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

The Gospel Coalition Book Awards Honorable Mention

"You are your own, and you belong to yourself."

This is the fundamental assumption of modern life. And if we are our own, then it's up to us to forge our own identities and to make our lives significant. But while that may sound empowering, it turns out to be a crushing responsibility--one that never actually delivers on its promise of a free and fulfilled life, but instead leaves us burned out, depressed, anxious, and alone. This phenomenon is mapped out onto the very structures of our society, and helps explain our society's underlying disorder.

But the Christian gospel offers a strikingly different vision. As the Heidelberg Catechism puts it, "I am not my own, but belong with body and soul, both in life and in death, to my faithful Savior Jesus Christ." In You Are Not Your Own, Alan Noble explores how this simple truth reframes the way we understand ourselves, our families, our society, and God. Contrasting these two visions of life, he invites us past the sickness of contemporary life 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."

--Timothy Kleiser, Christianity Today Four-Star Review, October 19, 2021

"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!"

--Abby Asencio, Presbyterian Outlook, January 21, 2022

"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."

--Karen Swallow Prior, author of On Reading Well: Finding the Good Life through Great Books

"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."

--Tyler Huckabee, Relevant, February 4, 2022

"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."

--Michael Wear, founder of Public Square Strategies and author of Reclaiming Hope: Lessons Learned in the Obama White House About the Future of Faith in America

"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."

--Duke Kwon, lead pastor of Grace Meridian Hill and coauthor of Reparations: A Christian Call for Repentance and Repair

"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!"

--Timothy Keller, Redeemer City to City

"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."

--Todd Brewer, Mockingbird Top Theology Book of 2021 List, December 29, 2021

"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."

--Tish Harrison Warren, Anglican priest, author of Liturgy of the Ordinary and Prayer in the Night

"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."

--John Inazu, Sally D. Danforth Distinguished Professor of Law and Religion at Washington University in St. Louis

"Noble argues that the continuing trend of personal autonomy will lead to disastrous results in society as a whole; for this he offers attainable solutions, whereby Christ becomes the focus and the way by which people can live as they were meant to live. As its title says, this book maintains that people are not their own and that they should belong wholly to Christ. . . . Recommended for readers who are seeking Christ-centered solutions for some of society's problems."

--Chad Clark, Library Journal, August 2021

"Overall, You Are Not Your Own is one of the most compelling, insightful, and wise books I have read in a long while, and I am eager to get it into the hands of friends and loved ones--both those who believe they belong to themselves, and those who know they belong to Christ but still live in a society founded on the lie that they are their own."

--Emily G. Wenneborg, Front Porch Republic, October 11, 2021

About the Author

Alan Noble (PhD, Baylor University) is associate professor of English at Oklahoma Baptist University, cofounder and editor in chief of Christ and Pop Culture, and an advisor for the AND Campaign. He has written for the Atlantic, Vox, BuzzFeed, The Gospel Coalition, Christianity Today, and First Things. He is also the author of Disruptive Witness.