Bible Students

Carl Trueman, in Strange New World, covers the social development leading to the current postmodern culture of “Expressive Individualism,” or in other words, the idea that the true self is reached through external expression, and that the eternal world should conform to internal reality, rather than the other way around. In his book, Trueman will track many of the cultural icons leading to this shift, and how the social mind has evolved over time. 

In chapter one, Trueman describes the world his audience lives in. It is the world of vices, where once so-called virtues were exalted, they are not believed to be vices, and the so-called vices of the past have become virtues. In this upside-down world, even the older generation has been rethinking their dogmatic beliefs in order to consider if they have founded their ideals on straw or reality. In this time, the definition of self, and by extension the expression of that self (expressive individualism) was key to understanding culture. The development of this idea of self will be covered in the following chapters. 

In chapter two, “Romantic Roots,” Trueman describes the romantic-era roots of expressive individualism, spearheaded by René Descartes and Jean-Jacques Rousseau, two philosophers in the 16 and 1700s. Before their time, expressions of inner feelings were not expected to conform the outer world to their desire. However, these two thinkers began to shift this. Descartes’ radically skeptical philosophy culminated in his famous phrase, “I think therefore I am.” Additionally, Rousseau believed the genuine person was the one to work out their feelings and not hide them internally. These two philosophies acted as groundwork for the coming philosophy of the likes of Nietzsche and Marx. 

In chapter three, Nietzsche and Marx built on the backs of Descartes and Rousseau, arguing that morality is ultimately relative. Morality was shaped over time, and therefore did not have a timeless foundation. According to Marx, all forms of human community become political and alienate others. This alienation results from when one feels they are not able to benefit from their labor. This alienation prevents authenticity. Therefore, one must be able to express themselves and form the outside world in order to be authentic. Religion is the reflection of the alienated man, reflecting their ideals of themselves onto a “god” figure. This is an attempt to escape alienation. 

The next thinkers to expand these ideas were Sigmund Freud and Wilhelm Reich. These two thinkers ultimately culminated in the birth of the “sexual revolution” of the 1960s. Sigmund Freud believed the self was essentially solely motivated by sex. The evolutionary outlook on life led him to believe in the human sex-machines whose desire for social acceptance, finances, and companionship were ultimately motivated by sexual desire. And, from an evolutionary standpoint, this makes sense. Some time after, Wilhelm Reich meshed the ideologies of Freud and Marx to create his own philosophy. Though Marx and Freud have two different theorized motivators of humanity (the drive against alienation and the drive for sex, respectively), and therefore different outlooks (a positive view of humanity and a negative view, respectively), Reich does not see Marx and Freud as in opposition, but rather acting on different levels, both to be contextualized in each individual society. These ideas eventually culminated in the western pop-culture of the sexual revolution, where the west actualized these philosophies. The morality of the West became an oppressive structure, and in return sex became a political spearhead, representing the newfound freedoms outside of the “ancient” Christian practices. 

In chapter five, “The Revolt of the Masses,” Trueman follows through with this newfound freedom of sex, charting the actualization of this cultural phenomenon. As sexual taboos were slowly eroded culture-wide (and quickly eroded on the individual level), the stability and limited nature of the older generations began to dissolve. Due to the innovation of transportation and communication, no longer were individuals destined to live in the same town and know the same people all their lives. Their limited, small lives were quickly opened up to the vast landscape of the world. With this new power, in addition to the new desire of sex (an old desire, really, but one played out in a new light), the new generation viewed authority quite differently. Both authority in the home and governmentally were challenged as cultures began to clash. This clash hastened the casting off of the previous generation’s morales in favor of internet pornography. At the end of the culture clash, the newer generation won, and the arts began to reflect accordingly. 

This cultural revolution led into chapter six, “Plastic People, Liquid World.” Trueman describes how the culture shifted to truly apply the previous ideologies in the belief that the internal world of understanding should conform the external world. Now, narratives (and metanarratives, driven by existentialism and postmodernism) were to be determined by the individual, and mini-societies were to be formed around shared beliefs. 

In chapter seven, “The Sexual Revolution of the LGBTQ+,” this idea is followed into today’s time, where internal narrative shaped eternal reality. If one feels like a woman, though they are biologically a man, the external narrative should conform to the internal narrative. After all, the most genuine person is one who expresses themselves most fully, and to be denied this is to be alienated from one’s social groups. Therefore, it only naturally follows that the most genuine person who believes they are a woman will seek to conform their external man-hood. This ideal is also carried out in sexual orientation, though to a lesser scale than transgenderism. 

In chapter eight, “Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness,” Trueman compares expressive individualism to the constitutional ideals of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. He touches on how modern “life” revolves around the expression of self, so those who are unable to do so are not truly living (fetuses and some other groups), and so do not have the right to life. The “liberties” of speech and religion are now criticized for the sake of tolerance, especially when religion seeks to condemn those who have sexual freedom. However, this definition of tolerance is not what a Christian would believe it to be. Tolerance here is meant to be approval. One can tolerate and not approve, but this tolerance seeks, even demands, approval. Free speech which denies approval, then, is naturally scrutinized. 

Finally, in chapter nine, “Strangers in This Strange New World,” Trueman describes the path forward for Christians navigating this novel landscape. Christians must be biblical at their center. They must worship biblically in order to create groups for people to identify with. They must teach the whole Bible, not focusing on the current issues (which leaves room for unaddressed novel issues to arise). Christians must recover love for their fallen brother, and recover a proper view of the body, that of being created in God’s image and made very good. The world is evil, but it is not all lost. Christians must spearhead cultural development by their insistence to return to the biblical text. 

Response

Throughout Trueman’s book, I have little, if any, disagreements. His commentary and tracking of social development in the West is, from what I can tell, thorough and understandable. That being said, I do have thoughts on the individual philosophies of the thinkers represented in this work. 

Chapter one opens with the description of our modern sexualized world, marked by the philosophy of expressive individualism. I do not see many points to disagree with Trueman on, if any. The world has become upside-down, and there is not much debate. The biblical morales are rejected by modern man as ancient and uninformed. I believe the socially post-Christian society views the Christian morales as the morality which helped ancient shepherds keep their society alive, and not of much help today. Therefore, they are rejected. On these beliefs, I agree with Trueman. 

In chapter two, Johnson touched on Descartes and Rousseau. Descartes’ phrase, “I think therefore I am” has helped to form part of the way I myself view the world. Additionally, I can understand the appeal of Rousseau’s “genuine individual” who is only so when they externalize their internal feelings. These two ideas, I believe, are present even in modern Christianity, though different in some aspects. Even in some Christian epistemologies, knowledge of the existence of oneself is the foundation for philosophy. Additionally, though catharsis is generally regarded to be sinful in Christian circles, the genuine expression of oneself post-exaltation (where the genuine self-expression is eternally glorifying God) is a virtuous desire, rather than a vice. Here, Trueman possibly contrasts these two ideas as a part of a culture versus Christianity narrative. If this is the case, I would push back against the depravity of these ideas, and argue that these ideas are actually incorrectly derived from Scriptural ideals. 

Chapters three and four continue the pattern of me understanding where the atheist philosophers are coming from. Apart from biblical revelation, these ideas of drive (sexual and social) make sense. As (supposedly) evolutionary by-products of sexual activity, naturally the desire for sex would be a dominating trait. Additionally, as a species that evolved to be socially inclined, tribal instincts (as well as morality) would be absolutely necessary for stability. So, from a strictly evolutionary aspect (assuming biblical revelation is irrelevant), I can agree with Marx’s and Freud’s evaluations of the human condition. However, having biblical revelation, I would have to disagree with Marx’s reflections on the god-figure he imagines, though I can agree it scratches the itch of avoiding alienation, but simply for a different reason (that humans were made to be fulfilled while in relationship with God). 

In chapters five through nine, the liquidity of the self was a natural expansion from the previous philosophies. If there is no concrete morality, and the genuine person is the one who exercises self-expression most honestly, then expressive individualism and the idea of forming the external narrative to match the internal are rational consequences. Personally, I disagree with the premises, and therefore disagree with the conclusion. The challenges to religion and free speech are baseless given the reality of God. Though many of the surveyed ideologies reflect ideals that are the imperfect great-grandchildren of biblical ideals, and therefore hold true aspects, they should be discarded on the world stage. The shifting sands of developing modern ideas will show to be the collapse of any metanarrative (including postmodernism itself, despite its claims to hold no metanarratives) presented, for it will constantly be corrected by the new radical generation following it.