Strange New World: How Thinkers and Activists Redefined Identity and Sparked the Sexual Revolution by Carl R. TruemanMy rating: 5 of 5 stars
When Carl Trueman published his book, Rise and Triumph of the Modern Self in 2020, there were plenty of furrowed brows and head shaking. It seemed a significant work, but it was a tough slog to read the long and academic style of writing.
Covid and the George Floyd riots hit right as it released, so it seemed already out of date.
Trueman took the wise advice of friends and wrote a follow-up book that is shorter, updated, and more readable for the common man.
Trueman remains an academic, so this is no Max Lucado fluffy read. But Strange New World helps us understand the course of the West’s rebellion against God, and how and why leftist progressives today think the way they do. This is critical to knowing how to respond and live faithfully in our culture today.
In each chapter Trueman deftly shows how the ideas of historic thinkers like Freud and Nietzsche show up in 1960s pop music, and in Supreme Court decisions of the last 20 years.
Trueman inveighs mainly against “expressive individualism,” seen from Rousseau and Nietzsche, to the Beatles, to Justice Anthony Kennedy. Whatever I am feeling is the standard of reality, not just for me, but others must act according to it as well. Ever balanced, Trueman is careful to not just rail against the woke Left, but also point out how the conservative church is compromising in this way, as well. Also, there is an interior, individual life we should respect, but it needs regulation by external factors. This is a far better take than rude and blunt insults from the right against “snowflakes.”
I especially appreciated the last chapter, where Trueman lays out some faithful responses to all of this. Explain the “why” of God’s design to people. Sing the Psalms in worship. Forge real community as believers. Maintain a posture of hope. Teach the whole Christian faith, using historic confessions as a guide.
5 stars. A must-read for the Christian today.
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