“Apologetics today is more about explaining to the church what is going on in the world than explaining to the world what the church teaches.”
This is a view held by author, theologian and ecclesiastical historian Carl Trueman. In his latest book The Rise and Triumph of the Modern Self (2020), he investigates the foundations and developments of the current secular age and sexual revolution as symptoms, rather than the causes, of the human search for identity.
In this latest interview, Peter and Jo peel back some of the underlying ideologies of the day, and ask Carl how the church can navigate the opportunities and challenges of this ‘cultural climate change’ in which we are immersed.
Interested in reading The Rise and Triumph of the Modern Self? Purchase it from SPCK here.
ACT I (00:00)
01:16 What it means to be human and introducing The Rise and Triumph of the Modern Self.
03:45 Expressive individualism: the water in which we swim. What has the formation of culture in the secular age looked like?
10:16 How ethical discourse is played out in the absence of metanarratives.
ACT II (14:00)
14:01 The turn to the self and its influence on the church’s idea of responsibility.
20:30 Postmodernism and ‘the death of God’ – are we actually free?
25:49 Real authenticity looks like acknowledging our relationship to others.
ACT III (34:38)
35:29 The church must respond to these challenges by becoming a more loving and stronger community.
39:10 Are we acknowledging the church’s complicity in consumerism?
41:44 We settle for authenticity when God offers us integrity.
