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.
Abortion and the Cowardice of Men
Carl R. Trueman
Three selfish assumptions dismiss any thought of obligation toward another living human being.
Articles
WORLD Opinions / July 21, 2022
The Tragedy of Modern Autonomy
Carl R. Trueman
Abortion and sexual ethics built upon individual desire rather than social responsibility.
Articles
WORLD Opinions / July 21, 2022
The Myth of the Modern Self
Carl R. Trueman
In the West, we are furious that our bodies place limits upon us, pointing out that we have natural obligations to others and cannot be whatever and whoever we wish.
Articles
First Things / July 21, 2022
Christians Should Rejoice Over Dobbs
Carl R. Trueman
I had always assumed that the LGBTQ+ movement would provide the trigger for the fracturing of American Christianity, not abortion.
Articles
First Things / July 7, 2022
Down Goes Roe
Carl R. Trueman
And with it, a classic statement of expressive individualism.
Articles
WORLD Opinions / July 5, 2022
Tom Hanks Gets Empathy Wrong
Carl R. Trueman
Yet in declaring that it is inappropriate for a straight actor to play a gay man on screen, Hanks negates the importance of the shared humanity that makes him empathetic in the first place.
First Things / June 23, 2022
The Culture of Sentimentality
Carl R. Trueman
Sentiment, rather than clear thinking, tends to guide so much of our ethical debate today.
Articles
WORLD Opinions / June 21, 2022
Queer Nation is No Nation at All
Carl R. Trueman
For a flag to be a powerful, sacred symbol of unity and purpose, it has to symbolize a real common sense of unity.
Articles
First Things / June 9, 2022
Welcome to Pride Month, Christian
Carl R. Trueman
Social justice demands our opposition to its celebration and symbols
Articles
WORLD Opinions / June 2, 2022
Is God a Therapist?
Carl R. Trueman
Only as we bow in awe before such the Triune God of glory will our present sufferings seem but light and momentary. Only then will holiness be the obvious mark of the church.
Articles
First Things / May 26, 2022