How have we arrived at the specific place we are now as a culture and as a contagious western people? A place where the statement, “I am a woman trapped in a man’s body,” makes sense to so many. This is the question Carl Truman begins with in his watershed book, The Rise and Triumph of the Modern Self: Cultural Amnesia, Expressive Individualism, and the Road to Sexual Revolution (Crossway, 2020).
Truman’s book has stirred discussion widely in Christian academic circles and it is now bleeding out into mainstream Christian and secular circles. There have been numerous terrific book reviews ranging from brief summaries to detailed analysis. Instead of playing a broken record, let me recommend a couple of these links (https://www.challies.com/book-reviews/the-rise-and-triumph-of-the-modern-self/, https://au.thegospelcoalition.org/book-review/book-review-the-rise-and-triumph-of-the-modern-self-by-carl-trueman/) and go on to approach this blog with the question, what shall we do about The Rise and Triumph of the Modern Self?
We are not left without a response by Truman himself to this question, which was framed in his final chapter, “Concluding Unscientific Prologue.” In this closing chapter Truman does three things: First, he attempts to put the core of his argument into perspective. Second, he humbly interprets his research to predict possible directions our society may travel. Lastly, he directly responds to the question presented herein with “three things that should mark the church as she moves into the future.”
Although Truman remains faithful to his promise to offer neither “a lament, nor a polemic,” many readers will find themselves compelled to lament the path our society has traveled, so willingly adopting the social imaginary Truman pinpoints. Throughout the book I found myself nodding in agreement, yet asking the question, “What does this mean for us now? While Truman does offer the brief response to this question found in the final chapter (to his credit he also from the start proposes that his writing is simply a prolegomenon to the topic), it is clear that there is much more to explore in the area of application.
Truman argues that the church should resist the temptation to present herself in light of “aesthetics and her core beliefs and practices.” By this Truman seems to be pointing toward the authority of personal story and experience in society today while calling for the Church to retain the authority of God’s Word as our primary foundation rather than personal experience. Yes and amen to this! However, what I would humbly add is that the modes and tools by which we communicate the unwavering doctrinal foundations of scripture can and should be contextualized to the culture in which it is reaching. The teachings of Christianity are not presented as a tedious manual of doctrinal lists in the Bible. Forty-three percent of the Bible is narrative – stories of people and their experiences, which were led by and contain the revealing of God and his teachings. Another thirty-three percent is made up of poetry which takes direct aim at the heart and emotions of our humanness and experiential nature. The fact that seventy-six percent of scripture is composed in genres that are near to the heart of a society driven by aesthetics and personal experience offers great hope that God’s Word is capable of reaching a people ingrained in the Sittlechkeit of the West.
In addition, it is interesting that the fastest growing segment of Christianity is among Pentecostals and charismatics. Both of which tend to emphasize the experiential nature of faith in Christ. While there is denominational and doctrinal debate and discussion within such circles, most Christians would agree that living in Christ is a vibrant experience which can be shared and communicated to a watching world hungry for meaningful experience in this life. Experiencing authentic new life and transformation which Christ works in his children through the work of the Spirit is a message that will resonate with many.
Finally, while the Christian should not seek to form authority for his beliefs in his experience itself, powerfully using the tools of our age to contextualize the message must be considered. This should include Christians excelling in the arts. Christians must not only use their musical and artistic skills inside the church, but use them to communicate truth outside of it as well. There has been some progress in raising the standard of excellence in Christian arts over the last decades. However, there is still much more progress to be made. Christians should invest heavily into encouraging, training, and producing artistic productions of all genres with a gospel centered motive.
There is much more which could be said about the final pages of Truman’s book and the implications therein. But, I’ll stop here and let this simply serve as one response to the ongoing conversation which Truman has initiated.