The Rise and Triumph of the Modern Self - Carl R. Trueman
Written by
Carl R. Trueman
In this very scholarly book, Trueman basically asks one main question: How did we get here? He explores the philosophical roads that have led to our current culture, our emotive and expressive society that is obsessed with its own validation and its own self-realisation. He traces schools of thought and influence, from French thinker Jean-Jacques Rousseau in the 1700s to the Romantic poets of the 1800s to the philosophies of Friedrich Nietzsche, Karl Marx and Sigmund Freud. They all paved the way for the revolutions we’re seeing today.
It’s just a brilliant document; it’s put together more like a thesis than anything. Trueman is meticulous, and is set on methodically showing that what is happening today is not some radically new way of thinking - we’re simply downstream from the ideologies of artists and thinkers who have lived long before us.
If anything, it’s not an easy read. There are footnotes on almost every page, and you often have to look up very technical words that he uses. It was slow going, but I still found it worth it.
Any Christian wanting to engage with the culture around us, but not sure how to understand it.
Yes, without reservation!
You may feel like it gets a bit technical and theoretical, but press on - the things discussed are worth understanding.
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