Strange New World: How Thinkers and Activists Redefined Identity and Sparked the Sexual Revolution by Carl R. Trueman

Strange New World: How Thinkers and Activists Redefined Identity and Sparked the Sexual Revolution Reviews

• 
  Timothy

  I came to this book as someone who loves philosophy and studying the rise and causes of Modernity. Sadly, this book is lacking in many areas. Trueman's attempt at finding out how and why we are in this conundrum in the West downplays the role slavery, colonialism, empire, and racism had in building modernity. The modern mind is plagued with guilt over these sins by which the West became a dominant superpower. This book's intentional misremembering of the past is how atrocities are committed in the present. This book justifies racialized capitalism and provides theological justification of moderate white supremacy.
  
  You cannot write an honest history of the sexual revolution and the modern self as it relates to technology without the political and social connections to the Civil Rights movement and the entire structure of consumer capitalism that was built from racialized disparity and wealth creation. Modern technology and technique would not be possible apart from the imperialism of the West and its use of power for domination of resources and cheap labor.
  
  This book might be a nice study of a sliver of truth but in reality, it’s overlooking the dominant themes of western “progress” which were tied to cheap labor and the extermination of “inferior” societies in order to take the coveted prize of being a world superpower via Manifest Destiny. This is a huge blunder to not connect the buffered self to technique > imperialism > power > church's complicity.
  
  This account denies the embodied nature of historical change as much as it tries to defend it. Trueman's story coddles the Christian community’s self-image to vindicate it in the light of modernity’s atrocities rather than seeing modernity and Secularization as the fruit of the church’s violence and its fractured, guilty conscience. It ironically serves as a therapeutic denial of reality and is a simple attempt to whitewash the church’s continually bloody history in the West by what it does not say.
  
  On top of these issues, the complete misunderstanding of sexual desire really makes this book hopeless and pedantry of the worst kind. Any honest history of the church’s blundering when it comes to sex and sexuality in the West cannot but see how dishonest this one-sided account is. One cannot look honestly at the West’s sexual revolution and not see it as a direct reaction to the collective western church’s abuse of sexuality. What we’re seeing today is definitely an overreaction but a reaction TO abuses, nonetheless.
  
  There’s a great deal about how the church is affected by the anti-culture but very little about how we helped create it or how much repenting we need to do to have any moral credibility in our day. This book does nothing but coddle the mind that wants a reason to feel justified in seeking to rise up against our current state. It may not be the intended motive but it surely will be the result.
  
  Having been in these confessional Reformed circles for over a decade, this fundamentalist kind of posturing is not lost. Knowing your audience and how they will interpret what is said is vital— since nothing is said in a vacuum. And the authoritarian spirit that dominates many Reformed, evangelical and conservative churches is not nothing. It shouldn’t be taken lightly.
  
  Such popular works will surely add to the problem of modernity that he tries to diagnose. Having been in these circles for so long, I shouldn’t be surprised by this posturing but again I am since it directly enforces the popular politics of selfishness over agapic self-sacrifice. The reception of books like this vindicates the very culture that has demonized any cultural Other or pariah.
  
  It’s really not lost when the author mocked race issues as a cultural fad that likely won’t be around very long on his podcast. It is not lost when the inherent posture of the author is a martyr complex instead of a repentant, self-sacrificial one of a Christian.
  
  This book is a bad history, genealogy of modernity and the use of these stories is meant to justify current ways of seeing and relating to the world. This account really does not help us love our neighbors better or see them as Christ does. It insulates us from any self-criticism and the need for communal repentance and contrition.
• 
  Ivan

  Carl Trueman distills his larger The Rise and Triumph of the Modern Self while still offering a fresh and original work that presses his argument in under 200 pages. His final chapter (“Strangers in This Strange New World”) ought to be required reading for every pastor and church leader. Trueman points to the church’s complicity in our expressive individualist world, explains how the second-century church can serve as a model of “cultural protest” (as opposed to “engaging the culture”), calls on pastors to preach the whole counsel of God’s Word and deliberately use catechisms, lifts up the Psalms as vital ingredient in shaping our moral intuitions and inner lives, advocates for the discipleship value of natural law, and concludes with a word on Christian hope that is neither given to impotent despair nor naïve optimism. What a gift of a book.
• 
  Ashley Hoss

  I have not read The Rise and Triumph of the Modern Self, but I know that Strange New World is meant to be a condensed version of that book. I found Strange New World to be very approachable and thorough. If you have ever wondered how we got to a point in society where moral relativism is reigning supreme, Strange New World gives an interesting take looking back through the last 200 years of western history to show how some thought leaders have influenced our behavior and thought processes.
  
  I will be completely honest in saying that I wanted to read this book out of morbid curiosity, but ultimately thought it would be full of overblown hysterics before I read it. Through reading it, I developed a lot of respect for Carl Trueman, who I wasn't hugely familiar with prior (I've read clips of one of his other books and was aware he had a podcast, but that was the extent of my knowledge). Trueman's writing is insightful and nuanced. Strange New World prompted me to think about what it means to truly be human and has pointed me towards exceptionally fruitful discussions.
  
  Thank you to Crossway & NetGalley for a copy of this book in exchange for my review!
• 
  Jeremy

  Hoping to review this soon.
  
  Ryan Anderson's
  "review" (an adaptation of his foreword) is at First Things. So what does that make his review? An adaptation of a foreword to a popularized version of
  one of the most important books in the last decade? Yeah, that works.
  
  WORLD review
  here. TGC
  review by Shane Morris.
  This review stinks. Here's Trueman's own
  summary.
  
  I wrote something about identity
  here, and I wrote something about the limits of vulnerability
  here.
• 
  Steph Ng

  SO interesting - the last chapter especially had great practical tips on living faithfully in today's culture as a Christian. though this book mostly just made me think that this world is a soup and we're all just ingredients living in it
• 
  Jeremy Mueller

  Having slogged my way through Trueman’s “The Rise and Triumph of the Modern Self” last year, I was pleased to see a more readable, accessible, and digestible volume of that earlier book. I think this book will be a real gift to the church, but only if she chooses to wrestle with the spiritual and theological implications that Trueman insightfully draws out. The shortcoming of this book (though I recognize it does not intend to address many spiritual or theological consequences of the problems identified) is that it will not give you any “now what” reflections. So, if we are able to take the diagnoses that Trueman gives and to apply the wisdom and insight of the Scriptures to them, I think we will make strides in acting upon the prevailing winds of doctrine in the world rather than be the objects who are acted upon. To give one example, Trueman claims that romantic thinkers like Rousseau have paved the way for conceiving of one’s feelings as the authoritative measure of what is right and true in the world. You can imagine how locating authority in feelings rather than in the objectivity of truth given by God can lead to the breakdown of societal and religious norms. Now, we can look at a diagnosis like this and bemoan a world that has lost all objectivity. Yet, when we do this, we assume that the problems Trueman draws out are primarily a problem outside the church rather than within the church. Why I think this book is so insightful is because it identifies ways that many Christians act and live subconsciously. How many Christian conceive of God in such a way that feels right rather than with the picture the Bible paints of God? How many Christians prioritize their retirement fund or personal well-being and gym memberships more than evangelizing their neighbors or giving sacrificially to the relief of the poor because they assume they are “owed” a life of retirement or personal health? So, rather than letting the ideas of expressive individualism take root in our own hearts, we must bring our feelings to God and subject them to the wisdom of His word. The Psalms are a great model of what it looks like to be honest about one’s feelings while still submitting them to God and to his truth. Read this book and invite others to read it with you!
• 
  David Steele

  The sexual revolution of the 60’s fundamentally changed the cultural landscape in North America. Yet, percolating beneath the surface was an even more diabolical worldview; a worldview that many are unfamiliar with. Even those who have engaged with the history of Western civilization may be jolted when the implications become clear.
  
  The Strange New World by Carl R. Trueman pulls back the veil and alerts us to the underlying ideologies that have catapulted our current views about self and sexuality in the Western world. Trueman shows readers in a precise and shocking way how men have forgotten God and presents reasons for their tragic decision. This book is essentially a retooling of Trueman’s remarkable work, The Rise and Triumph of the Modern Self. It will serve the needs of a wider reading audience and provide a more accessible platform, which in the end should reach more people.
  
  The driving argument of Trueman’s work is this: “The issues we face today in terms of sexual politics are a symptom or manifestation of the deeper revolution in selfhood that the rise and triumph of expressive individualism represents.” The goal of the author is achieved and is undergirded by meticulous research from multiple angles - theological, sociological, psychological, and beyond.
  
  Strange New World should be celebrated for its candor and penetrating analysis of the human condition. It sufficiently lays the groundwork for more study and deeper discussions in the coming days.
• 
  Peter Spaulding

  I would just read Charles Taylor instead. This is a v incomplete history of modern notions of identity. He conveniently leaves out the Reformation thinkers that were pivotal in formulating the social imaginary of Germany and England that gave rise to the Romantics. He throws it in v late in the book, which breaks the continuity and shows his hand. Maybe this has something to do with his target audience/market. Also he manages to not mention anything about Nietzsche’s influence on the right. Why?!? His section on Nietzsche is mostly spent talking about Oscar Wilde for some reason.
  
  This book merely takes the careful work of thinkers like Taylor and MacIntyre and white-washes it for Protestant readers that want to be comfortable in their sense of being so different from the left. Tom Holland’s “Dominion” would also be a good antidote as it implicates Christianity in much of the values of the left. It’s insane to say “look at how crazy Rousseau and Marx are!” and then be completely silent on the enormous influence of Luther and Calvin on their views. To again use the terminology of the book, the wild iconoclasm of the Reformers (something that Truman and his readers value) creates the necessary conditions for the rise of Romanticism and Marxism in Northern Europe (things that Truman and his readers see as clearly the bad guys).
  
  I don’t think he’s wrong about everything—not even close—I just think it’s rather careless for a book on a subject of such pivotal importance to contemporary western politics.
• 
  Daniel

  Striking, instructive, significant.
  
  Especially agree with this line in the last chapter:
  “And that means we need to work harder at explaining not simply the content but also the rationale of Christian morality.”
  
  IOW, not only is God’s Word true and truth, it is better and best.
• 
  Brian

  Excellent! A “must read” for every thinking Christian.
• 
  MG

  STRANGE NEW WORLD: How Thinkers and Activists Redefined Identity and Sparked the Sexual Revolution by Carl Trueman sets out to explain how we went from a culture shaped by Christian values to a world where being anti-gay and anti-trans is seen as bigotry and immoral. He sites Marx, Freud, Nietzsche, Willian Reich, and many others to make his argument that we now live in a world of expressive individualism where we expect out external world to match our internal state—hence, “I am a woman trapped in a man’s body.” That is all well and good for his audience of fellow Christians, but I became suspicious when I realized his main purpose was merely critical—explaining why Christians are right and the world is wrong—with little to no constructive or positive case for building a Christian case for sexual identity and its corresponding politics. I have been around long enough to question anyone who merely wants to reassure older Christians that they are indeed the good guys. Still, I was surprised. He even qualifies his argument by saying that expressive individualism describes much of what is indeed true (since Jesus himself implies we should be judged by not just our actions but also by our inner expressions—Matthew 5:27-28). While he describes accurately where many radical critics went too far, he spends hardly any time describing the actual line over which expressive individualism becomes problematic. That would have been helpful and constructive, but I don’t think that is his mission. Imagine writing a whole book on sexual identity and the rightness of traditional thought without mentioning the errors of patriarchy, the abuse and tolerance of misogyny over centuries, the hatred and discrimination and abuse against gay people, or the certainty by which racism was seen as “God’s perspective” for so many centuries. He studied Marx and Nietzsche and others without really wrestling with what they were reacting to, which is a blind spot and shows that the real goal is merely to justify and defend the old status quo, which is strange for a historian or for a fellow Christian who claims to believe in original sin. I appreciate deep history that helps us connect the dots, but this is not that. This is nostalgia in service to preserved an outdated status quo.
• 
  David Harris

  A condensed version of Trueman's Rise and Triumph of the Modern Self. This is more accessible, but still is incredibly informative for just 184 pages, and quite edifying as well. This would be a better option for pastors to give away to people who are not avid readers, but still want to know how to engage the culture in light of the expressive individualism that dominates contemporary society.
• 
  Christopher Humphrey

  We live in a strange time. We live in a time when self-expression and expressive individualism are worshiped as the highest good and the principles which may not be violated. But how did we arrive at this particular cultural moment? In "Strange New World: How Thinkers and Activists Redefined Identity and Sparked the Sexual Revolution" Carl R. Trueman attempts to provide an answer.
  
  This book is a precis of sorts for his longer form work, "The Rise and Triumph of the Modern Self: Cultural Amnesia, Expressive Individualism, and the Road to Sexual Revolution." But rather than a precis, this book is more aptly described a a popular version of more scholarly "Rise and Triumph" book. My personal recommendation would be for the reader to first tackle "Strange New World." If one desires more extensive study on the various topics, then the reader may proceed to the longer form book. I personally found both works extremely helpful.
  
  To make his case for how we arrived in this strange new world, Trueman briefly and helpfully explores the philosophical antecedents that led our culture to its current confused state. One should not be intimidated by this philosophic history because Trueman is a concise and clear writer. Indeed, Trueman has a unique ability to distill a great volume of thought into a few helpful paragraphs, while still being true to the original sources. A diligent reader will be rewarded with a helpful review of the history of thought, especially as it pertains to the concept of expressive individualism.
  
  Trueman logically argues from this history of thought how our current society has come to terms with concepts that even a decade ago would have been unthinkable. And Trueman's last Chapter is a helpful call to action for how faithful Christians ought to respond to our current cultural milieu. It is my hope that Trueman and others (like Rod Dreher has already done in "The Benedict Option" and "Live Not by Lies") will follow up on this discourse to more action steps for Christians as they seek to be faithful in this present evil age.
  
  This is an important book because it is so relevant to our culture at this very moment. Form a group ( a la Dreher) and study this book on your knees with your Bible in the other hand, turn off cable news and get busy! Happy reading!
• 
  Peter Blair

  A more accessible summary of Trueman’s last book, with some new material in chapters 5, 6, and 9. Worth reading even if you’ve read The Rise And Triumph Of The Modern Self.
• 
  Mark Gring

  This is a very good updated, but also more accessible read of Trueman's ideas. Yes, he does cover some similar ideas/developments as he covered in the Rise and Triumph of the Modern Self, but he adds a couple of chapters that are new. I was pleased he included more about technology with this text. He makes a good case for the dual causality of both "ideas" and "material conditions" that help to bring changes about in cultures. I appreciated this historiographic acknowledgment and found it a helpful addition and point of contemplation. Trueman also adds another chapter where he talks about our (contemporary Christian) participation in the very things he discusses-we may find great difficulty with some of these ideas/attitudes but we also benefit from them and identify with it.
  
  One very minor criticism of this text is really a broad critique I have for MOST Christian authors who write about and critique "technology" and culture--they really need to read the works of Jacques Ellul and Neil Postman. Both Ellul and Postman have their limitations but their ideas about "technique" and propaganda (Ellul) along with Postman's ideas about "technopoly" and "amusement" would serve to add greater depth to the theological understanding already there in Trueman's work.
  
  Despite my very minor caveat, I STRONGLY recommend this work. Get it! Read it! Give it as gifts!
  This should be in the hands of students in high schools and colleges (I am tempted to make it part of my required readings at a state university) and the regular people in the church pews.
  A main reason this will NOT be in the hands of churchgoers, I suspect, is because their church leaders are likely part of the "woke" crowd who will not want their soft ideological underbellies exposed.
• 
  Heidi

  4.5 stars
  Essential reading for the Christian wanting to understand how to interact with people steeped in today’s culture - whether believers or unbelievers.
  A social science and historical-philosophical explanation of how the past century or more has brought us to where we are today, in terms of the sexual revolution of the 21st century.
  I learned so much about the influence of Rousseau, Wilde, Descartes, Wordsworth, Nietschze, Freud, Darwin, Marx, AIDS - and many other influences - which have shaped our current culture’s concept of identity and reality.
  I’m grateful for this shorter, edited version of his original, The Rise and Triumph of the Modern Self. I attempted the original, but quickly realized I would get bogged down by all the philosophy. This one was in-depth and challenging, but not such a big project as the original would have been for me.
  No wonder this has been called one of the most important Christian books of our time. Essential reading.
• 
  Daniel

  The most important book I've read in the last 10 years.
• 
  Sam R

  A transphobic Englishman writes Christian boomer “philosophy” blaming Nietzsche and Marx for turning everyone gay. Wow. The perfect study guide for evangelical pastors needing to “navigate our present cultural moment.”
• 
  Brittany Lindvall

  I have not yet read Rise and Triumph but I am even more certain I will after finishing this one. Dr. Trueman is such a gifted communicator and I appreciate his clear and well thought out explanation of the sexual revolution and the impact it has on the church and how we can respond in a loving, Godly way. Highly recommend!
• 
  Rohan

  Well written, with clear structure and clarity, with some unexpected humour. E.g. When he quotes Rosseau "'Man is born free, yet everywhere he is in chains.' This is, of course, complete nonsense."
  
  I especially liked the first half of the book tracing some key thinkers. The conclusion to each chapter also helped tie everything together.
  
  But as the book progressed to more modern times, I did get a sense that there were some unhelpful "straw mans", e.g. in implicitly comparing gender dysphoria with pedophilia, that weakened his authority.
  
  Some notes for me to remember:
  - We all share the same social imaginary. We do not so much think about the world as we intuitively relate to it.
  - Rousseau focuses on the inner psychological life as taking us to the heart of who he or she is.
  - All forms of social organization have significance in serving the existing structure of society. ... We are all, in a sense, Marxists now.
  - For both Marx and Nietzsche, moral codes are thus manipulative and must be transgressed to find true freedom. ... There is little or no moral structure to human nature.
  - With Freud, our inner space of feeling is defined primarily by its sexual desires. Sex is not a behaviour, it is who we are.
  - Reich says If a person is in some deep sense the sexual desires that they experience, then how society treats those desires is an extremely important political question.
  - How did these weird philosophy ideas shape the masses? A. The collapse of traditional, external anchors of identity (religion, nation, family) B. Technology to bend nature to our will (contraception, travel) C. Self-fulfilling categories of social science commentators D. Cultural and business elites who repudiate the past and promote the new values.
  - Christian response? Understand our complicity, be uniquely the church whilst being constructive members of wider society, teach the whole counsel of God, and shape intuitions through biblical worship. All while living in hope of Jesus' return.
• 
  Peter Yock

  I expected this to be helpful but dry, a bit of a slog. Turns out I loved it, and it was way more helpful than I anticipated. So very helpful. Highly recommended for any Christian trying to figure out how to live in today’s culture.
• 
  Julie Mabus

  This was a more concise version of his book The Rise and Triumph of the Modern Self. Much of the same information but condensed.
• 
  Addy Orangutan

  I think that the sexual revolution was not worth my time and neither was this book
• 
  Ben Palpant

  Clear headed, generous, and timely insights for those who want to serve and live in the world and not simply critique it.
• 
  Chris

  Must Read for Every Christian
  
  Really it’s a must read for every American in particular who wants to understand how our culture has become so strangely chaotic in a seemingly short time. But Christians in particular will benefit from reading this shorter presentation of Carl Trueman’s larger work, The Rise and Triumph of the Modern Self.
  
  Trueman explains:
  
  For many people, the Western world in which we now live has a profoundly confusing, and often disturbing, quality to it. Things once regarded as obvious and unassailable virtues have in recent years been subject to vigorous criticism and even in some cases come to be seen by many as more akin to vices. Indeed, it can seem as if things that almost everybody believed as unquestioned orthodoxy the day before yesterday…are now regarded as heresies advocated only by the dangerous, lunatic fringe…. Welcome to this strange new world. You may not like it. But it is where you live, and therefore it is important that you try to understand it. (19-20)
  
  The author’s thesis is relatively simple. After explaining key concepts, he summarizes it in these words:
  
  To anticipate my argument, it is my conviction that the dramatic changes and flux we witness and experience in society today are related to the rise to cultural normativity of the expressive individual self, particularly as expressed through the idioms of the sexual revolution. And the fact that the reasons for this are so deeply embedded in all aspects of our culture means that we all are, to some extent, complicit in what we see happening around us. To put it bluntly, we all share more or less the same social imaginary. Of course, the importance of the social imaginary points us to the fact that, if our world has no simple, single cause, our problems
  therefore have no simple, single solution. The modern self is the fruit of a complicated confluence of cultural factors. That can be depressing for those who hope that electing the right politician or appointing the appropriate Supreme Court justice will solve all the world's ills. But it also means that we can begin to think more constructively about how to address the issues we face. And that is the hope I have in writing this book. I offer no easy answers, but I do hope it provides a framework by which the reader is better able to understand, or be more self-conscious of, the modern Western social imaginary that shapes us all. This is neither a lament nor a polemic. Both have their place, I am sure, but here my purpose is more descriptive and explanatory. To respond to our times we must first understand our times. That is my goal. (29)
  
  “To respond to our times we must first understand our times.” In understandable terms combined with practical illustrations and critical judicial decisions, Trueman explains the philosophical underpinnings of our strange new world.
  
  Anyone on social media will immediately recognize the impact of what Truman helpfully explains. Anyone struggling to evangelize and disciple future generations will benefit from understanding the philosophical roots of our spoiled cultural fruit. Anyone who is shepherding a local church in this current cultural chaos will be better equipped by reading this book.
  
  Two personal reminders: (1) the only hope for any culture is the gospel of Jesus Christ and (2) His coming with His kingdom will make all things new.
  
  “Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your toil is not in vain in the Lord.”
  — 1 Corinthians 15:58
• 
  Tim Sheppard

  Having read
  The Rise and Triumph of the Modern Self, I was extremely keen to find a more accessible version that I could recommend to others — so imagine my joy when I discovered that this was going to be published! It’s unambiguously pitched as a ‘briefer and (hopefully) more accessible’ (p15) version of the earlier work. It certainly is that. It took me a lot less time to read, it was easier to follow, and it presented roughly the same account of ‘how the person became a self, the self became sexualized, and sex became politicized’ (p10). Trueman’s observations are as incisive as they were before — e.g. his recognition that “institutions are no longer [viewed as] authoritative places of formation but of performance” (p96).
  
  But, for all its brevity (it’s less than half the length) and clarity (there’s lots that’s been removed), it doesn’t go quite far enough. If you’re writing a popular-level book, why throw in occasionally complicated vocabulary (e.g. “venality” [p93] or “unctuously” [p95])? A few chapters in, I was eager to hand this on extensively to others, but as the book continued, I found myself disappointed that it wasn’t made easier.
  
  Perhaps that’s unfair – but in a spirit of critiquing a book on its own terms, that feels like the right criterion against which to consider it. I'm rare in these views - most reviews seem to be far more positive - but as I think of the many whom I want exposed to this material who aren't big readers, I'm not sure what to hand them... I’m still happy (eager?) to recommend it, especially to those for whom
  Rise and Triumph is too inaccessible. But I won’t be stocking up on copies to give away.
• 
  Joy Downen

  "The era when Christians could disagree with the broader convictions of the secular world and yet still find themselves respected as decent members of society at large is coming to an end if indeed it has not ended already."
  
  The question then is, what are we as Christians combating and how should we combat it? In this book, Trueman answers both questions so clearly and concisely. Perhaps it's because I have mostly read philosophical works pre-dating the modern era that this book was so insightful. I know that the works of past philosophers bear influence on present philosophy, but it makes so much more sense knowing how. Everything Trueman presents in this book are things I already know about the modern Western world, however, he presents the bare argumentation of what, as a Christian, I would say counters my faith. He does not bash the liberal stance but presents that stance as it would defend itself. It is an honest retelling of liberal history and a fair analysis of its weight on current culture and the church.
  
  For all my humanities friends I would highly recommend this book!