Book Review: Strange New World

“The truth is that the last vestiges of a social imaginary shaped by Christianity are rapidly vanishing, and many of us are even now living as strangers in a strange new world.” So begins the conclusion to “Strange New World: How Thinkers and Activists Redefined Identity and Sparked the Sexual Revolution” by Carl Trueman. 

This book provides a fascinating look to answer the question, “How did we end up here?” asked by so many Christians when looking at the world today, and how it has been increasingly shaped by a sexual ethic we do not recognize. Trueman meticulously traces how our modern age has been largely influenced and shaped by the sexual revolution in how we view personhood, identity, and politics. His main thesis is that the society we are living in today is due to the rise of normalizing expressive individualism, and in particular how that has come about due to the sexual revolution. He states that his goal is for us to be able to respond to the times we live in by first understanding them. 

Trueman begins by delving into the idea of the “social imaginary” or cultural consciousness and how that has been shaped by philosophy and thinkers over the course of recent centuries. He discusses philosophers that many of us may have read in school, such as Rousseau, Marx, Nietzsche, and Freud. While this may seem daunting, Trueman concisely summarizes their thoughts and provides a clear delineation of how their ideas emerged and influenced our society. 

Trueman goes on to discuss other influences that are prevalent in our culture: technology and its globalization, rejection of traditional institutions such as nation, church, and family, and the idea that identity is rooted in sexuality. He then examines how these cultural shifts impact the understanding and application of the basic Western ideals of freedom of religion and freedom of speech. 

Trueman concludes his book by giving the Christian Church a call to action on how we can respond to the times and culture that we live in. While his book is largely focused on identifying how the sexual revolution led us to where we are in society today, he does give hope for the Church’s response to the unique cultural moment she finds herself in. One of his concluding comments is that “we can stand strong at this cultural moment and address the specific challenges we face only if our foundations in God’s truth are broad and deep.”  If you find yourself questioning how much culture seems to have changed in the previous decades, or wanting to understand the underlying ideas beneath the sexual ethic common in our society, I would recommend Strange New World. It provides a concise breakdown of the philosophical and cultural ideas that shape our world. As Trueman’s goal states, we can better respond to our world once we understand it.