The role of religion in the construction of identity

Abstract

Personal identity involves the awareness of a constant and continuous self over time, separated from others, with its own characteristics, some stable, others acquired and changing. The virtue of religion as a way of being in the relationship with God perfects the identity of the person, and can be considered the first of all virtues, indispensable for an authentic conversion. In fact, it includes all aspects of the person, giving it the particular dignity of a creature, daughter of God, giving it a sense of life, modifying its relationship with others, and also with reality, in which it sees the imprint of its Creator. All human values, relative and fragmentary, then acquire a meaning in the face of an absolute and not fragmentary Reality. Self-knowledge, conversion, relationships with others, forgiveness become indispensable realities in the formation of one's own identity, which coincides with the individual vocation, which in every sphere involves imitatio Christi.