The Self, Self-Esteem, and Dying to Self: Contemplative Spirituality and the Ego

A reader of this blog named John wrote to me a while back and asked this question:

In your opinion, what role does self worth play in faith and from where does self worth come?

Since it’s a broad question, I wrote back to him to get a bit of clarification. In my response, I wrote:

Many of us learn not to love ourselves, thanks to the toxicity of our cultur…