The Art of the Personal offers a strikingly original, meticulously researched interpretation of what it means to be a person, and is highly relevant for the times in which we live. The 238 excerpts are selected from 21 books published by Patrick Grant during the past 50 years. The excerpts reach across a wide range of topics, including psychology, aesthetics, literary theory, Biblical criticism, political theory, the Northern Ireland Troubles, Sri Lanka, the place of religion in ethnic conflict, the perennial philosophy and the history of spirituality, among others.

The excerpts are arranged under general headings, which are introduced and interpreted by brief essays. This format invites an interactive, dialogical response, as the book makes a case for an understanding of the person as situated within the complex networks of discourse by which its threshold status is constituted but not defined, and to which the art of dialogue is indispensable.