Carl Trueman and Strange New World

Carl Trueman's book The Rise and Triumph of the Modern Self: Cultural Amnesia, Expressive Individualism, and the Road to Sexual Revolution (Crossway, 2020) was one of the landmark books of last year (for me, a bit late to the game thanks seminary). After reading the original book, my single regret was that it did not have a more condensed version that I could recommend to people. Now that regret has been remedied in spectacular fashion. Trueman has released a more digestible version of this work as Strange New World: How Thinkers and Activists Redefined Identity and Sparked the Sexual Revolution (Crossway, 2022).

You might not think that a book covering philosophers and cultural influencers would help in your day-to-day life or interactions with others, but this book has helped make sense of so much of what I see happening in our culture today in the attitudes and mentalities of the broader culture around us. The book focuses on the sexual revolution that grabs so many headlines today, yet the ideas Trueman presents explain so much more about how people think about the world and our place in it. Trueman's original does an excellent job of laying out the timeline of influences, changes, and components of the broad sweeps of history without delving too deeply into lament or angst about the way our world is. His book—while painting a rather dire view of the world—remains hopeful in light of the gospel's power to transform people. These books provide the ammunition for future generations to understand the world they live within and to form an apologetic to address the cultural mindset today.

Crossway has provided a free preview of the book as an audio excerpt. Both books are available as audiobooks and I can't recommend either one of them highly enough.

The new version also comes with study guides for those who might want to make a small group study out of it (a brilliant idea). You can also preview the original book on Crossway's site.