Review: The Rise and Triumph of the Modern Self

Carl R. Trueman. The Rise and Triumph of the Modern Self.  Wheaton, IL: Crossway, November 24th 2020.  432 pp.

5 out of 5

Purchase: Westminster |Amazon

Does it seem that too many things that is trending in our post-2020 world seems rather crazy?  This book is an important work that explore how some of the pathologies we are currently seeing in society and culture today is the result of the modern view of the self.  Christian historian Carl Trueman authored this important and phenomenal work that have the attention of others as well in regards to its significance, with this book having received The Gospel Coalition Book Award for 2020 and as of today in April 27^th, 2021 it remains the number one Best Seller in Religion & Philosophy on Amazon, which is incredible given that this is six months after the book was published.  I felt this book is similar to Francis Schaeffer’s How Then Shall We Live? with how the book present readers a penetrating analysis of cultural development of how we got to where we are now from the past although it is with much more academic rigor and footnotes to make the case for the book’s thesis than Schaeffer’s classic.  I felt this book is probably Trueman’s best work thus far.

The discussion of the modern view of self can take many directions and the author in the book acknowledges that.  The subtitle of the book indicate the book’s flow: “Cultural Amnesia, Expressive Individualism, and the Road to Sexual Revolution.”  In the introduction Trueman explains that the heart of the book lies with the question of what social and cultural changes has taken place that today the statement “I am a woman trapped within a man’s body” makes sense when just a generation ago such a claim would be seen as nonsensical.  The author made the point clear that this book isn’t primarily about transgender nor is it about the sexual revolution per se but about something of a deeper undercurrent, namely the change that has shifted in the modern view of self.  The sexual revolution is more the symptom of a greater seismic shift that is causing other cultural pathologies.  It is this exploration of how the view of the self has developed in Western thought the last five hundred years that is most profound and insightful from the book.  I immensely appreciate the breadth and scope of this book with the multi-discipline look in tracking how the modern view of self has changed historically in which we have chapters looking at philosophers, scientists, psychologists, economists, poets and other literary writers and cultural influencers such as social scientists, cultural icons and entertainers and the Supreme Court.  Chronologically Trueman began his analysis first with the philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau and then looks at many other important figures and their contribution towards a view of self that is no longer grounded in what God says man should be but rather the basis is now inwards.

I appreciated how in the beginning of the book Trueman talks about how some will say explaining where we are at now is because of man’s sinfulness and therefore no other analysis is required.  He rebuts this by giving an example of how inadequate that can be with the illustration of asking the question “Why did the Twin Towers fell on September 11^th?” It is true that it is because of gravity but to only say it is because of gravity might be missing other things such as its significance that makes it such as tragedy.  While the universal law of gravity explains why everything in general fall yet there are more specifics about what in particular also shape the fall the way things fell; that is, it is true sin has impacted negatively modern man’s view of self but we ask further why do people in the West have a particular view of self that is different than those who are in another country or people of another time?

Trueman’s analysis is in debt to the insights of three individuals: philosopher Charles Taylor, Philip Rieff and Alasdair MacIntyre.  The author does a good job explaining to readers their framework and observations which provide the analytical tools for what Trueman would explore in the rest of the chapters in the book.  As a general summary all three scholars note how man today no longer believes in the transcendent that defines the self objectively but now meaning and significance is understood in our cultural as something that is based upon our individual subjective self as the basis.  Trueman’s work as a historian and also as a student of other disciplines and thinkers is commendable and is an example for us all to always be learning and be in conversations with others from other disciplines to deepen our analysis of things.

Each chapter I read I found extremely helpful and I took many notes.  The chapters that stood out to me was the chapter on the 1800s thinkers Nietzsche, Marx and Dawin and also the chapter on the New Left which infused Marx and Freud that also gave rise to Critical Theory.

The insight from this book is helpful for many other applications besides what was explored in the book.  For example Trueman explicitly states one can explore the topic of the political landscape with the breakdown of the importance of national state identity, patriotism, etc.  While the work in writing this book started before the post-2020 discussion about Critical Race Theory and Antifa, I think the book is insightful for those areas as well though of course the author doesn’t talk about them.

In terms of diagnosing the problem Trueman has given us his important contribution. Sadly I do think the solution offered is probably the weakest part of the book.  For starters it was rather short and lacks the rigor one see Truman is capable of with when he looked at the problems.  He gives only three thoughts for the Church for the future and I was surprised that he didn’t mention going back to the Scriptures as one of them.  Furthermore he wrote statements that his fellow Calvinistic Protestant would cringe at theologically.  For instance Trueman wrote: “Christianity, as both Martin Luther and John Henry Newman knew, is dogmatic, doctrinal, assertive.”  I wonder how much both men he mentioned would have saw each other’s Christianity were legitimate, given their doctrinal stance.  It is an interesting Ecumenical streak I didn’t expect from a minister from the Orthodox Presbyterian Church.  In discussing one of the solutions Trueman also said “Connected to this, of course, is the importance of the body.  Protestantism, with its emphasis on the preached word grasped by faith, is perhaps peculiarly vulnerable to downplaying the importance of the physical.”  I don’t see how it logically follow that an emphasis of the Word of God grasped by faith would mean the physical and the bodily would be downplayed when in fact Scripture itself has a high view of the body and the physical, being created by God.  Furthermore it is strange to see him single out Protestants as I have my run-ins with those who are Catholics and Eastern Orthodox that can downplay the physical and the bodily in which some I wonder if they are more Christian Platonists than biblical.  But for the insight of culture, society and the descent of the modern view of self Trueman is worth reading.

NOTE: This book was provided to me free by Crossway and Net Galley without any obligation for a positive review. All opinions offered above are mine unless otherwise stated or implied.

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