in relation to the Other Is there, as psychologists debate, both an
‘I’ sense of self and a ‘Me’ sense What is the relation between self and worldview
And what perspective does a biblical theology of humanness bring to the understanding
of self These are all important questions, but outside the scope of this
article. Jens Barnett has done more work on this area, see his chapter in the forthcoming
book Longing for Identity, ed. David Greenlee.
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