The Emergent Self

Questioning what we're told it means to be human

A self is not given. It emerges.
Essays and reflections on how we become who we are.
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What if dignity is not something we are born with?
Humiliation, recognition, and the making of worth.
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Leaving can be its own kind of arriving.
Belief, doubt, and what remains.
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Grief changes us. It need not end us.
Loss, endurance, and meaning.
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Every disagreement holds more than two paths.
Thoughtful responses are always welcome.
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Welcome

The Emergent Self is a place to think carefully about how we become who we are — through humiliation and recognition, belief and doubt, loss and meaning. I’m Robert K. Green, a writer and scholar who has spent a lifetime questioning what we’re told it means to be human. Read, disagree thoughtfully, and join the conversation.

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Latest articles

Watercolor of a man standing in a doorway with his back to the viewer, a black clerical shirt left on a chair in the dim room behind him and a bright 1990s office ahead, where a plane climbs past the window.

Leaving Can Be Its Own Kind of Arriving

After I left the priesthood, I spent a year in temp jobs, standing in a doorway between who I had been and who I would become. Leaving, I have come to believe, is its own kind of arriving.
Watercolor of an older hand resting gently on another person's open hand across a wooden table, symbolizing human presence beyond thoughts and prayers

Beyond “Thoughts and Prayers”: A Former Priest on Where Healing Really Happens

A former priest on why "thoughts and prayers" fall short, and how presence, practical help, and human connection carry the healing that prayer once promised.
A hiker stands at a fork between a wide, easy road and a narrow, rocky path climbing into misty woods, with index cards scattered along the narrow path

The Road Less Traveled: Why Becoming Asks More Than Getting

Why do most of us take the path of least resistance? A dissertation Chair, nine drafts, and a social constructionist look at what it means to become, not just get.

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From the blog

Watercolor of a man seen from behind on a bench in a dim office break room, a second coffee cup set beside him as dawn light comes through the window, asking whether depression was really a gift

Was My Depression Really a Gift?

Was my depression really a gift? A former priest tests his own claim that the dark years after he left the priesthood were a gift.
Watercolor of a front door standing open onto a stone step, where a covered dish has been left, suggesting I'll pray for you as a doorway to showing up

Is “I’ll Pray for You” Ever Enough?

Is "I'll pray for you" ever enough? A former priest weighs the honest case for prayer and asks readers when those words open a door.
A hiker stands alone on a misty hilltop at dawn while faint, ghostly figures along the path below help others climb, steady a ladder, open a gate, and point the way

Nobody Is Self-Made

The phrase “pull yourself up by your bootstraps” began as a joke. Why nobody is truly self-made, and what privilege and intersectionality reveal about success.

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