The title seemed a little weird: The Rise and Triumph of the Modern Self, but the first sentence really drew me in. “The origins of this book lie in my curiosity about how and why a particular statement has come to be regarded as coherent and meaningful: ’I am a woman trapped in a man’s body.’” By the time I had read the first two chapters I knew I had to order a copy for myself, and one for Matt.
Kevin Lasley had loaned me a copy of Is Atheism Dead? by Eric Metaxas, which is an excellent book that makes it clear that in light of scientific and archaeological discoveries only someone who is intellectually dishonest can still be an atheist, and I thought he had also loaned me this one. But while telling Matt how excited I was about the books I was giving him for Christmas, he told me he had loaned the second one to me…at Thanksgiving no less! So, in light of my less than pristine memory, I better tell you about this second book before I move on to a third.
The author is Carl Trueman, a highly regarded professor and church historian. He notes, “At the heart of this book lies a basic conviction: the so-called sexual revolution of the last sixty years, culminating in its latest triumph—the normalization of transgenderism—cannot be properly understood until it is set within the context of a much broader transformation in how society understands the nature of human selfhood.”
Then, after sharing how 20th century philosophers have noted the reimagining of the self (who we are and why we are here) and our culture, based on an atheistic foundation laid in the 18th and 19th centuries by Rousseau, Marx, Darwin, and Freud, and brought into the mainstream by influential poets, he offers advice on how the church should respond to the challenges we face today. In short, we must maintain a commitment to biblical sexual morality, and be a part of a community that believes and practices it.
If you want to know more, I’ll loan you a marked-up copy.
God Bless, Rick
Chatham Christian Church 