Strange New World: How Thinkers and Activists Redefined Identity and Sparked the Sexual Revolution
The past few years have been disorienting, to say the least. Not to even mention the past couple of days. Becoming overwhelmed is understandable, if not expected. This book came into my hands at such a time when I was seeking answers to questions regarding culture and one of our biggest questions, “how should we then live?”
Carl R. Trueman first wrote a penetrating analysis of the trends in ideas that have coalesced to give us our “current cultural moment.” It is a colossal volume of 432 pages titled, The Rise and Triumph of the Modern Self: Cultural Amnesia, Expressive Individualism, and Road to the Sexual Revolution. Historian Trueman shows how influences ranging from traditional institutions to technology and pornography moved modern culture toward an era of “expressive individualism.” Investigating philosophies from the Romantics, Nietzsche, Marx, Wilde, Freud, and the New Left, he outlines the history of Western thought to the distinctly sexual direction of present-day identity politics. He explains the modern implications of these ideas on religion, free speech, and personal identity.
Seems a bit much right? That’s why I reached instead for a slightly smaller work. In 2021 Trueman published a similar book distilling 492 pages into 197. Strange New World: How Thinkers and Activists Redefined Identity and Sparked the Sexual Revolution. Far from “dumbing down” his greater work, Trueman attempts to make the book more palatable to the popular audience. So that those of us who have not spent hours pouring over Freud and Marx can share a grasp on the nature and culture, Ryan T. Anderson, in his foreword, summarizes the book as a retelling of how the human person became a self, how the self became sexualized, and how sex became politicized.
I would much prefer a story to most nonfiction books. Trueman follows the thread of philosophy like the plot of a book leading to a climax. It reminds me somewhat of C.S. Lewis's The Abolition of Man, but written with an iPhone in hand and typing on a laptop! Many are unaware of how the thoughts of thinkers like Nietzche and Freud (who are practically laughable in 2020) have shaped our most indisputable claims even in the Supreme Court today.
We cannot argue that the politizing of sex today is a “symptom of the deeper revolution in selfhood that the rise and triumph of expressive individualism represents.” The truth of my existence is defined by how I feel about it, not by an external standard. If I am going to be authentic, then I must act outwardly following my inward feelings. Centuries of assumptions about the authenticity of the inner self, the centrality of sex, and the political nature of identity, mixed with a double portion of scientific hubris, have produced a civilization of people who see themselves as “pieces of living playdough attached to a will” (53). Millions of our neighbors now believe that human beings can sculpt themselves into whatever they desire, if necessary through hormones, surgery, and legislation.
A comprehensive review of this book would not be complete without acknowledging the critics of Truemans work. He is accused of woefully misinterpreting what the older thinkers are reacting to. He focuses too much on defending Christians that they are still the “good guys.” He doesn’t use the 197 pages to criticize the “Christian” patriarchy, the hate of gays from the church, or the racism heralded as “God’s perspective.” Instead, he attempts to reinforce the “status quo.” Many critics accuse the readers of this book as “close-minded” or “misogynists.”
I took the time to read MANY of the 1-2 star reviews of this book and its larger counterpart and have come to this conclusion. Read the book, or don’t. I think this text is valuable to our church in the current age and I believe Trueman has excellently distilled the analysis of the first book to reach a broader audience of thinking Christians. Rise and Triumph extensively addresses many of the above criticisms. If you are looking for a book half the length that convincingly outlines the intellectual roots of expressive individualism, then this is a beneficial read.
So who should read this book? I think any member of the church would find value in this book regardless of denomination or philosophy degree. What I learned reading this book was that Expressive individualism is correct in affirming the importance of psychology for who we are and in stressing the universal dignity of all human beings. (170) Where it diverges from sound teaching and rational thinking, is when we hold our personal opinions over the truth of conviction and doctrine. This book places the I of the story in its rightful place. We are not bystanders of history, watching it unfold and anxiously waiting for stupid people to come to their senses. Our calling is then, to spend less time behind a phone telling others they are wrong, and instead to faithfully love our neighbors and teach the truth about God’s world. We can only truly do that by understanding who we are as humans with intrinsic value and in light of truth. Carl Trueman paints a bleak picture, without an attempt to soften the edges. But the last chapter is what offers the brightest glimpse of hope. We are strangers in this strange world. We are called to point to the truth and faithfully serve Him who called us to sojourners here.
What is being pushed in the court of opinion and our culture is a world that is “free of criticism.” Self should be exalted above all other institutions. Even biology and logic. “Now we are free to choose the narrative to which we wish to belong, the imagined community that will provide us with our identity and purpose. We can focus on those narratives that make us feel good and that confirm our CHOSEN view of the world and ignore those that present challenges to this.” This imagined community is how we see ourselves belonging to a culture. We’ve all been guilty of this in our lives. It begins younger and younger. My students will try to exaggerate claims and tout their Lululemon tops and Kendra Scott earrings to present a reality that sounds attractive to their peers. What they want their lives to be, becomes who they are.
Today, the self is entirely “plastic.” Liquid. Play-dough. Utterly moldable to build an identity. We are, in a sense, restating Neitzche to say “God is dead,” and speaking our truth into “existence” as omnipotent Creators. But constant inward reflection and speaking our own “truth,” always leads to imploding in on ourselves and eventually reaches its limit. We live in a time of depression, anxiety, suicide, racism, and elementary school shootings. What does the self have the ability to express once it has exhausted her resources? St. Augustine, in his autobiography, Confessions, inwardly reflects but yet doesn’t end there. He always ends up moving outward toward God. Our feelings, though real, should always be set in the context of the larger truth of God’s Word. Feelings should be tethered to Truth.
So how should we then live: asks the student in a college class, the 26-year-old pastor just beginning his ministry, the therapist sitting with a teen contemplating suicide, the at-home mom with her three little ones in tow, the businessman merging his “church-life” with the status quo at the office. As a college grad, dance instructor, and dancer, I’ve awoken a few mornings this year overwhelmed by the weight of the national and global scale crisis we’ve experienced. I look into the faces of my children coming from school and wonder if their days are numbered. I’m tempted to take for granted my job and apartment and can’t imagine someone forcing me out of my home and everything I know. Some days I have felt lethargic and unable to contemplate how it could ever get better than this. These emotions you may also be feeling, are why I would recommend this book to you. As Christians, we cannot become crippled by despair. We cannot be blindly optimistic about the state of things or just wish our way back to an imaginary status quo. We cannot succumb to the temptation to follow the culture and ignore the truth of scripture and the power of our God.
This is not a “feel-good,” therapeutic book and obviously won’t answer all your questions about how we got to this moment in history. But it is an excellent beginning to understanding more about the days we are living in and how to live as believers in a strange world.
To close I would just like to share a prayer I came across recently related to national tragedies. It’s from Every Moment Holy.
“Even in the shadow of tragedy, let us not lose hope. Give us eyes to see the rapid movement of mercy rushing in to fill these newly wounded spaces.”
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