In a world in which new identities are asserted with virulence, the very strangeness of the situation can lead us to ask: How did we get here? Many recent works have presented different genealogies of our present situation; in my upcoming book, Body and Identity: A History of the Empty Self, I argue for a much older story than most commentators give. This is a story that cannot be told without speaking of Christianity—its radical proposals and challenges—and how modern thinkers both extended and distorted the Christian vision of identity.