{"id":37495,"date":"2024-04-14T22:32:26","date_gmt":"2024-04-15T05:32:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/?p=37495"},"modified":"2024-04-15T06:51:04","modified_gmt":"2024-04-15T13:51:04","slug":"how-did-it-come-to-be","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/how-did-it-come-to-be\/","title":{"rendered":"How did it come to be?"},"content":{"rendered":"

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 currency to the point that it has evolved into what it is today.1<\/span><\/p>\n

The Book<\/b><\/p>\n

In the book \u201c<\/span>Strange New World<\/span><\/i>,\u201d by Carl Trueman, Trueman discusses the historical, social, theological, and philosophical context that gave rise to the great thinkers whose ideas would be embedded in the deep parts of our culture and understanding of the world. The subtitle of this book, “<\/span>How Thinkers and Activists Redefined Identity and Sparked the Sexual Revolution” <\/span><\/i>gives the readers a clue to the fact that Trueman understands the power and influence that thinkers and activists can have on a culture. As leaders understanding the strengths and the pitfalls of this power is so important as it can have deep effects on a society long into the future.<\/span>
\n<\/span>
\n<\/span>An Example<\/b><\/p>\n

One example written by Elisabeth Bloechl reminds us about the consequences of ideas as she reviews Trueman’s book. She writes about the “one child law” in China. She writes “What we believe, how we imagine the world, these things motivate, and help us make sense of, our actions individually and as a society. They shape the very fabric of our culture.”2<\/span> Then she goes on to explain the impact this idea about only having one child has influenced a country and a culture.<\/span><\/p>\n

” Take a modern example: for decades Chinese leaders openly taught that for the good of the nation each family ought to have no more than one child, and less openly believed that male children were more valuable than female. Today, China is at risk of dying out because people are not replacing themselves, and there are far more men than women in the younger generations. Despite their recent efforts to reform, the government is unable to undo years of propagating their one-child policy; many people are still hesitant to have multiple children. The ideas which the government put into practice for years have shaped the culture in drastic ways that are not easily reversed.”3<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

If ideas have the potential to have great power and leaders impact generations through their ideas it is critical that we look at our leaders and their health.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

My Project<\/b><\/p>\n

My research for this program centered around risk-taking and why leaders lose their capacity for risk. Trueman’s book is a reminder the health of leaders is vital to healthy leadership that can leave a healthy mark and healthy ideas with our society. By taking a look at history and trying to understand these great thinkers, Trueman reminds us who we are, where we came from, and how these ideas have impacted our culture and our personal understanding of the world.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Conclusion<\/b><\/p>\n

If we want to understand the current world and our cultures, we must understand how we got here, so that we can learn to engage with where we are and look forward to what’s coming in our future.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

    \n
  1. \u00a0<\/span>\u00a0Carl R. Trueman and Ryan T. Anderson, <\/span>Strange New World: How Thinkers and Activists Redefined Identity and Sparked the Sexual Revolution<\/span><\/i> (Wheaton, Illinois: Crossway, 2022).<\/span><\/li>\n
  2. \u201c\u2018Strange New World,\u2019 by Carl Trueman: A Review | Modern Reformation.\u201d n.d. Www.modernreformation.org. Accessed April 15, 2024. https:\/\/www.modernreformation.org\/resources\/articles\/strange-new-world-by-carl-trueman-a-review.<\/span><\/li>\n
  3. \u201c\u2018Strange New World,\u2019 by Carl Trueman: A Review<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    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 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":160,"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":[3189],"class_list":["post-37495","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-dlgp01-trueman","cohort-dlgp01"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37495","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\/160"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37495"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37495\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":37502,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37495\/revisions\/37502"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37495"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37495"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37495"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}