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dustinturner's review against another edition
5.0
I finally finished this one. It was lengthy and dense but incredibly thorough and insightful. A must read for Christian leaders.
clagerwey's review against another edition
3.0
I must admit: this book exceeded my admittedly low initial expectations, and I am glad that I read it to the end despite my initial misgivings (and despite not enjoying some of the early chapters).
The positives: the book was, as the author said, not a jeremiad or polemic, and thus it was somewhat tempered in some of its assertions. I enjoyed Trueman's thoughtful and cogent discussions of identity development over time, especially as it applied to internal versus external sources of identity. We need more consideration of how society shapes identity and how we are members of communities rather than autonomous individuals accountable to no one. The later chapters on the sexual revolution and SCOTUS jurisprudence were thought-provoking, even if I didn't agree with all of Trueman's analysis or conclusions.
The negatives: perhaps this book has been misused by some in the culture wars, but the connections to transgenderism were always just a bit beyond the logical conclusions I saw in the book. In fact, it was some of the logical cohesiveness that most frustrated me about the book. It seemed to me that Trueman never quite explained why psychological wellbeing is so dangerous since he never explained why it is necessarily and inherently antithetical to other approaches to identity such as more orthodox Christian answers. Trueman never quite explained why the thinkers he cited, particularly in the romantic literature section, were intrinsic parts of the creation of the modern self, rather than simply precursors who happen to share certain conclusions with contemporary mores. His discussion and criticism of sexual identities (as dangerously reductive and non-Christian) seemed dangerously close to CRT criticism that erroneously claims CRT makes race the only part of a person's identity. Perhaps I need to study more intellectual history, but a solid book should make those items clearer to a pseudo-lay reader like myself.
My final takeaways are that identity is complicated and more socially constructed than we realize, that modern society has a lamentably fallen view of sexuality, and that Christians need to share positive views of both to enter public square conversations with something useful to contribute. I recommend this book with some caveats to Christians and others working with young people and young adults who are figuring out their identities.
The positives: the book was, as the author said, not a jeremiad or polemic, and thus it was somewhat tempered in some of its assertions. I enjoyed Trueman's thoughtful and cogent discussions of identity development over time, especially as it applied to internal versus external sources of identity. We need more consideration of how society shapes identity and how we are members of communities rather than autonomous individuals accountable to no one. The later chapters on the sexual revolution and SCOTUS jurisprudence were thought-provoking, even if I didn't agree with all of Trueman's analysis or conclusions.
The negatives: perhaps this book has been misused by some in the culture wars, but the connections to transgenderism were always just a bit beyond the logical conclusions I saw in the book. In fact, it was some of the logical cohesiveness that most frustrated me about the book. It seemed to me that Trueman never quite explained why psychological wellbeing is so dangerous since he never explained why it is necessarily and inherently antithetical to other approaches to identity such as more orthodox Christian answers. Trueman never quite explained why the thinkers he cited, particularly in the romantic literature section, were intrinsic parts of the creation of the modern self, rather than simply precursors who happen to share certain conclusions with contemporary mores. His discussion and criticism of sexual identities (as dangerously reductive and non-Christian) seemed dangerously close to CRT criticism that erroneously claims CRT makes race the only part of a person's identity. Perhaps I need to study more intellectual history, but a solid book should make those items clearer to a pseudo-lay reader like myself.
My final takeaways are that identity is complicated and more socially constructed than we realize, that modern society has a lamentably fallen view of sexuality, and that Christians need to share positive views of both to enter public square conversations with something useful to contribute. I recommend this book with some caveats to Christians and others working with young people and young adults who are figuring out their identities.
ruth_joy's review against another edition
It's just awful, there was something I thought was wrong on almost every page. I don't mean I disagreed, I mean I think he frequently misattributed things (eg contrasting his and his grandfather's approach to their work and saying it's because culture is more individualistic now - no, you're middle class and your grandfather was working class). I think he misunderstood modern culture. I think he was so steeped in philosophy that he missed lots of other things - technology, economics, politics, history, medicine... Those things have all had a massive impact on individualism. He mentioned several times that people don't really think through things very carefully and implied that we all just blindly follow the thinking of whatever philosopher, whose views trickle through to society. As though that's solely what shapes society, not capitalism or the media or the COVID pandemic.
He talks about a time when people valued community like there's some golden age when humanity got it right (when??) and people just aren't willing to compromise now. I'm guessing he's an older white man who's just a bit bitter he's not it anymore. He's missing a time when everyone knew their place and unhappy people were not people like him, just women, children, racial minorities, LGBTQ+ people.... They knew to keep quiet and prioritise the community, by not complaining or rocking the boat in any way.
He said in the introduction he didn't want to dismantle a straw man but he went on to do a LOT of that. Mate. Does he think Caitlyn Jenner invented being trans? Did he read at all about gender diversity in other cultures? Other cultures that are far less individualistic than ours?? It's not worth me reading to find out. I've skim read the conclusions from future chapters and it doesn't look like it.
I couldn't keep reading it, it felt like such a waste of my time. I got nearly two chapters in and read nothing of value. This book is for people who agree with his conclusions already and won't notice that his arguments don't actually lead them there.
If you want to understand the rise of individualism read Naomi Klein's Doppelganger instead.
He talks about a time when people valued community like there's some golden age when humanity got it right (when??) and people just aren't willing to compromise now. I'm guessing he's an older white man who's just a bit bitter he's not it anymore. He's missing a time when everyone knew their place and unhappy people were not people like him, just women, children, racial minorities, LGBTQ+ people.... They knew to keep quiet and prioritise the community, by not complaining or rocking the boat in any way.
He said in the introduction he didn't want to dismantle a straw man but he went on to do a LOT of that. Mate. Does he think Caitlyn Jenner invented being trans? Did he read at all about gender diversity in other cultures? Other cultures that are far less individualistic than ours?? It's not worth me reading to find out. I've skim read the conclusions from future chapters and it doesn't look like it.
I couldn't keep reading it, it felt like such a waste of my time. I got nearly two chapters in and read nothing of value. This book is for people who agree with his conclusions already and won't notice that his arguments don't actually lead them there.
If you want to understand the rise of individualism read Naomi Klein's Doppelganger instead.
kirsten_canuck's review against another edition
3.0
Trueman is a historian who traces Western history of identity from a communal one, based on natural law and sacred order to our current reality where the psychological is seen as the most authentic self, and the therapeutic the highest value, and community is seen as a corrupting force rather than a healthy one.
He begins and ends with transgenderism - the idea that our psychology and physiology do not match, and which one is the most authentic - and how what would have been confusing a generation ago is normal today, and looks at the historical forces that made this change happen.
It's a birds-eye view, and intellectually interesting but lacking in pragmatic value (though he does try to get to that in his final chapter). It is also unflinching about its agenda ("I am a woman trapped in a man's body" he views as nonsensical and tries to make sense of it in a broader sociological way) so it would be interesting to read a rebuttal of his work as well.
He begins and ends with transgenderism - the idea that our psychology and physiology do not match, and which one is the most authentic - and how what would have been confusing a generation ago is normal today, and looks at the historical forces that made this change happen.
It's a birds-eye view, and intellectually interesting but lacking in pragmatic value (though he does try to get to that in his final chapter). It is also unflinching about its agenda ("I am a woman trapped in a man's body" he views as nonsensical and tries to make sense of it in a broader sociological way) so it would be interesting to read a rebuttal of his work as well.
shradar's review against another edition
4.0
Thorough and rich historical and philosophical explanation for how we have arrived at our shared moment. While there are moments of academic flourish the book is readable and helpful.
craigt1990's review against another edition
5.0
Disclaimer—I’ve added my own thoughts that aren’t based on Dr. Trueman in my review, hopefully they’re obvious but where they are not be aware that this review contains my own opinions too which may not be shared by the author. Furthermore they are not intended to cause division or reflect a fear or any racist sentiment but rather to elucidate some of the contradictions and overhauls in society we are currently living through. I think we should be in harmony but also aware of the changing landscape—I’m sure the future is bright, especially if we focus on Jesus and loving our neighbour regardless of their views (whilst preserving our own beliefs and holiness).
Dr Carl Trueman presents a very thorough adumbration, a word he tosses through the book like croutons in a salad; of the expressive individualism movement.
I took my time reading the book which is always a signifier of how good a book is. This one sits quite high on the list of books I’ve had to slow down to fully inculcate.
It turns out that the politicised sexual movement that the LGBTQ+ community has become can be traced back through the sediments of our social consciousness by highlighting a few key reformations brought about by first artistic then scientific ideas.
From Jean-Jaques Rousseau and Augustine we go back hundreds of years ago into the pairs precursor to psychoanalysis—the autobiographical confession.
Out of which was formed the philosophical idea that social corruption overrides our innate moral reasoning. We are affected by our cultural surroundings.
“The original impulse of nature is right, but the effect of a depraved culture is that we lose contact with it.” — Charles Taylor
A word I’m not fond of is the German term “Sittlichkeit” used throughout the entire book to refer to the shared cultural consciousness or moral code of behaviour on which society agrees. But I use “sittch” for short, as in situation.
The next term I learned about was French and therefore way more aesthetically pleasing, Amor Propre. Which is the used to refer to the prideful form of self-love whereby competitiveness, superiority and mastery over others in the preoccupation.
It is therefore the moral imperative of the education system to uphold a curricula that serves to uphold the integrity of values which constitute the “sittch”, and dampen the corruptive moral influence amor propre to ensure persons are guided to develop mature moral sentiments derived authentically from within.
It is the inner voice and the inward sentiments from which the fundamental bedrock of the self is created and on top of which moral values will arise which bear the image of the bedrock. I believe this idea of the dialectic goes back to Thomas Aquinas and Hegel but basically you decide what tree you want to be and then the fruit your produce is restricted by the original decision.
When we create our self from this authentic dialogue, not biased by amor propre or the the need for social validation and esteem; then we create a firm foundation based on our innate value and self-consciousness. It is our own dialectic reasoning which governs our fundamental self.
The next big step in on the way was the poets. First with romanticism (those French and their aestheticism have a lot to answer for) and then with the Beatniks—first in New York then into pop culture through artists like Bob Dylan and The Beatles.
The Beatles epitomise the globalisation of pop culture. In the Let it Be film extended and digitally restored by Peter Jackson, we see how much pressure the suits put on the band to travel to Tripoli (even with a boatload of Brits) to reinforce the sales pitch as The Beatles as “for everyone”. It’s no longer enough you have to be in every home in the World and as a vehicle for political weapons to enter the consciousness of the world.
Repeatedly the suits say “money is not a problem”, “whatever you want say it and we’ll do it”. The band ask who’s going to pay for it but they don’t get a response. Just assurances that money will be there for them no matter what (because they’re a national propaganda machine). Songs like “Get Back” helping to gather support for immigrants and against racism was welcomed by the establishment. Being open to the world is good for business and in theory (trickle-down economics and government-induced inflation aside) for its people too.
They were requisitioned as a propaganda tool. One which went off the rails slightly with John Lennon’s comment about Jesus but even more so when he took a stand against war and promoted peace which undermined confidence in the government. He was now useless to the establishment because he wasn’t broadcasting their message.
Traditionally poetry had always been used to convey the collective imagination of mankind but the inspiration was always outside oneself. The muses were actual goddesses who visited the playwright or The Aolian Lyre which was played by the wind and not by man’s hand illustrate this concept.
But over time this notion had fallen by the way with Nietzsche and the “death of God”. We get to call the shots. The Existentialist movement sought to shape the social imaginary through their own feelings about how we should all behave.
This gave rise to “I think therefore I am” and Jean Paul Satre’s rhetoric of “existence precedes essence”. The Exis were fermenting a sexual revolution and they knew that art was the way to reach the masses—popular culture.
And it worked because Nietzsche and Freud had shot a whole in the head of the social imaginary and people were eager to take a look inside and to open up their own minds through LSD. There was an idea that we must induce a system reboot of humanity whereby we remove all our programming but drugs weren’t the way.
Identity has become a deeply personally and overly psychologised concept. One ripe for deception, self-deception, division and weaponisation. Gender is now derived from a person’s feelings (psychological) and not biology (reality/sex).
Another stick of dynamite in the bomb was when Simone de Beauvoir built upon “I think therefore I am” with her own statement of “nature does not define women: it is she who defines herself by reclaiming nature for herself in her affectivity.”
Psychology became the way to rewrite the operating system of the social consciousness and reboot humanity to run a new code. One which has come to be known as LGBTQ+.
It’s written using the latest language of philosophy and psychology to allow a complete reimagining of what it is to be a human, what our limitations are and how we can rewrite history, legal systems, government and educational systems in a way that support the new language.
Similar to how when a new operating system comes out some software will not work until it has been patched.
Unfortunately the sex and drugs addled minds of the people leading the populist adoption of this new sexual revolution didn’t intend for the movement to progress as far as it has done and there are some contradictions and unintended consequences concomitant with its continued avalanche through our social order.
Philosophers and psychologists started referred to themselves as bombs and “dynamite”. Their role was to cause chaos and destruction to the social order, destroy the social imaginary and make a legacy for their own name. There was nothing therapeutic about the “sexual dogma” they were about to release on the world; without thought as to the consequences.
The result is that of a runaway train that’s out of track; leading to contradictions in its own coalition of ‘oppressed’ groups. With transgender women upsetting the feminists, especially females with a uterus and womb, thus undermining what it is to be a woman and fighting one another over their rights to be recognised in their own personal psychological suffering caused by their expression of their identity and their struggle for it to be validated by everyone they meet.
It no longer matters that boys and girls go through puberty and depending on their gender/sex: voice drops, pubic hair grows, balls drop, facial hair grows, testosterone levels increase as the body prepares for sexual intercourse: or for women, breasts develop, they have a period etc.
In our current society the new operating system is patching systems that are now green-lighting big pharmaceutical companies to produce millions of drugs to help transition children to become a gender their body is naturally developing them into because it was decided by their chromosome pairs at conception. And then once they’re on pills for the rest of their life they still have to have gender reassignment surgery and then likely plastic surgery throughout their life to allow them to feel like they’re developing like someone born to be that gender would. It’s fantasy wish-fulfilment and delusion on a dangerous scale.
One of the conclusions the author makes is that the Christian faith needs to be more aware and active in the role “content” or movies and films particularly play in the social imaginary. Screenwriters are enamoured with Joseph Campbell, Freud and Jung it’s become a template by which they can create scripts which speak and shape the identities of the expressive individualist viewer.
In the first manifesto of surrealism André Breton declared that he was “completely obsessed with Freud”, particularly relating to his theory of sex dogma and the new framework it lends itself to help describe the human existence.
I’m particularly happy that The Chosen series has become so successful and expanded into a whole studio of new programmes and television which is helping a lot more people change their viewing habits to Kingdom-minded ethical shows.
Another ongoing epidemic is the rise of sexual content now easily accessible by teenagers through their smartphones like never before.
Pornography is without a doubt skewing the minds of young people towards perpetual sexual gratification in all its forms however it comes.
Another beneficiary of the sexual revolution it was proliferated through magazines such as Playboy in the 60s and made acceptable by the incorporation of major pop starts including Dylan and The Beatles as well as politicians and other world celebrities, who gave interviews about a range of political issues alongside naked women.
Since then with the accessibility of the internet and the rise of smartphones and social media apps like Snap Chat that is popular with youths for its sharing of photos and videos and the deluge of dating apps and now the artificial intelligence apps which create virtual girlfriends for you to interact with and provide sexual content and the technological revolution has been completely incorporated by pornography.
On websites like Only Fans teachers are leaving the profession to create streams where they can earn up to $30 million per year from creating adult content from their home. And anyone including teenagers can do this themselves and earn money from creating custom sec videos to cater to the needs of their viewers personally. You tell them what you want them to make a video doing and subscribe and they’ll create it custom just for you.
Is that not the ultimate consumerist end point of all of this?
The pornographic sites themselves are pushing this movement and they’ve jumped on the LGBTQ+ bandwagon (if indeed they’re not the major drivers behind the whole thing) by tailoring to every individuals specific sexual interests by creating categories out of the ever expanding panoply of off-the-shelf identities (based on sexual fantasies and preferences) that is always expanding (as it is actually driving the vehicle now).
I think the danger is that this gender propaganda is so enticing and appeals to the need for approval and acceptance that vulnerable minds have who aren’t so sure in their own identity that they’re open to being co-opted into one of the myriad LGBTQ+ identities like some changing room where the one that fits or people comment and tell them is “them” is what they’ll become.
But the danger is when they go down that road they may have to commit to taking drugs and suppressing or boosting hormones and surgery which you can’t take back. And we know that neuroscience tells us that neuroplasticity carries on into adulthood. As Christians we know how immersing ourselves in God’s word changes us and requires our brains making us more calm, less anxious, less likely to view pornography and more sure of our identity in line with our biological reality.
As Christian’s we have the truth and that’s God’s word and that life is sacred because he gave us his “ruarch” or breath of life. And we can be sure that he knitted us in our mother’s womb and he does not make mistakes. His word will teach us how to live in accordance with truth and light and raise children who love God. God never changes and neither does his word. There have been many generations in the last few thousand years but God has always been present and praised and that will never end until Jesus returns and judgement is carried out.
One further challenge to Christians not touched upon is that of the rise of Islam in that it isn’t relevant to the topic but it does add yet another change to the landscape of the countries politics and even politics globally.
No longer is there one God in Great Britain there is another. One with a prophet who claims he knew Jesus better than the extent-witnesses some 500+ years after his death. Whilst Christianity has always lived beside other religions it hasn’t been the case in this country for a long time that another religion has risen to the level of Islam.
Just like the reformation led to more denominations of Christianity and therefore arguably a diluted, less cohesive message of God; so Islam hits at the credibility of the whole notion of God because there are two Gods now ruling and if it comes down to a popularity contest we all know who’s got the votes. Meaning Christians could come under pressure from the LGBTQ+ community as well as for the not bending to their pressure to make our God like the more tolerant God the Muslims worship.
One of my concerns is the pressure to rewrite Jesus to make him a worldwide symbol of love and acceptance for all people even those that wish to identify in ways which are blasphemous to His father’s creation. However Muslims do not believe in Christ’s deity.
So two version of Jesus exists in the public consciousness now; which is problematic for Christians because our Jesus is the real Jesus but society will favour the Muslim’s counterfeit Jesus as he is good for business. People in this country aren’t even taught Religious Education and don’t even know what the biblical Jesus stands for, with many thinking Christians can’t drink alcohol. A greater majority of Muslim’s in America (52%) believe that society should “approve homosexuality.”
The Muslim faith has a lot of ground to make up and it’s been doing it fast spreading across the globe and creating its own network of banks. Muslims also typically procreate at a higher percentile than Christians and integrate with other cultures. I see the day coming where the majority religion is Islam even in the West and I believe they are chasing that agenda down like Arsenal trying to win their first premier league in 20 years are chasing down Manchester City. Whilst destabilising the Judeo-Christian God in a local political sense in a global one the media are helping to create a one-sided narrative regarding Jerusalem. The leaders of Hezbollah have terrorised Syrians and the area for decades and are a radical extremist political faction which plans to unite Islam under its banner.
The Church has the further stain to its name relating to the scandals relating to priests and children and abuses committed within the RCC and other Churches. Mostly isolated incidents however the lack of transparency and obfuscated facts has helped smear Christianity within the public’s consciousness in a way which Islam hasn’t been. But it should be remembered that incidents are indicative of the human heart (any persons regardless of faith can let sin grow in their hearts and wreak havoc into the world) it’s part of man’s sinful heart and the sinful environments we live in and not necessarily a systemic problem with Church corruption.
There’s not much we can do but accept our new position at the bottom of the pecking order. However we can pray for revival and renewal that our God (The Judeo-Christian God) will sweep through the nations and stir the hearts of its peoples.
But right now the global capitalist agenda has put a mask over the face of God and it is of a familiar face—Mammon.
My view on psychology is more accepting than Trueman’s, not that he doesn’t accept it but more that his specific narrative for the book is one which is very negative in my view. Firstly, I believe psychologists like Carl Jung and Carl Roger’s pushed back against the early work of Freud and others and offer useful insights into how our mind works. Secondly, I think in combination with neuroscience some of the methods of psychology like Internal Family Systems are proven to help people recover and thirdly, I think there are biological systems driving humans to have sexual intercourse and for those that cannot meet that need into their thirties, remaining celibate and or the challenges of growing up as a Christian in a secular world can lead to people seeing things that are traumatic and a therapist can help them through that process.
The worst thing is it’s just a ride now that only welcomes on board compliant, silent passengers or else actors who are given lines. More and more authentic thought will need to be suppressed by those who don’t share the same beliefs of the popular mass and will be under pressure to conform or be silent. Christianity is now in a place it once was where we are the crazy, clueless ones.
In order to function as productive members of society we have to be casual Christian’s with a dual identity like Clark Kent and Superman or Peter Parker as Spider-Man; living in fear that his true identity might be exposed.
Dr Carl Trueman presents a very thorough adumbration, a word he tosses through the book like croutons in a salad; of the expressive individualism movement.
I took my time reading the book which is always a signifier of how good a book is. This one sits quite high on the list of books I’ve had to slow down to fully inculcate.
It turns out that the politicised sexual movement that the LGBTQ+ community has become can be traced back through the sediments of our social consciousness by highlighting a few key reformations brought about by first artistic then scientific ideas.
From Jean-Jaques Rousseau and Augustine we go back hundreds of years ago into the pairs precursor to psychoanalysis—the autobiographical confession.
Out of which was formed the philosophical idea that social corruption overrides our innate moral reasoning. We are affected by our cultural surroundings.
“The original impulse of nature is right, but the effect of a depraved culture is that we lose contact with it.” — Charles Taylor
A word I’m not fond of is the German term “Sittlichkeit” used throughout the entire book to refer to the shared cultural consciousness or moral code of behaviour on which society agrees. But I use “sittch” for short, as in situation.
The next term I learned about was French and therefore way more aesthetically pleasing, Amor Propre. Which is the used to refer to the prideful form of self-love whereby competitiveness, superiority and mastery over others in the preoccupation.
It is therefore the moral imperative of the education system to uphold a curricula that serves to uphold the integrity of values which constitute the “sittch”, and dampen the corruptive moral influence amor propre to ensure persons are guided to develop mature moral sentiments derived authentically from within.
It is the inner voice and the inward sentiments from which the fundamental bedrock of the self is created and on top of which moral values will arise which bear the image of the bedrock. I believe this idea of the dialectic goes back to Thomas Aquinas and Hegel but basically you decide what tree you want to be and then the fruit your produce is restricted by the original decision.
When we create our self from this authentic dialogue, not biased by amor propre or the the need for social validation and esteem; then we create a firm foundation based on our innate value and self-consciousness. It is our own dialectic reasoning which governs our fundamental self.
The next big step in on the way was the poets. First with romanticism (those French and their aestheticism have a lot to answer for) and then with the Beatniks—first in New York then into pop culture through artists like Bob Dylan and The Beatles.
The Beatles epitomise the globalisation of pop culture. In the Let it Be film extended and digitally restored by Peter Jackson, we see how much pressure the suits put on the band to travel to Tripoli (even with a boatload of Brits) to reinforce the sales pitch as The Beatles as “for everyone”. It’s no longer enough you have to be in every home in the World and as a vehicle for political weapons to enter the consciousness of the world.
Repeatedly the suits say “money is not a problem”, “whatever you want say it and we’ll do it”. The band ask who’s going to pay for it but they don’t get a response. Just assurances that money will be there for them no matter what (because they’re a national propaganda machine). Songs like “Get Back” helping to gather support for immigrants and against racism was welcomed by the establishment. Being open to the world is good for business and in theory (trickle-down economics and government-induced inflation aside) for its people too.
They were requisitioned as a propaganda tool. One which went off the rails slightly with John Lennon’s comment about Jesus but even more so when he took a stand against war and promoted peace which undermined confidence in the government. He was now useless to the establishment because he wasn’t broadcasting their message.
Traditionally poetry had always been used to convey the collective imagination of mankind but the inspiration was always outside oneself. The muses were actual goddesses who visited the playwright or The Aolian Lyre which was played by the wind and not by man’s hand illustrate this concept.
But over time this notion had fallen by the way with Nietzsche and the “death of God”. We get to call the shots. The Existentialist movement sought to shape the social imaginary through their own feelings about how we should all behave.
This gave rise to “I think therefore I am” and Jean Paul Satre’s rhetoric of “existence precedes essence”. The Exis were fermenting a sexual revolution and they knew that art was the way to reach the masses—popular culture.
And it worked because Nietzsche and Freud had shot a whole in the head of the social imaginary and people were eager to take a look inside and to open up their own minds through LSD. There was an idea that we must induce a system reboot of humanity whereby we remove all our programming but drugs weren’t the way.
Identity has become a deeply personally and overly psychologised concept. One ripe for deception, self-deception, division and weaponisation. Gender is now derived from a person’s feelings (psychological) and not biology (reality/sex).
Another stick of dynamite in the bomb was when Simone de Beauvoir built upon “I think therefore I am” with her own statement of “nature does not define women: it is she who defines herself by reclaiming nature for herself in her affectivity.”
Psychology became the way to rewrite the operating system of the social consciousness and reboot humanity to run a new code. One which has come to be known as LGBTQ+.
It’s written using the latest language of philosophy and psychology to allow a complete reimagining of what it is to be a human, what our limitations are and how we can rewrite history, legal systems, government and educational systems in a way that support the new language.
Similar to how when a new operating system comes out some software will not work until it has been patched.
Unfortunately the sex and drugs addled minds of the people leading the populist adoption of this new sexual revolution didn’t intend for the movement to progress as far as it has done and there are some contradictions and unintended consequences concomitant with its continued avalanche through our social order.
Philosophers and psychologists started referred to themselves as bombs and “dynamite”. Their role was to cause chaos and destruction to the social order, destroy the social imaginary and make a legacy for their own name. There was nothing therapeutic about the “sexual dogma” they were about to release on the world; without thought as to the consequences.
The result is that of a runaway train that’s out of track; leading to contradictions in its own coalition of ‘oppressed’ groups. With transgender women upsetting the feminists, especially females with a uterus and womb, thus undermining what it is to be a woman and fighting one another over their rights to be recognised in their own personal psychological suffering caused by their expression of their identity and their struggle for it to be validated by everyone they meet.
It no longer matters that boys and girls go through puberty and depending on their gender/sex: voice drops, pubic hair grows, balls drop, facial hair grows, testosterone levels increase as the body prepares for sexual intercourse: or for women, breasts develop, they have a period etc.
In our current society the new operating system is patching systems that are now green-lighting big pharmaceutical companies to produce millions of drugs to help transition children to become a gender their body is naturally developing them into because it was decided by their chromosome pairs at conception. And then once they’re on pills for the rest of their life they still have to have gender reassignment surgery and then likely plastic surgery throughout their life to allow them to feel like they’re developing like someone born to be that gender would. It’s fantasy wish-fulfilment and delusion on a dangerous scale.
One of the conclusions the author makes is that the Christian faith needs to be more aware and active in the role “content” or movies and films particularly play in the social imaginary. Screenwriters are enamoured with Joseph Campbell, Freud and Jung it’s become a template by which they can create scripts which speak and shape the identities of the expressive individualist viewer.
In the first manifesto of surrealism André Breton declared that he was “completely obsessed with Freud”, particularly relating to his theory of sex dogma and the new framework it lends itself to help describe the human existence.
I’m particularly happy that The Chosen series has become so successful and expanded into a whole studio of new programmes and television which is helping a lot more people change their viewing habits to Kingdom-minded ethical shows.
Another ongoing epidemic is the rise of sexual content now easily accessible by teenagers through their smartphones like never before.
Pornography is without a doubt skewing the minds of young people towards perpetual sexual gratification in all its forms however it comes.
Another beneficiary of the sexual revolution it was proliferated through magazines such as Playboy in the 60s and made acceptable by the incorporation of major pop starts including Dylan and The Beatles as well as politicians and other world celebrities, who gave interviews about a range of political issues alongside naked women.
Since then with the accessibility of the internet and the rise of smartphones and social media apps like Snap Chat that is popular with youths for its sharing of photos and videos and the deluge of dating apps and now the artificial intelligence apps which create virtual girlfriends for you to interact with and provide sexual content and the technological revolution has been completely incorporated by pornography.
On websites like Only Fans teachers are leaving the profession to create streams where they can earn up to $30 million per year from creating adult content from their home. And anyone including teenagers can do this themselves and earn money from creating custom sec videos to cater to the needs of their viewers personally. You tell them what you want them to make a video doing and subscribe and they’ll create it custom just for you.
Is that not the ultimate consumerist end point of all of this?
The pornographic sites themselves are pushing this movement and they’ve jumped on the LGBTQ+ bandwagon (if indeed they’re not the major drivers behind the whole thing) by tailoring to every individuals specific sexual interests by creating categories out of the ever expanding panoply of off-the-shelf identities (based on sexual fantasies and preferences) that is always expanding (as it is actually driving the vehicle now).
I think the danger is that this gender propaganda is so enticing and appeals to the need for approval and acceptance that vulnerable minds have who aren’t so sure in their own identity that they’re open to being co-opted into one of the myriad LGBTQ+ identities like some changing room where the one that fits or people comment and tell them is “them” is what they’ll become.
But the danger is when they go down that road they may have to commit to taking drugs and suppressing or boosting hormones and surgery which you can’t take back. And we know that neuroscience tells us that neuroplasticity carries on into adulthood. As Christians we know how immersing ourselves in God’s word changes us and requires our brains making us more calm, less anxious, less likely to view pornography and more sure of our identity in line with our biological reality.
As Christian’s we have the truth and that’s God’s word and that life is sacred because he gave us his “ruarch” or breath of life. And we can be sure that he knitted us in our mother’s womb and he does not make mistakes. His word will teach us how to live in accordance with truth and light and raise children who love God. God never changes and neither does his word. There have been many generations in the last few thousand years but God has always been present and praised and that will never end until Jesus returns and judgement is carried out.
One further challenge to Christians not touched upon is that of the rise of Islam in that it isn’t relevant to the topic but it does add yet another change to the landscape of the countries politics and even politics globally.
No longer is there one God in Great Britain there is another. One with a prophet who claims he knew Jesus better than the extent-witnesses some 500+ years after his death. Whilst Christianity has always lived beside other religions it hasn’t been the case in this country for a long time that another religion has risen to the level of Islam.
Just like the reformation led to more denominations of Christianity and therefore arguably a diluted, less cohesive message of God; so Islam hits at the credibility of the whole notion of God because there are two Gods now ruling and if it comes down to a popularity contest we all know who’s got the votes. Meaning Christians could come under pressure from the LGBTQ+ community as well as for the not bending to their pressure to make our God like the more tolerant God the Muslims worship.
One of my concerns is the pressure to rewrite Jesus to make him a worldwide symbol of love and acceptance for all people even those that wish to identify in ways which are blasphemous to His father’s creation. However Muslims do not believe in Christ’s deity.
So two version of Jesus exists in the public consciousness now; which is problematic for Christians because our Jesus is the real Jesus but society will favour the Muslim’s counterfeit Jesus as he is good for business. People in this country aren’t even taught Religious Education and don’t even know what the biblical Jesus stands for, with many thinking Christians can’t drink alcohol. A greater majority of Muslim’s in America (52%) believe that society should “approve homosexuality.”
The Muslim faith has a lot of ground to make up and it’s been doing it fast spreading across the globe and creating its own network of banks. Muslims also typically procreate at a higher percentile than Christians and integrate with other cultures. I see the day coming where the majority religion is Islam even in the West and I believe they are chasing that agenda down like Arsenal trying to win their first premier league in 20 years are chasing down Manchester City. Whilst destabilising the Judeo-Christian God in a local political sense in a global one the media are helping to create a one-sided narrative regarding Jerusalem. The leaders of Hezbollah have terrorised Syrians and the area for decades and are a radical extremist political faction which plans to unite Islam under its banner.
The Church has the further stain to its name relating to the scandals relating to priests and children and abuses committed within the RCC and other Churches. Mostly isolated incidents however the lack of transparency and obfuscated facts has helped smear Christianity within the public’s consciousness in a way which Islam hasn’t been. But it should be remembered that incidents are indicative of the human heart (any persons regardless of faith can let sin grow in their hearts and wreak havoc into the world) it’s part of man’s sinful heart and the sinful environments we live in and not necessarily a systemic problem with Church corruption.
There’s not much we can do but accept our new position at the bottom of the pecking order. However we can pray for revival and renewal that our God (The Judeo-Christian God) will sweep through the nations and stir the hearts of its peoples.
But right now the global capitalist agenda has put a mask over the face of God and it is of a familiar face—Mammon.
My view on psychology is more accepting than Trueman’s, not that he doesn’t accept it but more that his specific narrative for the book is one which is very negative in my view. Firstly, I believe psychologists like Carl Jung and Carl Roger’s pushed back against the early work of Freud and others and offer useful insights into how our mind works. Secondly, I think in combination with neuroscience some of the methods of psychology like Internal Family Systems are proven to help people recover and thirdly, I think there are biological systems driving humans to have sexual intercourse and for those that cannot meet that need into their thirties, remaining celibate and or the challenges of growing up as a Christian in a secular world can lead to people seeing things that are traumatic and a therapist can help them through that process.
The worst thing is it’s just a ride now that only welcomes on board compliant, silent passengers or else actors who are given lines. More and more authentic thought will need to be suppressed by those who don’t share the same beliefs of the popular mass and will be under pressure to conform or be silent. Christianity is now in a place it once was where we are the crazy, clueless ones.
In order to function as productive members of society we have to be casual Christian’s with a dual identity like Clark Kent and Superman or Peter Parker as Spider-Man; living in fear that his true identity might be exposed.
4th3b1rds's review against another edition
2.0
The lengthy diagnostic element is fairly obvious and unenlightening for anyone with even a passing knowledge of western philosophy from the 19 century on. The turse prescriptive element is predominantly made up of unsupported assertions feebly attempting to hide beneath the linguistic veneer of logical arguments.
tcreedy's review against another edition
4.0
It's impressive, but it's flawed. Too descriptive, and whilst you could say that leaves space for other books, sometimes Trueman's commitments and thoughts intrude into the storytelling in an unhelpful way.
Also, INFURIATING that this book doesn't have a bibliography, despite having an index. So I'm not entirely sure who it's for!
Also, INFURIATING that this book doesn't have a bibliography, despite having an index. So I'm not entirely sure who it's for!
svsmith21's review against another edition
5.0
This is an exceptional book and its timing is exceptional as well. For many within the Church, there is great confusion about how Christians are to locate themselves on the social landscape. Trueman does his best as a dispassionate scholar to identify and describe the cultural pathologies regarding human conceptions of identity that have led to the sexual iconoclasm we are witnessing in our culture today. Where lament and polemic can lead to oversight, Trueman's objectivity transcends mere rhetoric to get to the foundations of the cultural moment and help us to understand that the modern social imaginary (37) and Sittlichkeit (62), i.e. the natural intuitions we have about what is right and good and true which shape our lives, are not emerging in a vacuum, but are the logical consequences of centuries of revolutionary thought concerning how humans identify themselves. What follows in this review is a very rough sketch of the concepts and the arguments in the book. This is certainly not comprehensive, but the following are important ideas that are brought up and fleshed out in greater detail within Trueman's masterful work.
Drawing on the social, historical, and philosophical categories of Charles Taylor, Philip Rieff, and Alasdair MacIntyre, Trueman provides a basic framework for understanding modern humanity. In contrast to the ancient world, where humans conceived of themselves as subject to nature, technology and other developments have given modern humans greater "control" over their surroundings. Where humans from centuries past saw the natural order as something to which they must conform, modern humans see the world as raw material which they can mold according to their inward desires (mimesis versus poiesis). Thus, any "natural order" is rendered meaningless or an attempt by a privileged group to control behavior and preserve the status quo. Additional changes can be noted, but some of the major insights from this preliminary material in the book include the triumph of the therapeutic and the development of a modern anticulture, which aims for the removal of any boundaries, especially those related to sexuality. All of these realities find their union in the conception of the expressive individual, which compellingly describes modern man as finding happiness and authenticity in publicly expressing their inner thoughts and beliefs according to their individual psychological needs.
From there, Trueman walks through a historical narrative beginning with Rousseau, whose thought, for the purposes of this book's discussion, may be summarized as a belief in the inherent goodness of man in a natural state and the corollary belief that humanity has been corrupted by society and its structures, one of those corruptions being that the psychologized self has been alienated from an appropriate self-love that is consistent with the natural state. These ideas found artistic expression in the poetry of the Romantics, who viewed the task of the poet as an ethical one: to strip away the parts of modern life that make it inauthentic and to reconnect people with their true natures. This type of ethical endeavor prepares people for proper moral argument by using aesthetics to cultivate correct sentiments about reality. How we understand ourselves is ultimately an inward-looking task, and one that requires work to undo the alienation due to civilization and its demands. This especially includes the undoing of Christian sexual mores in favor of a sexual liberation, since these cultural demands are repressive and lead to an inauthentic life.
While the Romantics bridged the psychological conception of identity and political action to a certain extent, the current politicization of sex can best be understood by the narrative Trueman compellingly draws by studying Nietzsche, Marx, Darwin, Freud, and others. Nietzsche's proclamation of the "death of God" was really a cry for the thinkers in the tradition of the Enlightenment to take seriously their dismissal of an explanatory "need" for God, which in turn makes them have to take on the task of being "gods" themselves. His contribution was to remove any belief in the transcendent and all of the relics of metaphysics, arguing instead that humans must insist on choosing a life to make for themselves. Marx also attacked transcendent religious beliefs such as Christianity by claiming that religion keeps people from being fully human by keeping them in a state of alienation from the fruits of their labors. Not only that, but Marx saw religion as an instrument of oppression as well. Moral and ethical codes were tools of the dominant economic classes of the current society to maintain the status quo for the interests of the elite, which serves as an example of the critical spirit against religious and cultural norms that finds its voice into today's sexual revolution. Finally, Darwin helped to dispatch with metaphysical assumptions and human teleology by providing an intuitively plausible argument for materialism in a scientific idiom, which retains immense power even to the present day. In his view, there is no natural end around which humans should order their lives. Life has no transcendent purpose, which implies that humans are allowed to dispose of repressive moral codes which appeal to a transcendent authority that keep them from the psychological happiness of a good life. Marx in particular also introduced the argument that the good life is realized through political struggle against oppressive authorities. These men helped to shape the modern desire to live a life characterized by Invictus, where we are the captain of our fates and create the meaning of our lives.
Trueman then moves into the sexualization of this conception of identity, which finds its main theoretical roots in the work of Freud. Like Darwin, Freud used a scientific idiom to describe humans as fundamentally erotic creatures for whom sex is definitive. The key for human happiness, according to Freud, was the maximization of human sexual pleasure. Society should thus be ordered in a way that takes this claim seriously, beginning even with the sexual expression of children in their infancy. While many of Freud's ideas have been debunked, the basic contentions related to the primacy of sexuality is a powerful force in the modern social imaginary.
Finally, the politicization of sexuality is given a full treatment by the "New Left" in critical theory. Trueman provides excellent detail cataloguing many of the developments of Wilhelm Reich and Herbert Marcuse, who took ideas from Freud and Marx to make the basic contention that sexual codes are a tool of the oppressive political regime to maintain the status quo. One of the main ways this is manifested, Reich argues, is through the nuclear family, which restricts the sexual activity in children and thus makes them compliant to authorities even at the expense of their inner happiness. The family is a tool for the perpetuation of the oppressive status quo. Thus, "the dismantling and abolition of the nuclear family are essential if political liberation is to be achieved" (235). This must be accomplished through a radical and revolutionary overthrow of the current societal structure, where even the state has the right to intervene within the family unit if families are disrupting the sexual liberation program. Sexual education is required at early ages to ensure that an "appropriate" consciousness is raised for people to find sexual satisfaction. Therefore, sex is not just a private activity in their view, but a necessarily public matter, since sexuality is a part of what makes our identity. Sexual liberation must be contended for to achieve an "equitable" society.
Once he sets up the intellectual movements that led up to the present, Trueman does an outstanding job showing the range of the triumphs of this psychologized, therapeutic, and sexual conception of identity. From the use of therapeutic language in Supreme Court decisions to an incredibly insightful section on the appeal and availability of pornography to satisfy inner sexual desires apart from any consequence (in the popular understanding of it), it is evident that all of the figures in the preceding discussion were key players in the appearance of our cultural character. Trueman also describes that the LGBTQ+ coalition is a largely fragile one that is cohesive only insofar as they are fighting against the common enemy of the remaining sexual codes of Western Civilization's past. However, it is not clear that the distinguishing elements between the groups will allow them to peacefully coexist for very long once they have achieved their mutual goals, a point that Trueman argues well.
There is much more to say, but it is valuable to state Trueman's valuable conclusions for the Church, which are as follows:
1. The Church must think carefully about the connection between aesthetics and its core beliefs and practices: one of the arguments made, especially related to the arguments on abortion, is that many modern ethical beliefs are based on aesthetics (e.g. most pro-life gains are due to sonograms rather than argument, pedophilia and zoophilia remain outside the social imaginary mainly on aesthetic grounds). The church must respond to a world that puts primacy on images rather than extended written or spoken argument. The freedom to express inner beliefs and the freedom to love whomever we please have strong aesthetic power in today's world. The church must respond to this reality by being conscious of it and responding in a manner consistent with biblical teaching.
2. The church must be a community of believers: another argument in the book is that personal identity is dialogical. That is, we only understand ourselves in relation to others. As Trueman writes, "Our moral consciousness is very much shaped by our community" (405). The emergence of the Internet and other technology has made humans very isolated and detached from their communities. The church must retain and, where necessary, recover a community that will most likely live on the margins of society as the West completes the move from a Rieffian second-world culture that is built on a sacred moral order to a third-world culture that rejects the transcendent and the sacred altogether (74-77). Trueman argues that we should model ourselves after the church of the second century, which depended on strong communities for survival, an argument that holds a lot of weight for me.
3. The Protestant Church need to recover natural law and a high view of the physical body: while Trueman concedes that natural law will not change the view of broader society, he argues (well, in my opinion) that the church needs to have a firm grasp of natural law to coherently explain moral principles to its members. The moral and ethical needs of the day will rely on principles that depend on the ordering of the world God created. Also, the Church should not emphasize the importance of the spiritual at the expense of the importance of the physical. We have been bought with a price, so we must glorify God with our bodies (1 Corinthians 6:20). This is a call to teach and practice what the Bible has called us to regarding our bodies, especially related to sexuality, in the modern age.
There is not much evidence that the cultural tides will change, but this is a very important book for understanding what is at stake for the Church in the West. For the Church to remain pure, Christians should know what they face. Trueman provides a great service to the church in this work and shows great erudition in my view. I heartily recommend this book.
Drawing on the social, historical, and philosophical categories of Charles Taylor, Philip Rieff, and Alasdair MacIntyre, Trueman provides a basic framework for understanding modern humanity. In contrast to the ancient world, where humans conceived of themselves as subject to nature, technology and other developments have given modern humans greater "control" over their surroundings. Where humans from centuries past saw the natural order as something to which they must conform, modern humans see the world as raw material which they can mold according to their inward desires (mimesis versus poiesis). Thus, any "natural order" is rendered meaningless or an attempt by a privileged group to control behavior and preserve the status quo. Additional changes can be noted, but some of the major insights from this preliminary material in the book include the triumph of the therapeutic and the development of a modern anticulture, which aims for the removal of any boundaries, especially those related to sexuality. All of these realities find their union in the conception of the expressive individual, which compellingly describes modern man as finding happiness and authenticity in publicly expressing their inner thoughts and beliefs according to their individual psychological needs.
From there, Trueman walks through a historical narrative beginning with Rousseau, whose thought, for the purposes of this book's discussion, may be summarized as a belief in the inherent goodness of man in a natural state and the corollary belief that humanity has been corrupted by society and its structures, one of those corruptions being that the psychologized self has been alienated from an appropriate self-love that is consistent with the natural state. These ideas found artistic expression in the poetry of the Romantics, who viewed the task of the poet as an ethical one: to strip away the parts of modern life that make it inauthentic and to reconnect people with their true natures. This type of ethical endeavor prepares people for proper moral argument by using aesthetics to cultivate correct sentiments about reality. How we understand ourselves is ultimately an inward-looking task, and one that requires work to undo the alienation due to civilization and its demands. This especially includes the undoing of Christian sexual mores in favor of a sexual liberation, since these cultural demands are repressive and lead to an inauthentic life.
While the Romantics bridged the psychological conception of identity and political action to a certain extent, the current politicization of sex can best be understood by the narrative Trueman compellingly draws by studying Nietzsche, Marx, Darwin, Freud, and others. Nietzsche's proclamation of the "death of God" was really a cry for the thinkers in the tradition of the Enlightenment to take seriously their dismissal of an explanatory "need" for God, which in turn makes them have to take on the task of being "gods" themselves. His contribution was to remove any belief in the transcendent and all of the relics of metaphysics, arguing instead that humans must insist on choosing a life to make for themselves. Marx also attacked transcendent religious beliefs such as Christianity by claiming that religion keeps people from being fully human by keeping them in a state of alienation from the fruits of their labors. Not only that, but Marx saw religion as an instrument of oppression as well. Moral and ethical codes were tools of the dominant economic classes of the current society to maintain the status quo for the interests of the elite, which serves as an example of the critical spirit against religious and cultural norms that finds its voice into today's sexual revolution. Finally, Darwin helped to dispatch with metaphysical assumptions and human teleology by providing an intuitively plausible argument for materialism in a scientific idiom, which retains immense power even to the present day. In his view, there is no natural end around which humans should order their lives. Life has no transcendent purpose, which implies that humans are allowed to dispose of repressive moral codes which appeal to a transcendent authority that keep them from the psychological happiness of a good life. Marx in particular also introduced the argument that the good life is realized through political struggle against oppressive authorities. These men helped to shape the modern desire to live a life characterized by Invictus, where we are the captain of our fates and create the meaning of our lives.
Trueman then moves into the sexualization of this conception of identity, which finds its main theoretical roots in the work of Freud. Like Darwin, Freud used a scientific idiom to describe humans as fundamentally erotic creatures for whom sex is definitive. The key for human happiness, according to Freud, was the maximization of human sexual pleasure. Society should thus be ordered in a way that takes this claim seriously, beginning even with the sexual expression of children in their infancy. While many of Freud's ideas have been debunked, the basic contentions related to the primacy of sexuality is a powerful force in the modern social imaginary.
Finally, the politicization of sexuality is given a full treatment by the "New Left" in critical theory. Trueman provides excellent detail cataloguing many of the developments of Wilhelm Reich and Herbert Marcuse, who took ideas from Freud and Marx to make the basic contention that sexual codes are a tool of the oppressive political regime to maintain the status quo. One of the main ways this is manifested, Reich argues, is through the nuclear family, which restricts the sexual activity in children and thus makes them compliant to authorities even at the expense of their inner happiness. The family is a tool for the perpetuation of the oppressive status quo. Thus, "the dismantling and abolition of the nuclear family are essential if political liberation is to be achieved" (235). This must be accomplished through a radical and revolutionary overthrow of the current societal structure, where even the state has the right to intervene within the family unit if families are disrupting the sexual liberation program. Sexual education is required at early ages to ensure that an "appropriate" consciousness is raised for people to find sexual satisfaction. Therefore, sex is not just a private activity in their view, but a necessarily public matter, since sexuality is a part of what makes our identity. Sexual liberation must be contended for to achieve an "equitable" society.
Once he sets up the intellectual movements that led up to the present, Trueman does an outstanding job showing the range of the triumphs of this psychologized, therapeutic, and sexual conception of identity. From the use of therapeutic language in Supreme Court decisions to an incredibly insightful section on the appeal and availability of pornography to satisfy inner sexual desires apart from any consequence (in the popular understanding of it), it is evident that all of the figures in the preceding discussion were key players in the appearance of our cultural character. Trueman also describes that the LGBTQ+ coalition is a largely fragile one that is cohesive only insofar as they are fighting against the common enemy of the remaining sexual codes of Western Civilization's past. However, it is not clear that the distinguishing elements between the groups will allow them to peacefully coexist for very long once they have achieved their mutual goals, a point that Trueman argues well.
There is much more to say, but it is valuable to state Trueman's valuable conclusions for the Church, which are as follows:
1. The Church must think carefully about the connection between aesthetics and its core beliefs and practices: one of the arguments made, especially related to the arguments on abortion, is that many modern ethical beliefs are based on aesthetics (e.g. most pro-life gains are due to sonograms rather than argument, pedophilia and zoophilia remain outside the social imaginary mainly on aesthetic grounds). The church must respond to a world that puts primacy on images rather than extended written or spoken argument. The freedom to express inner beliefs and the freedom to love whomever we please have strong aesthetic power in today's world. The church must respond to this reality by being conscious of it and responding in a manner consistent with biblical teaching.
2. The church must be a community of believers: another argument in the book is that personal identity is dialogical. That is, we only understand ourselves in relation to others. As Trueman writes, "Our moral consciousness is very much shaped by our community" (405). The emergence of the Internet and other technology has made humans very isolated and detached from their communities. The church must retain and, where necessary, recover a community that will most likely live on the margins of society as the West completes the move from a Rieffian second-world culture that is built on a sacred moral order to a third-world culture that rejects the transcendent and the sacred altogether (74-77). Trueman argues that we should model ourselves after the church of the second century, which depended on strong communities for survival, an argument that holds a lot of weight for me.
3. The Protestant Church need to recover natural law and a high view of the physical body: while Trueman concedes that natural law will not change the view of broader society, he argues (well, in my opinion) that the church needs to have a firm grasp of natural law to coherently explain moral principles to its members. The moral and ethical needs of the day will rely on principles that depend on the ordering of the world God created. Also, the Church should not emphasize the importance of the spiritual at the expense of the importance of the physical. We have been bought with a price, so we must glorify God with our bodies (1 Corinthians 6:20). This is a call to teach and practice what the Bible has called us to regarding our bodies, especially related to sexuality, in the modern age.
There is not much evidence that the cultural tides will change, but this is a very important book for understanding what is at stake for the Church in the West. For the Church to remain pure, Christians should know what they face. Trueman provides a great service to the church in this work and shows great erudition in my view. I heartily recommend this book.