
Carl R. Trueman
Fellow
Carl R. Trueman is a fellow in EPPC’s Evangelicals in Civic Life Program, where his work focuses on helping civic leaders and policy makers better understand the deep roots of our current cultural malaise. In addition to his scholarship on the intellectual foundations of expressive individualism and the sexual revolution, Trueman is also interested in the origins, rise, and current use of critical theory by progressives. He serves as a professor at Grove City College.
Carl R. Trueman is a fellow in EPPC’s Evangelicals in Civic Life Program, where his work focuses on helping civic leaders and policy makers better understand the deep roots of our current cultural malaise. In addition to his scholarship on the intellectual foundations of expressive individualism and the sexual revolution, Trueman is also interested in the origins, rise, and current use of critical theory by progressives. He serves as a professor at Grove City College.
Trueman is the author of the best-selling, award-winning 2020 book The Rise and Triumph of the Modern Self: Cultural Amnesia, Expressive Individualism, and the Road to the Sexual Revolution. Born and raised in England, Trueman is a graduate of the Universities of Cambridge (M.A.) and Aberdeen (Ph.D), and has taught on the faculties of the Universities of Nottingham and Aberdeen before moving to the United States in 2001 to teach at Westminster Theological Seminary (PA). In 2017-18 he was the William E. Simon Visiting Fellow in Religion and Public Life in the James Madison Program at Princeton University. Since 2018, he has served as a professor at Grove City College in the Calderwood School of Arts and Humanities.
Trueman’s earlier academic work focused on Reformation and post-Reformation Protestantism, particularly the reception of Martin Luther’s thought in the English context and also the use of late medieval philosophy by seventeenth century Reformed thinkers. More recently, he has studied the rise of modern therapeutic culture, specifically as it shapes popular attitudes to sexual morality, gender identity, and freedom of speech and religion.
Trueman’s latest book, the best-selling The Rise and Triumph of the Modern Self, explores the nature of the sexual revolution against the background of the development of expressive individualism. It has been described by Rod Dreher, writing in the Wall Street Journal as “one of the most important religious books of the decade” and by Ben Shapiro as “the most important book of our moment.” A concise version of his argument, Strange New World, is due to be published in February 2022, with a foreword authored by EPPC President Ryan T. Anderson.
Trueman has published widely, with scholarly articles in books from Oxford University Press, Cambridge University Press, and Brill. His commentaries on contemporary issues appear regularly in First Things, where he is a contributing editor, and he has also published in Public Discourse, Deseret News, and Catholic World Report. Trueman has had a longstanding interest in Marxist theory and he is currently working on a book examining the origins of critical theory in the western Marxist tradition of the early twentieth century.
Into the Anthropological Chaos
Carl R. Trueman

To stay with Revoice is not merely to legitimate more than subtle distinctions about sexual identity.
Articles
WORLD Opinions / October 27, 2022
Gay Vs. Queer
Carl R. Trueman

The winners and losers may change, but the game is always the same.
Articles
First Things / October 27, 2022
Pride, Promiscuity, and Preventable Illness
Carl R. Trueman

When public health collides with identity politics.
Articles
WORLD Opinions / October 20, 2022
Why Bros Failed at the Box Office
Carl R. Trueman

The genre of romantic tragedy depends upon a specific moral framework. So does the genre of romantic comedy.
Articles
First Things / October 13, 2022
When Critical Theory and Perverse Sexuality Collide
Carl R. Trueman

Predictably, pedophilia emerges from the swamp of ideologies.
Articles
WORLD Opinions / October 11, 2022
Pushing Back Against Barbarism
Carl R. Trueman

Brittany Aldean’s take on transgenderism was inept, but she spoke more truthfully than her opponents.
Articles
WORLD Opinions / September 29, 2022
A Rift in the Rainbow Alliance
Carl R. Trueman

Christians worried about their children and the moral liquefaction of the world have found some unusual allies.
Articles
First Things / September 29, 2022
An Unavoidable Collision
Carl R. Trueman

Different visions of what it means to be human make conflict between Christian institutions and the world inevitable.
Articles
WORLD Opinions / September 29, 2022
The Quiet Faith of Queen Elizabeth II
Carl R. Trueman

She saw the monarchy as something larger than herself, something to which her personal interests had to be subordinated.
Articles
First Things / September 8, 2022
The Cancellation of Dr. Nassif
Carl R. Trueman

Perhaps it is time to dust off those old Foucault volumes and revisit his ideas.
Articles
First Things / September 2, 2022