This explains in part why secular culture has become so embracing of LGBTQ ideology since to object to such “authenticity” is seen as objecting to the right of any person to be authentic in their own way.

Trueman summarizes: “The modern self is one where authenticity is achieved by acting outwardly in accordance with one’s inward feelings.” He notes that “any attempt to express disapproval is therefore a blow not simply against particular ways of behaving but against the right of that person to be whoever they wish to be.” Sexual acts have “no intrinsic moral significance” it is important to find and live out one’s own, as against surrendering to conformity with a model imposed on us from outside, by society, or the previous generation, or religious or political authority.” This viewpoint was termed expressive individualism by the American scholar Robert Bellah, who defined it as holding that “each person has a unique core of feeling or intuition that should unfold or be expressed if individuality is to be realized.”Ĭanadian philosopher Charles Taylor connects this concept to what he calls the culture of authenticity, which he describes this way: “Each one of us has his/her own way of realizing our humanity, and.

The modern self also assumes that society at large will recognize and affirm this behavior. The modern self assumes the authority of inner feelings and sees authenticity as defined by the ability to give social expression to the same. Trueman writes that the notion of the self serves “to unify the changes we are witnessing and to make them, if not entirely explicable, at least less random than we might be tempted to think.” He describes the concept in this way: Rather, my purpose is to focus on the parts of his narrative that are especially missional for Denison Ministries as we seek to help Christians shape their culture with biblical truth. This summary cannot replace Trueman’s book, which I encourage you to read. While my own The Coming Tsunami attempts to explain our present context through a philosophical and biblical lens, Trueman does so through the prism of intellectual history. Said bluntly, this is the best historical explanation of our current cultural crisis I have ever read.

It is a common, sometimes trite claim of book reviews that the book in question is a “must-read” for particular audiences, but I am convinced that this assertion applies urgently to Strange New World. Anderson and others thus encouraged Trueman to write a shorter, more accessible version of his basic argument. However, as Anderson notes in his foreword to Strange New World: How Thinkers and Activists Redefined Identity and Sparked the Sexual Revolution, Trueman’s earlier book was over four hundred pages long and inaccessible to many who lack theological and academic backgrounds and interests. We reviewed the book at Denison Forum in “ How ‘expressive individualism’ and LGBTQ+ became the norm.” Like many readers, I found it to be enormously helpful in explaining our cultural moment and its implications for Christian faith and practice. Anderson calls “one of the most important books of the past several decades,” a magisterial work titled The Rise and Triumph of the Modern Self: Cultural Amnesia, Expressive Individualism, and the Road to Sexual Revolution. Trueman published what acclaimed cultural commentator Ryan T. I consider him the most brilliant historical analyst of culture in the Christian world today.

He is an ordained minister in the Orthodox Presbyterian Church and has served as a pastor. Born and raised in England, he earned an MA in Classics from the University of Cambridge and a PhD in Church History from the University of Aberdeen. Trueman is Professor of Biblical and Religious Studies at Grove City College in Pennsylvania.

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