In the 2020 book, \u201cThe Rise and Triumph of the Modern Self,\u201d by Carl Trueman, a comprehensive explanation of humanity\u2019s need for self-identity, and its various manifestations, is thoughtfully explained to the Church. Trueman interprets these self-identity revolutions as \u201ca much deeper and wider revolution in the understanding of what it means to be a self\u201d (p.35). He poses the question, \u201cHow has the current highly individualistic, iconoclastic, sexually obsessed, and materialistic mindset come to triumph in the West?\u201d (p.38). He spends the rest of the book answering this question by explaining the complex developments Western society has undergone the past three centuries.<\/p>\n
Part one demonstrates that with \u201cThe era of Rousseau and Romanticism a new understanding of human selfhood emerged, one focused on the inner life of the individual\u201d (p. 27). Part two focuses on the developments of the eighteenth century and explains how Nietzsche, Marx, and Darwin altered Western society permanently. Part three deals with \u201cthe sexualizing of psychology and the politicizing of sex\u201d (p. 28). The central figure in this section is Sigmund Freud. The fourth and final part brings all these streams of thought together and analyzes how thorough these changes have shaped Western society.<\/p>\n
The time spent retracing the historical developments provides the reader with a greater depth in understanding why Western culture is currently in the state that it is. He gives his justification for this approach: \u201cUnderstanding the times is a precondition of responding appropriately to the times. And understanding the times requires a knowledge of the history that has led up to the present\u201d (p. 31). It is an academic yet accessible approach for explaining the profound cultural shifts to thoughtful Christians. The majority of Christian workers desire more than just another book that complains about our post-Christian, post-Modern culture. This book provides insightful descriptions and historical analysis about Western culture\u2014and how we got here.<\/p>\n
Trueman does an excellent job summarizing and distilling three hundred years of history into a coherent timeline. He demonstrates how these past developments effect present day understandings of self-identity and sexual orientation. He states, \u201cUnderstanding what is happening in our modern culture, cannot be understood until it is set within the context of a much broader transformation in how society understands the human selfhood\u201d (p. 20). Even though Trueman wrote this book with a Christian audience in mind, anyone interested in Western culture would benefit from this book. There is a universal quality that anyone can relate to. That quality is an individual\u2019s search for their identity (See Joseph Campbell’s “The Hero with a Thousand Faces”). All people of all nations in all generations can relate to that struggle. Trueman uncovers many profound thinkers from the past and explains how their philosophical contributions on humanity\u2019s search for identity kept building on previous thinkers until eventually we arrived to where we are today. He has a gift to make difficult ideas easily comprehensible.<\/p>\n
I am thankful that Trueman does not spend a lot of time \u201cproviding solutions\u201d out of this maze. The purpose of the book is to trace the historical developments in Western culture that helps a modern person understand today\u2019s culture. If Trueman went on to give a playbook on how Christianity should \u201chandle\u201d the mess we are now in, that would only simplify and ultimately not do justice to the complexities involved. That subject is worthy of another book. To include a chapter on \u201csolutions\u201d would prove to be unhelpful. But Trueman does provide a few insights Christians should keep in mind. One insight worth mentioning is a call to the Church to become more of a community in this world: a shelter from the storm where people can feel at home and rest. That has been true since Pentecost and I expect it to continue to be true until the end.<\/p>\n
Furthermore, Trueman says, \u201cThis book is not a lament for the lost golden age\u201d (p. 29). There are also plenty of books that do exactly that and those are not difficult to write. Anyone can bemoan the state of any society. This book allows the earnest reader to better understand the times we are in, and think for themselves how they can make a positive contribution through their faith. It allows the reader to have the ability to analyze society with the knowledge they have been given through this book.<\/p>\n
As an example, after reading this book, a reader might think differently about the Mormon\u2019s legacy of polygamy. Perhaps polygamy might not be as big an embarrassment to the Church of Latter Day Saints as it used to be, nor should it be considered so extreme in today\u2019s society. Might polygamy become accepted in mainstream culture? If marriage can be redefined as an institution that celebrates the love between two men or two women, it is not too far of a leap to say marriage can include a man with multiple wives. And if a man can have multiple wives, why can\u2019t a woman have multiple husbands? \u201cGet the government out of the bedroom and stop trying to legislate love,\u201d says the pro-gay marriage constituency. If I want three wives, I should be able to have three wives; it is my right and no one should infringe upon my rights. It is a solid argument that today\u2019s culture would struggle with refuting. Perhaps marriage can also be between an individual and their pet. It should be up to them and nobody else. The ramifications of same sex marriage, and by extension an individual\u2019s search for their identity, is a never-ending quest and always carries with it surprising, unforeseen consequences. What was once a target for ridicule thirty years ago, has now become mainstream. But as Booker T. Washington once said, \u201cA lie doesn\u2019t become truth, wrong doesn\u2019t become right, and evil doesn\u2019t become good, just because it\u2019s accepted by a majority.\u201d I’ll happily continue to find my identity in Christ.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
In the 2020 book, \u201cThe Rise and Triumph of the Modern Self,\u201d by Carl Trueman, a comprehensive explanation of humanity\u2019s need for self-identity, and its various manifestations, is thoughtfully explained to the Church. Trueman interprets these self-identity revolutions as \u201ca much deeper and wider revolution in the understanding of what it means to be a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":150,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[2427],"class_list":["post-29356","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-trueman","cohort-lgp11"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29356","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/150"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29356"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29356\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29357,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29356\/revisions\/29357"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29356"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29356"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29356"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}