Book Reviews by Guests
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The Rise and Triumph of the Modern Self: Cultural Amnesia, Expressive Individualism, and the Road to Sexual Revolution By Carl R. Trueman / Crossway Modern culture is obsessed with identity. Since the landmark Obergefell v. Hodges Supreme Court decision in 2015, sexual identity has dominated both public discourse and cultural trends—yet no historical phenomenon is its own cause. From Augustine to Marx, various views and perspectives have contributed to the modern understanding of the self. In this timely book, Carl Trueman analyzes the development of the sexual revolution as a symptom—rather than the cause—of the human search for identity. Trueman surveys the past, brings clarity to the present, and gives guidance for the future as Christians navigate the culture in humanity’s ever-changing quest for identity. |
Louise writes:
The Rise and Triumph of the Modern Self is good historical instruction as to how we have arrived at the cultural mindset we are now dealing with. Starting with the Romantics and Rousseau, poets like Shelley, then Nietzche, Marx, Darwin, Freud, Wilhelm Reich and Herbert Marcuse these have influenced societal norms to throw off anything that constricts the self. The psychologizing of the self became utmost and all that matters is the satisfaction of the individual. “Enlightenment effectively tore out the foundations from under the polite bourgeois morality that it wished to maintain. You cannot do this, says Nietzsche. You have unchained the earth from the sun, a move of incalculable significance. By doing so, you have taken away any basis for a metaphysics that might ground either knowledge or ethics. In killing God, you take on the responsibility-the terrifying responsibility-of being god yourself, of becoming the author of your own knowledge and your own ethics.” (Trueman p170) Any of this should actually come as no surprise, this same thing happened in the Garden with just Adam and Eve.
Great read for the historically minded. There is also a condensed version of the book called Strange New World: How Thinkers and Activists Redefined Identity and Sparked the Sexual Revolution. - Louise
For a shorter version, Louise also recommends:
Yes, I’m a compensated affiliate of these booksellers, too.