THE RISE AND TRIUMPH OF MODERN SELF

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I am a fan of Professor Carl Trueman and have and will continue to use him to expose where our western society is headed. Carl Trueman is professor of biblical and religious studies at Grove City College in Grove City, Pennsylvania. He has written more than a dozen books, including Histories and Fallacies: Problems Faced in the Writing of History, Luther on the Christian Life, The Creedal Imperative, Cultural Amnesia, Expressive Individualism, The Road to Sexual Revolution and his latest book The Rise and Triumph of the Modern Self.

In this interview, John Anderson former Deputy Prime Minister of Australia and Professor Trueman, discuss his latest book The Rise and Triumph of the Modern Self. It deals with self in an age of culture wars, including the societal shift of the perception of happiness and gratification, the technological revolution, and the sexual revolution and its ties to authoritarianism.

TOPICS COVERED IN THIS VIDEO:

00:16 Introducing Professor Carl Trueman 1:00 How does history give us a unique understanding of where we currently are as a society? 3:41 How do today’s trends have similarities to the Reformation? 6:42 Abolition of the private sphere in the technological revolution 8:38 What is the modern self? 11:08 The morality of capitalism and the right to be happy 12:43 The old and new atheism 14:36 The danger of great ideas and fascism 16:35 What is anticulture? 25:00 Social Darwinism 26:18 Cultural Marxism and the sexual revolution 30:42 How is modern society Freudian? 33:29 Gratification and discipline in the modern age 35:42 Victimhood and the modern dissatisfaction phenomenon 37:16 The transgenderism movement and authoritarianism 41:21 The ideological affirmation model 47:00 Freedom of speech is under attack 52:50 Cancel culture led by the elites 54:20 What can we do as individuals amid a divided society? 58:50 How can Christianity shed light on our culture for a return to decent humanity? 1:03:30 Are things going well for progressives?

If you enjoyed this video of John Anderson interviewing Carl Trueman then you might want to subscribe to his channel https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCtnY. as he interviews the world’s foremost thought leaders about today’s pressing social, cultural and political issues. John believes proper, robust dialogue is necessary if we are to maintain our social strength and cohesion. As he puts it; “You cannot get good public policy out of a bad public debate.”

MAKING SENSE OF TRANSGENDERISM AND THE SEXUAL REVOLUTION

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THE RISE AND TRIUMPH OF THE MODERN SELF

In this episode of Gospelbound, Carl Trueman discusses our culture’s current obsession with identity and changing attitudes about gender and sexuality. He offers a crash course on key historical figures and ideas that have shaped us in profound yet often unnoticed ways, highlights what conservative Christians often misunderstand about the LGBTQ cause, and offers advice when it comes to navigating an increasing hostile culture in the coming years. His new book “The Rise and Triumph of the Modern Self: Cultural Amnesia, Expressive Individualism, and the Road to Sexual Revolution is now a must read for all Christians that want share the Gospel with the community with whom they engage. Watching this video will motivate you to buy the book. Like me you may watch the video more than once. Carl Trueman is an accomplished communicator. If you want more of Carl Trueman can I suggest you go to Thinking in Public with Albert Mohler: The Triumph of the Modern Self: A Conversation with Theologian Carl Trueman.

MEN HAVE FORGOTTEN GOD

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In his 1983 Templeton Prize address, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn offered this summary explanation for why all the horrors of Soviet communism came to pass: “Men have forgotten God; that’s why all this has happened.”

This answer is also a valid explanation for the crises enveloping the West today, including the widespread falling away from faith, the disintegration of the family, a loss of communal purpose, erotomania, erasing the boundaries between male and female, and a general spirit of demonic destruction that denies the sacredness of human life. Because men have forgotten God, they have also forgotten man; that’s why all this has happened.

The above two para’s are the beginning of the Foreword to Carl Trueman’s new book The Rise and Triumph of the Modern Self

The Rise and Triumph of the Modern Self

“This is a characteristically brilliant book by Carl Trueman, helping the church understand why people believe that sexual difference is a matter of psychological choice. Indeed, Trueman shows how the story we tell ourselves about normalized LGBTQ+ values is false and foolish. With wisdom and clarity, Trueman guides readers through the work of Charles Taylor, Philip Rieff, British Romantic poets, and Continental philosophers to trace the history of expressive individualism from the eighteenth century to the present. The rejection of mimesis (finding excellence by imitating something greater than yourself) for poiesis (finding authenticity by inventing yourself on your own terms), in addition to the Romantic movement’s welding of sexual expression as a building block of political liberation, ushers in the modern LGBTQ+ movement as if on cue. This book reveals how important it is for thinking Christians to distinguish virtue from virtue signaling. The former makes you brave; the latter renders you a man pleaser, which is a hard line to toe in a world where there are so few real men left to please.”

Rosaria Butterfield, Former Professor of English, Syracuse University; author, The Gospel Comes with a House Key

“The Rise and Triumph of the Modern Self is perhaps the most significant analysis and evaluation of Western culture written by a Protestant during the past fifty years. If you want to understand the social, cultural, and political convulsions we are now experiencing, buy this book, and read it for all it is worth. Highly recommended.”

Bruce Riley Ashford, Professor of Theology and Culture, Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary; coauthor, The Gospel of Our King.