The Vertical Self

by Mark Sayers

It's time for a return to Radical Holiness.

Welcome to the 21st century where you can now purchase and exchange personalities, depending on mood and circumstance; where you are told that you can be anyone you want to be, and identity is no longer based in a sense of self but rather in the imagery you choose at that moment.

The Bible contains a radically different way of understanding our identity. The path that God has chosen for us to discover who we really are is the path of holiness. The most exciting thing is that this path is not for otherworldy saints, rather it is a path of earthy, gutsy holiness. It's a path that is not about basing your life on this world or of shunning your desires. Instead, it is about bringing your hopes, your dreams, your brokenness, your desires, your humanness under the Lordship of Christ. By doing this we don’t just discover a new way of living out our faith, we discover a liberating, revolutionary, life-embracing way of being truly human.

Genres: Nonfiction, Christian, Theology, Faith, Christianity, Religion, Christian Living

197 pages, Paperback

First published March 2, 2010

About the author

Mark Sayers is the senior leader of Red Church and the cofounder of Über Ministries. He is particularly interested in the intersection between Christianity and the culture of the West. Mark lives in Melbourne, Australia, with his wife, Trudi, and their daughter (Grace) and twin boys (Hudson and Billy).

Reviews

[Nick · Rating 5 out of 5]

I can't really express how influential this book has been to me.
Like really - I thought going into it I had some high expectations, so I was a little prepared to be underwhelmed. But it hit me in all the places I didn't even know I was hiding.

It doesn't say - 'This is what you do, you are bad'

It says - 'Do you even realise you do this?!'

And I had to respond.
No. No I did not.

Sayers basically calls bullcrap on society and it's answers, it's judgement, and it's promise of fulfillment.
And I was really shocked with how much I agreed.

Almost chanting the same line as Fight Clubs Tyler Durdin -

'We are by-products of a lifestyle obsession.'

Sayers points to a way to end all the madness.
And it's a good one.

[Scott · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lots of really good insight into modern ways of formulating self image (and how we project that image). These are held in sharp relief against a biblical approach he calls the vertical self. This would be a good book for a book club discussion.

[Katie · Rating 5 out of 5]

(Free selection from the Amazon Vine program.)

This book was interesting for me in that Sayers at times seemed to read my mind--from things that worry me about contemporary society, to my own weaknesses--but then took off with that idea and expanded upon it in ways that never would have occurred to me. There are so many good insights in this book, I read the whole thing with pencil in hand and will have to revisit it several times to remind myself of each of his well-stated and eloquent, spot-on observations about our current mass culture and the disconnection and suffering so many individuals experience because of it.

There are some points that will stick with me a long time. First, the observation that in culture today we have replaced "soul" with "self," reducing our progress as human beings to the level of editing one's Facebook profile and primping for one's peers--striving "horizontally" rather than "vertically" towards holiness. I cringingly identified with Sayers' observation that "no one wants to be the Christian dork," and how even very faithful people so often now feel too self-conscious to really embrace their faith publicly and openly. I deeply appreciated Sayers' explanation of the Greek word "sarx" which is so often translated as "flesh" and taken to mean literally one's body, when it could more accurately be translated as meaning "temporary, fleeting." The latter part of the book delves in great depth into the topic of human desire as a gift, drawing on the Jewish concepts of yetzer hara and yetzer hatov and the writings on Mussar. Sayers' book gave me a glimmer of hope like few other recent books I have read.

My only criticism of the book is that it ends quite abruptly, and is rather brief. I wish Sayers had taken another 25-50 pages to expand on his thoughts on how an individual can start reclaiming the "vertical" self. He touches on the topic but could have done so at more length. And the final bit, "recruiting" the reader to participate in groups and so forth related to this idea, is well-meaning but comes off as a bit tacked on and artificial. I know publishers and authors seem to think this kind of "interactive" thing is necessary these days, but I think this book is inspirational and motivating enough on its own it really didn't need any gimmicks to get the reader up and moving.

[Elisha Lawrence · Rating 5 out of 5]

So I've listened to every podcast "This Cultural Moment" from Mark Sayers & John Mark Comer, but this is actually just the 2nd Sayers book that I've read (after The Road Trip That Changed the World...something like that, title changed at some point).

So personally I liked this book a little more than Road Trip, just because it was more elementary. Road Trip was great too. I just felt like this book was more easily understood, through Road Trip has a more interesting thread of story throughout it.

In this book Sayers puts forward the horizontal self as the cultural viewpoint of modern people. We no longer look above to something transcendent to give our lives meaning, but we look at the people and symbols around us. So we put on external identities sold to us through media and advertising to give our life a sense of meaning and purpose. We try to be sexy or cool grasping for an identity that seems meaningful.

Sayers described a good portion of my life, seeking to be cool in the eyes of my peers. I didn't care about morality or truth, I just wanted my peers to think I was cool. And my idea of cool was absorbed from the culture around me--muscular, athletic, stylish Abercrombie & Fitch clothes--yes I liked girls who wore Abercrombie & Fitch (Summer girls LFO was the jam...Macauley Culkin was in Home Alone). And just as Sayers described it, I was deeply disappointed and disillusioned with this pursuit. Yet even after I came to Christ and walked away from this life to an extent, it amazes me how consistently it was (and still is) a temptation for me. I did not want to be a Christian Dork (as he so aptly describes so many believers today). This was really my primary concern. How can I be a cool Christian? How can I help others see that Christianity is cool?

Sayers put forward the Vertical Self as the person we want to be. Someone who looks to God for his identity. He said that our desires themselves are not evil. These desires are actually meant to be something that points us to God. So we don't crucify our desires, we redeem them. We don't simply deny ourselves of all pleasure, we seek to see how pleasure points us to God. I think this is great and I believe it to be true, but admittedly I'm not so sure what that looks like practically.

The last chapter is what will leave me thinking about what true discipleship to Jesus really looks like. Sayers described the lives of Teresa of Avila and a monk named Christian as exemplars of this way of living. Both stories were beautiful. Teresa was passionate and often had desires that pressed her toward lust, but she redirected those desires for companionship with a man to a deep fellowship with God. The monk Christian stayed in a land to minister to Muslims knowing that he would likely be killed...and they were. But "they found a new sense of life living on the edge of death." Whew! These stories are beautiful and they remind of the book "The Way of the Dragon, The Way of the Lamb." I want to emulate Teresa, Christian, Eugene Peterson, Jean Vanier, John Perkins and others like them who seemed to be deeply comfortable in their own weakness as they followed Jesus faithfully where they were planted. I'm longing more and more to know what this really looks like and Sayers is a helpful friend along the way. God help me to understand what it means to lose this world that I may gain Christ.

[Glen · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a beautifully written book containing a passionate call for the western church to return to its identity in God. Sayers blends sociological analysis with clear theological thinking to offer a countercultural view for the believer in today's secular arena.

The choice, according to Sayers, is that we have to decide between an acceptance of how God has graciously designed us for maximum joy or we must live in a complex world of multiple personas seeking acceptance from peers and society at large. In the words of the title, we choose between a life guided by the vertical self which is aligned to God or the horizontal self which is aligned to the latest values of the world around us.

Beginning with the complex cultural scene of hyper-individualists seeking self-identity, Sayers addresses the ubiquitous practice of designing public personas. His range of examples demonstrates that he has not only research contemporary culture but has meaningful engaged in personal observation. This makes the book prescient on many levels.

What gives the book staying power, however, is that Sayers also plumbs the depths of wisdom in the rich history of the Bible and church to demonstrate the congruity of God's purposes for mankind. This provides a theological grounding for the main points of the book and provides depth perception for the reader.

One concept I deeply appreciated was his perspective on how holiness is the means whereby we discover our true selves. Eschewing worn-out images of puritanical rules, he describes holiness with relational vitality - a joyful state of wholistic integration into the person Christ has called us to be. This particular chapter was thoroughly biblical, imminently relevant and touchingly pastoral.

Overall I can say that The Vertical Self is not a book that resorts to platitudes, escapism or bombastic denunciations of wayward humanity. It can best be perceived as an insightful counteroffer for how God's redemptive plan can bring needed inward wholeness to us in an age typified by identity confusion. There is a missional appeal throughout the book for we who have tasted of the good life in Christ to lovingly share this reality with those seeking personal wholeness.

This compassionate voice resonates throughout the script as the reader is exposed to the stress-filled world of modern man. The compassion, however, is not of a spectators variety. Sayers delivers a courageous and unflinching challenge for the reader to find "soul friends" who will walk with them into the beautiful reality of a life lived well under God's gracious order (vertical self). We must not only live for ourselves but live so other can discover their true selves.

On so many levels I loved this book and how it shaped my thinking.

[Lisa · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was annoyed by this book for the first half. The gems in he second half almost redeemed it. I feel like the examples and pop culture metaphors are super dated and mean that it was intended for a much younger audience. But the thoughtfulness about how we can view ourselves before God we're lovely.

[Tyler Randel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mark Sayers' ability to speak into our culture is so helpful. I feel like he has a unique ability to weave amidst this cloud of confusion and name the leading forces that guide our culture.

[Trey Van · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved It

I'm growing more and more grateful of Mark Sayers. He has a way of dissecting culture that leads to spiritual wisdom.

[Hugh Harmon · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great inspiring critical read on the state of societies view of identity in contrast with image, and a subtle but radical take on holiness.

[Toby Neal · Rating 2 out of 5]

We need books like this that address the issue of how modern people form their sense of self and how the secular horizontal self creates a culture of anxiety and narcissism and fails to provide a robust identity. Sayers helpfully contrasts the horizontal self (an identity formed by looking outside and within) with a vertical self (an identity formed by looking to to creator and who he says you are).

I particularly enjoyed Sayers insights into the culture of cool, classy and sexy.

I had high expectations for this book, but in reality I found it tedious to read. Sayers illustrates the same point over and over with stories from culture and history. These stories rarely advance the argument of the book and they read as the authors ramblings on a number of topics he finds interesting.

Moreover his treatment of how the Bible offers an alternative sense of self was all too brief and would have benefited from more theological insights such as:
- how “in Christ” language shapes identity
- how adoption to sonship shapes our identity
- how justification by faith not works shapes out identity
- how having “died with Christ, and I no longer live but Christ lives in me“ shapes our identity
- how the gift of imputed righteousness covers our shame and makes us attractive, holy, approved to God

[Danny Joseph · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sayers is at his strongest when he diagnoses western culture. Accordingly, his categories of how our culture has become one of projecting an image is spot-on. And it is fun to go into a deep dive of his categories of what most people fall into (cool, sexy, and glamorous) and historically why we have valued them more.

The book get's a little weaker when he tries to redeem the categories. He does an goood job with "cool" but I honestly don't remember too much of his treatment of the redemption of "sexy" and "glamorous." It's just kind of a bad fit.

The book really fizzles out when he starts dipping into Jewish categories of the self. He begins to lean too heavily on the Jewish writers and ends up with almost a type of dualism. He gives the example of Spock, who cannot function without his dark side. So he ends up framing the dark qualities as qualities that can be redeemed. It would be a lot cleaner if he framed them as good qualities that have been corrupted.

I actually hate to write such a bad review of Sayers. His later stuff is simply phenomenal. I think I've bought more copies of "disappearing church" for people than any other book. So, maybe pass on (at least the second half of) this book, but definitely don't ditch Sayers.

[KC King · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not his best. The tone is too conversational and meandering. He does the same this in his later books and it hits, but whatever magic he has now, he didn’t have in 2010.
The ideas are all sound. I like the takedown on the horizontal self. The best part is that Sayers is giving Christian’s a new dimension of the perks of the gospel.
Accept Christ and you get heaven, sure, that rocks, but you also get to become a truer version, a more noble and unshakable version of yourself. Tight.

Gripe:I still don’t know what all the pastors nowadays constantly reference ancient anchorited nobodies. Like, “this great Christian principle reminds me of Sister Quazi-moto of Arendell, who worked as a cobbler in the 1850’s and made a huge impact for God because according to her lost journal she forgave an enemy.” Don’t we have better examples? Anytime A pastor mentions a monk —the more obscure the better it seems—I roll my eyes.

[Steven · Rating 5 out of 5]

I already want to (need to) re-read it.

So far this year I have read books by J.I. Packer, Tim Keller, Donald Whitney, and Wendell Berry and I would recommend this book by Mark Sayers ahead of all of them. They were great (and I would still recommend all of them), but this book is something special. I picked it up after hearing it recommended by a pastor/author in a podcast. I had never heard of Sayers and started with a used version of “Vertical Self”. Sayer’s point of view and ability to articulate his assessment of our current cultural climate are refreshing. He is able to describe in laymen’s terms the deep distresses of culture and humanity, along with the sole cure. I did not know what to expect when I opened this book, but it couldn’t have come at a better time for me. This book should be at the top of your TBR pile. I will be picking up another book by Sayers ASAP.

[Daunavan Buyer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mark Sayers is so brilliant. I love his books and the way he thinks. This book was one of his more accessible ones - I loved how he looked at different ways that our identities are formed through culture and then he proposes how our desires lie under a lot of the ways that we project ourselves to the world and define ourselves... ultimately when our desires are met in God our identities can be formed in Him. Some solid stuff! Took a bit to get to his points which is the only reason for 4 instead of 5.

[Maddie Hope · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is my second read, my first was as a high school student struggling with her identity and obsessed with her digital image. I re-read this as a married, college graduate, and I realized that not much has changed in me since high school. My self obsession has morphed, yes, and maybe into something more mature, but I still place my worth into the hands of others instead of the hands of God. I could read and re-read this book and still get new knowledge and necessary reminders from it. I highly recommend to any Christian, or any non-Christian who feels lost in our digital society.

[Ezechel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Masterful story telling to illustrate the points he's making, in the style of Bob Goff. But for a younger generation. Unfortunately stories are not my favorite way to get an idea into my head. I'm weird like that. So that's why only 4 stars. However I recognize this is a brilliant writing style for most people I know.
And regardless of the stories, the point the book is making is as relevant and important as they come.
I recommend it.

[Ben · Rating 5 out of 5]

Mark Sayers happens to be one of my favorite Christian voices today. His podcast “This Cultural Moment” is fantastic and this book was very similar to the topics discussed on that podcast. The main focus was on where we get our identity and whether we get it from others around us (the horizontal self) or from God (the vertical self). Sayers spends the first half of the book discussing how our culture has shaped our identity and unmasks all the lies we believe without knowing it. This part was extremely fascinating and insightful. The remainder of the book focused on the identity formed by God, which Sayers explains should be a push towards holiness instead of trying to look like the world.

I love Sayer’s wisdom and insight on this topic. This truly is an original book and extremely relevant to how Christians and churches should live in our culture today. I highly recommend this book.

[Emmy Barron · Rating 3 out of 5]

The parts of this book pertaining to sociology really resonated with me. As someone who has never felt like even my clothing style fits into a certain category, it can be easy to try to become a certain type of person that I see as worthy. This book is a reminder that I’m never going to be the version of myself I want to be; I was made to be the Lord’s and not myself. I hope that he continues to crucify my flesh and renew me.

[Matt Daq · Rating 4 out of 5]

Like all of marks books, this book contains some really deep insights into culture in the west. The main one for me was a few things.
1- we get the idea of self and who we are from culture opposed to what god says about us
2- many churches preach salvation as the message opposed to salvation AND then good works to renew earth. He calls this barcode faith
3- he calls it to live our of a place of receiving our identity from the vertical self of God opposed to what society says.

[Eddie Williams · Rating 4 out of 5]

This books first 75% is phenomenal. Sayers is really before his time with his insight on the Self. This was written before instagram, which really reinforces his premise. I give it 4 stars because his help towards discovering the vertical self, is more basic christian identity thinking, which is true and fine, but not newly insightful for me. Great book and highly recommend

[Paul Herriott · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mark Sayers writes and speaks and communicates in a very rare but effective form. He is well read, and is one of those Christians that knows a lot about the world we are trying to reach. This is a great read on the vertical Christian aim in life.

[John Newton · Rating 3 out of 5]

The author gives some helpful insights about how our society had lost its way in terms of our self-understanding—based on celebrities rather than what we find in Scripture. However, I found the book poorly organized, so I wasn’t always sure where it was headed.

[Patti Townley-Covert · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent book on the difference between finding our true self in God and an identity grounded in the approval of others. Highly recommend.

[Chris Collier · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great book that I’ll revisit multiple times.

[J. J.]

Helpful. Dated for some very understandable reasons, and timely and timeless for other commendable reasons.

[Noelle · Rating 5 out of 5]

A few thoughts. The Vertical Self is the most profound faith book I have read. It is good to question where we truly look to for identity. Holy is a squirm word these days. It just translates as wholeness. People long to be whole. Search high and low to feel it.

In contrast to The Vertical Self, The Horizontal Self, seeks identity by looking to peers, media, and culture.

[george stewart · Rating 1 out of 5]

I am currently attending Bodenseehof Bible school in Germany as I read this book. I will admit that I have limited knowledge about the author and his upbringing and education, but the book was hard to get through. The ideas presented in the book sometimes made sense; I even came to love the illustration of the “Vertical Self” and have presented it to some of my Christian friends. Although I resonated with the main thesis of the book, the overall reading experience was a nightmare. I understand that there are no limits to the vocabulary that describe God, as He is able to be represented in all cultures and places through different forms of communication, but this book was sloppy in its word choice. Quoting Mark Sayers, ”It’s not cool to be set apart; it’s not sexy to be holy”(92). I remember reading this sentence and feeling the cringe slowly seep into my body from the page in front of me. There is even a point in the book where Sayers raises the point to not bend to the culture around you for the sake of preaching and testifying about God. Sadly the book gave me the feeling of an older person bending to a younger culture, trying to be “cool and sexy” through a fun and relatable writing style. Lastly, at certain points in the book I would be reading a story that Sayer would present from his personal life to prove an argument that honestly felt made up (not saying that they were but that's just the gut feeling it gave me not because of the absurdness of the story, but the pure weirdness of it. It’s almost like reading when you ask new AI to make a “relatable human story”.) Mark if you are reading this review I just wanted to say that I don’t dislike you but I just didn’t like the book overall and wanted to be honest.

[Adam R. Clarke · Rating 4 out of 5]

Note:
Disclosure of Material Connection: This book was received free from Thomas Nelson Publishers as part of their BookSneeze.com book review bloggers program.

A Review by Adam B.R. Clarke

The title is a mouthful...

“The Vertical Self: How Biblical Faith Can Help Us Discover Who We Are In An Age Of Self Obsession”

...but if you can look past the length, the title gives away some great insight. First, Mark Sayers is going to base everything he says biblically, faithfully and with a strong theological basis. Second, we are obsessed by our own narcissistic views and, thirdly, how he can help. I love long titles so far as they hold true to the book. This does it perfectly.

When it comes to content, watch out Perez Hilton, we may now have a new king when it comes to celebrity culture. Sayers nails it on the head: We are obsessed with being sexy, cool and glamorous, but that leaves us with nothing more than idolatrous viewpoints of those around us that we see as cool, sexy and glamorous. In the end, we strive for the mystery that comes with these labels, but instead of looking up to the eternal mystery that comes from God, we look out to the horizon to seek out how we can best fit in with those around us.

We have stopped looking up at God to find who we are (based on the created order that God himself declared as good). We see the world and creation as tainted and can no longer seem to piece together the “Christian” and “Society” puzzle pieces that we wrestle with everyday. We can’t be sexy if we are Christian, can we? Well, God made everything including what we view as sexy, so sexy is good. It is what we do with the desires and understanding of sexy that is bad. When we throw around words like cool, sexy and glamor without thinking, they lose all meaning. When we can check our desires under the Lordship of Christ, in community, in their worthiness and by the fruit they produce, we begin to live once again as a vertical being seeking our meaning in God.

Mark Sayers’ book illustrates that a life sought out in the horizon of our lives is tiring, wasteful, meaningless and without any input into the society to which we so desperately want to feel connected. I saw this because the images we try to perfect in order to be accepted are constantly changing. It does make more sense to allow the cool, sexy and glam lifestyle to come out naturally. Those who truly have it are comfortable in their own skin - they live looking upwards.

Being holy does not have to be dorky. It does, however, consist of looking up to our creator and finding our order in creation.

Any youth leader should give it a read, or even use it as a study as the study guide in the back provides a great starting point for any accountability group.

[Jared Totten · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Vertical Self is half sociological study, half spiritual discipline guide. Unfortunately, Mark Sayers shines as a sociologist and merely passes as a spiritual guru. However, this is not to say I did not enjoy this book or would not recommend it (I did and would respectively). This book is worth the price of admission for the first half alone.

The former half of this book reads a little like David Brooks. However, instead of writing about the blending of the bourgeois and bohemian classes, Mark Sayers delves into the Christian individual's abandonment of an identity defined by the vertical (God) in exchange for one defined by the horizontal (society, Hollywood, self, etc.).

With startling insight, Sayers perfectly describes a Christian generation that has turned its eyes downward for a sense of identity. Movies and reality TV have us all acting out our own scripts. The Internet has fostered our separation between who we are and who we want to be. Narcissism feeds off this horizontal self, "in which our worth is tied to what others think of us, we end up obsessed with ourselves".

If you are in any sort of ministry (especially youth), I highly recommend this book. Here's a brief reason why: "Ministers and church leaders assume that they are speaking to people who have a vertical sense of self, but those they minister to both inside and outside the church (if they're younger than sixty years old) almost certainly have a horizontal sense of self . . . The emergence of the horizontal self is one of the most pressing challenges for the church in our day. Most of our theology was written by people who lived during the time of the vertical self. Most of our evangelistic approaches were designed to communicate the gospel to people with a vertical sense of self".

While the second half of the book can't quite stand up to the first, I was still quite impressed in the end. Despite a later half that seems to meander and wander, the spot-on description of the horizontal self makes Sayers' book a greatly beneficial read for anyone in ministry.

[Danielle · Rating 5 out of 5]

I recently read the book The Vertical Self by Mark Sayers. The basic gist of the book is that there are two ways to focus on how we view ourselves: "Horizontally" (meaning that we look at the world around us to base how we view ourselves) and "Vertically" (meaning that we look to God as our creator who made us in His image to base how we view ourselves). Sayers uses that base to launch into a full examination of how we view ourselves and how we can pull away from "The Horizontal Self" to head towards our "Vertical Self".

I must say that I had a very hard time putting this book down. I loved how Sayers was able to very clearly lay out his concepts of the Vertical and Horizontal self in a way that made it easy to understand for his readers. He also used very clear examples of how we use the messages society has placed in our brain-stores to present ourselves to others. One example that he uses is an encounter he has with two young women who have dressed in a provocative way that are clearly trying to get guys to "check them out" as a means for validation. Sayers' overall point that he dives into very deeply in the book is that this is the wrong idea; rather than looking to society's stereotypes of "Sexy, Cool, and Glam" - we should be looking up (or vertically) to God for guidance on how to present ourselves. It really made me take a look at myself, where my insecurities come from, and put a perspective on how I really am wired/created. The most powerful chapter in the book is also the longest and is summed up in the title of the chapter: "Meeting Your Future Self". Through this chapter, Sayers gives us a pathway to finding what he calls our "True Self" - or ourselves in God's eyes.

I highly recommend this book to anyone who is struggling with self-image, insecurities, pride, or any other skewing of how they see themselves. This book is a strong reminder about how we are really made, created, and grown - in the image of God. This is a reminder that we should never lose sight of as we journey through life.