By: Tim Clark on April 15, 2024
What an awesome, amazing, exhausting semester! Thank you, my dear cohort friends, for the courage to wrestle with the texts and with one another, and for the vulnerability of “showing up” even when not everyone agreed. Thank you for your encouragement, prayers, and support. I’m blessed to have been put in THIS cohort. Our time…
By: Esther Edwards on April 15, 2024
Six years ago, the staff at the school where I taught music was asked to read Brene Brown’s book, “Dare to Lead.” As a staff, we went through each chapter and shared all that we gleaned from the book. It was a rich time of discussion and insight. Our principal was so enamored by the…
By: Jennifer Vernam on April 15, 2024
In Dare to Lead[1] Brené Brown covers a wide range of challenges that leaders face to diagnose why they are hard and to give some quick strategies for mitigation. Some of my favorite areas were around combating shame with empathy and living into our values. Brown has made a very successful career by unpacking psychological…
By: Jeff Styer on April 15, 2024
I have been married for nearly twenty-six years and have four beautiful children. Just over thirteen years ago, I sat down and wrote out a vision. I started it As a follower of Christ Jesus, I want to have my family impact the world in a way that brings glory and honor to Christ, I…
By: Daron George on April 14, 2024
In his book, Strange New World: How Thinkers and Activists Redefined Identity and Sparked the Sexual Revolution, author Carl Trueman offers a deep dive into the historical and philosophical evolution of personal identity, particularly how it intersects with modern conceptions of sexuality. Trueman’s exploration is more than an academic exercise; it is an examination relevant…
By: Sara Taylor Lattimore on April 14, 2024
Have you ever wondered how things came to be? My children often ask me questions like, “Why do we trade money rather than candy? What makes money more valuable? Candy tastes better.” They have a point, candy definitely tastes better, but along the way as society developed so did our concept of trade and then…
By: Laura Fleetwood on April 14, 2024
In less than a generation, Western culture’s view of human gender identity and sexual preference has dramatically changed. In his 2022 book titled Strange New World, Professor Carl R. Trueman attempts to explain how and why this shift occurred through a philosophical, theological and historical lens. He also proposes a way for Christians to respond.[1]…
By: Chad McSwain on April 14, 2024
“No one ever asks me about my sex life.” I have quipped on more than one occasion at my church. Interesting conversation to be having at church, you might think. You would be right. This is a sign of the times, if you will. Sexuality is a topic of conversation in the denomination I serve,…
By: Akwese on April 14, 2024
We live in a hyper-politicized society where one can readily see the world’s brokenness on multiple levels. This has often birthed arguments fueled by anger and grief, causing many to lash out at/demonize one another or avoid engaging in the sociopolitical arena altogether. However, rather than start a yelling match or excuse ourselves from the…
By: Joel Zantingh on April 13, 2024
When Christians equate evangelism with undermining cultural ideologies, it can quickly become white noise and easy to dismiss. In my work in the Canadian context, this distortion of evangelism that leads to less positive engagement, and more pushback even from within a marginalized Christian community. In September, 2021, Alpha Canada held a “Life Shared Summit”…
By: Caleb Lu on April 12, 2024
At the heart of his book, Strange New World: How Thinkers and Activists Redefined Identity and Sparked the Sexual Revolution, Carl Trueman explores the effect expressive individualism has on modern society, especially in regards to the sexual revolution, and seeks to trace how its influence became ubiquitous.[1] His hope seems noble. He doesn’t seek to…
By: Laura Fleetwood on April 12, 2024
In the book, Dominion, author and historian, Tom Holland, takes his reader on an adventurous journey through the past to expose how Christianity has impacted the moral fiber of the Western world despite popular attempts to extinguish it. From Antiquity through Christendom to Modernitas[1], Holland provides vignettes of people and cultures that followed Christ’s call…
By: Jean de Dieu Ndahiriwe on April 12, 2024
Carl Trueman’s book Strange New World & The Rise and Triumph of the Modern Self, must be one of those books that I will love to read and spend much time on in the future. After Dominion with Tom Holland last week, one will agree that these books are excellent and have the potential to…
By: Jenny Steinbrenner Hale on April 11, 2024
“Today’s world has reached a state which, if it had been described to preceding centuries, would have called forth the cry: ‘This is the Apolcalpyse!’ Yet we have grown used to this kind of world; we even feel at home in it.”[1] Trueman’s Works Carl Trueman, in his book, The Rise and Triumph of the…
By: Jana Dluehosh on April 11, 2024
I have mentioned in the past that I am a PK, my grandpa was a pastor, my uncle was a pastor, my brother-in-law is a pastor and sister a pastor now, my husband and I were pastors. I have put a lot of thought into pastoral families, and while reading J.R. Woodward’s book The Scandal…
By: Shonell Dillon on April 11, 2024
As I sit here trying to remember what I heard when listening to Trueman explain Strange New World in an interview, I am drawing a blank to his explanations. What does stand out to me is how he laughed when speaking about homosexuality and transgender individuals. Many jokes have been made about this subject but…
By: Julie O'Hara on April 11, 2024
It was March 2020 and my long-suffering husband’s world was turned upside down when three vessels of estrogen and education invaded his work space, our home. One afternoon we all came home, not for dinner, but to stay. School was online and jobs were on hold. Let me introduce the players. Me: A fifty-ish woman…
By: Kristy Newport on April 11, 2024
Carl L. Trueman, as a professor of biblical and religious studies, provides a commendable analysis of our culture and its current views on sexuality in his book The Rise and Triumph of the Modern Self. [1] He paints a history of how pornography has impacted how we now think and behave in the chapter entitled…
By: Shela Sullivan on April 11, 2024
Evangelization and Ideology: How to Understand and Respond to the Political Culture by Matthew Petrusek,[1] is a hard book to absorb, nevertheless it is thought provoking and confusing at the same time. Questions like, “What does it mean?” “Wait, what?” This is definitely a coffee table book to discuss with my friend Barry. I re-read…
By: Chris Blackman on April 11, 2024
In 1972, I was the 13-year-old son of two very conservative, far-right republican Catholic parents. It was what I knew. They had a very solid stance on politics and religion. It was tradition for me, my older brother, Mom, and Dad to share dinner and conversation every night. Also, in 1972, Richard Nixon was running…
