“Performance-based identity” is a concept developed in pastoral counseling for elite athletes. Sport is just one example of the modern quest for an identity based on performance. In the history of Christianity, there has always been an interest in the relationship between divine and human agency, and advocates of renewal have often emphasized the importance of humanity’s relationship with God being focused on divine gift rather than human achievement. How does the modern emphasis on being defined by one’s accomplishments relate to the Christian understanding of identity being rooted in a relationship with God? Within Christianity, how are divine and human agency understood to initiate, develop, and deepen the relationship between Christ and his body?

Focusing on the Reformation, the conference will show how Western Christianity has understood the relationship between justifying faith and human performance, and will look more closely at the modern challenge of performance-based identity in professional sports. On the first day, a series of 30-minute papers will introduce early modern approaches to performance-based identity. How does divine agency relate to human agency in the eyes of major streams of Western Christianity? We will look at Lutheranism, Calvinism, Anglicanism, and Roman Catholicism. A contribution from a historian will consider ideas of human optimization in early modern culture. On the second day, a second series of 30-minute papers will focus on current debates about performance-based versus relationship-based identity. Various facets will be evaluated: religion, philosophy, psychology, and sociology. There will be time to discuss the papers and to consider two core questions: Is the modern search for a relationship-based identity a result of the renewal of Western Christendom in the sixteenth century? Can the memory of this renewal help us to question the idea of performance-based identity?