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.

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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. 

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Has Hitler Won on the Left?

Carl R. Trueman

When members of the LGBTQ lobby express support for Hamas, it is another reminder that many progressives have lost any sense of a moral compass.

Articles

First Things / December 14, 2023

Why Ayaan Hirsi Ali Became a Christian

Carl R. Trueman

Liberal Protestantism is dying, however, with mainline denominations fracturing and disintegrating at a striking rate.

Articles

First Things / November 30, 2023

Punch left, too

Carl R. Trueman

Critics of Trump’s nihilism should not turn a blind eye to progressives’ own more powerful and pervasive nihilism.

WORLD Opinions / November 16, 2023

Protestants Need to go Back to Basics

Carl R. Trueman

Hence, doctrines such as simplicity, immutability, and eternal generation have been redefined or have vanished altogether in certain Protestant communities, even as many who played a role in this maintained a verbal commitment to the Nicene Creed or the Westminster Confession of Faith.

First Things / November 16, 2023

Our children deserved better from us

Carl R. Trueman

We may be seeing the beginning of the end of trans madness.

WORLD Opinions / November 8, 2023

The Future of Manufactured Children

Carl R. Trueman

Last Saturday’s Wall Street Journal featured an article as fascinating as it was disturbing: “What If Men Could Make Their Own Egg Cells?”

First Things / November 2, 2023

Dylan Mulvaney and the Real Clash of Civilizations

Carl R. Trueman

The moral aporias of contemporary progressive politics are becoming more obvious on a regular basis.

First Things / October 19, 2023

Critical Grace Theory

Carl R. Trueman

As debates over critical race theory rage on, both in society and within the church, one important point seems to have been missed by all sides.

First Things / October 16, 2023

Enemies in all directions

Carl R. Trueman

Christianity is the rock against the sand of extremism.

WORLD Opinions / October 16, 2023

Offense is inevitable

Carl R. Trueman

But Christians shouldn’t forget the person behind the argument.

WORLD Opinions / October 5, 2023

When Being Affirming Isn’t Loving

Carl R. Trueman

Two events of the last week witness to a significant shift in the times in which we live.

First Things / October 5, 2023

The Battle for the Body

Carl R. Trueman

Given the chaotic and volatile nature of our culture, what should the church focus on in her teaching?

First Things / September 21, 2023