Remaking the World: How 1776 Created the Post-Christian West

by Andrew Wilson

How 7 Transformational Events in 1776 Paved the Way for Today's Post-Christian West

With dizzying social transformations in everything from gender to social justice, it may seem like there's never been a more tumultuous period in history. But a single year in the late 18th century saw a number of influential transformations—or even revolutions—that changed the social trajectory of the Western world. By understanding how those events influenced today's cultural landscape, Christians can more effectively bear witness to God's truth in a post-Christian age.

In Remaking the World, Andrew Wilson highlights 7 major developments from the year 1776—globalization, the Enlightenment, the Industrial Revolution, the Great Enrichment, the American Revolution, the rise of post-Christianity, and the dawn of Romanticism—and explains their relevance to social changes happening today. Carefully examining key documents and historical figures, Wilson demonstrates how a monumental number of political, philosophical, economic, and industrial changes in the year of America's founding shaped the modern West into a "WEIRDER" Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich, Democratic, Ex-Christian, and Romantic. This thoroughly researched yet accessible audiobook offers a unique historical perspective on modern views of family, government, religion, and morality—giving Christians the historical lens they need to understand today's post-Christian trends and respond accordingly.

Relevant Cultural and Historical Skillfully connects key ideas and events from the past to the present Examines important developments from 1776, including the American Revolution, Thomas Paine's Common Sense, Edward Gibbon's The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire; James Watt's steam engine; Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations; and Immanuel Kant's Critique of Pure Reason Covers key historical figures, including John Adams, Edmund Burke, and David Hume Equips and encourages readers to share the gospel in a post-Christian world A Great Resource for Pastors, Scholars, and Readers of Carl Trueman's The Rise and Triumph of the Modern Self PLEASE When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Christian, Cultural, Audiobook, Philosophy, Theology

360 pages, Hardcover

First published September 1, 2023

About the author

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Reviews

[Cindy Rollins · Rating 5 out of 5]

I found this book to be encouraging when I expected it to be disheartening. Maybe we aren’t in a complete post-Christian world after all. And in Christ we have all the hope!

Rock of ages cleft for me,
Let me hide myself in thee….

[Matt · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wilson traces the origin story—centuries in the making—of our WEIRDER (Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich, Democratic, Ex-Christian, Romanticist) world. Don’t let the subtitle fool you: it’s not mainly about the American Revolution, though that does feature in some ways—for example, in Benjamin Franklin’s revealing edit to the Declaration of Independence (from “we hold these truths to be sacred and undeniable” to “we hold these truths to be self-evident”).

Though Wilson is a master wordsmith who writes with cleverness and verve, at times the book can be conceptually dense. So it’s one to ingest slowly, perhaps alongside a thoughtful friend. But the challenge is worth the payoff.

[Haley Baumeister · Rating 5 out of 5]

A masterful chronology of how our WEIRDER (Western/Educated/Industrialized/Rich/Democratic/Ex-Christian/Romantic) world came about... and why it matters to know this history.

Most of the world for most of time has not thought and lived the way we do in the modern west. Thinking of that past as one of primitive, simple beasts (*they just weren’t enlightened enough, thank goodness for modernity*) fits squarely in C.S. Lewis' definition of "chronological snobbery."

A must-read alongside any other books you may pick up on the defining features of the modern western world.

[Matt Pitts · Rating 5 out of 5]

It lived up to the hype. Impressive, compelling, compulsively readable, and insightful. A wonderful book.

[Elizabeth · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brilliant! There are some nonfiction books I read that change the way I perceive reality; they expand my view of history, ideas, philosophy, religion, etc. This doesn’t happen with many books. The other one that sticks in my mind is Karen Swallow Prior’s book “On Reading Well: Finding the Good Life Through Great Books” which first introduced me to virtues. (Boy, I love that book!)

I could tell early in this book that it was opening up new paths of thought. I could suddenly perceive the cultural water we are swimming in in the 21st century West. Through the book, Andrew Wilson helped me to see how the large currents of history and the trends of ideas have led us to our world today and how radically different we live nowadays compared to the pre-1776 world. I found it fascinating and it really helped me to put more pieces into the puzzle of a bigger worldview than what I grew up with in my current place, time, education, etc. I’m a details person. I need help with the big picture, so I’m thankful to David Kern from the Close Reads podcast for bringing this book to my attention. I may write more in this review as I have time.

[Samuel James · Rating 4 out of 5]

A singular work: a sweeping retelling of modernity’s story from a Christian point of view, showing how the worldview of the West is a comprehensive product of money, education, land, and more. If you’ve ever read the history works of someone like Jared Diamond and wished there were Christians doing that, here’s what you’ve waited for.

[Christian Barrett · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book. Wilson provides thoughtful theological and philosophical context to understanding 1776 and how these foundations have had a direct influence on our culture today. Anyone interested in western civilization, Christianity and culture, and the history of ideas should pick this book up.

[Logan Price · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am surprised by how much I enjoyed this book. I thought it'd be interesting, but I didn't expect it to be fascinating. I've shared many of the stories and insights from this book with other people because I just couldn't keep them to myself! And it was refreshingly well-written. If you enjoy history and culture, then this is a book for you.

[Kevin Halloran · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a fantastic book on many levels. You can read another review like this one for more substance, but I'll share a couple of tongue-in-cheek comments that capture just how sharp a person Wilson has to be to pull this book off.

First, J.D. Greear:

"I secretly hate him, because it is not fair that any one person be that knowledgeable about that many things."

Second, Jake Meador:

"Andrew is a very annoying person. He's a pastor with a PhD in theology. He's written an excellent book on Exodus and another great one on disability and parenting. And then amidst all of that he comes out with my favorite history book of the year which evinces a doctoral level of research throughout. So he's talented and lovely to talk to and a good friend and I have nothing bad to say about him. But when you're a writer having a writer friend like him can be very annoying. It's like when I was trying and failing to learn German and my roommate who already had Hebrew started being able to read academic German after a summer intensive. I was happy for him and pleased to see him doing good work. And also he was annoying. That's all I'm saying."

Indeed! I listened to the audiobook version of the book and had mixed feelings. I would have loved to sit and slowly read a hardback version, but don't currently have the time.

[Laura · Rating 4 out of 5]

Truly fascinating. I’ve been in a reading slump/incredibly busy and it always surprises me which books I end up getting hooked on during periods like that. Books I would normally read and love (literary tomes) are left unread while I finish fascinating, witty historical books. This one is just so well written. Wilson does a great job of re-narrating a story I would have thought I knew. He answers some really interesting questions (why did the great enrichment happen in Europe?) with answers I’d never heard before. I love accessible history books that help give me context for this day and age.

I’m not going to write the full review this book deserves, but I loved that he could refer to The Hunger Games as effortlessly as German philosophers. I loved his vision that Christianity offers the “WEIRDER” world what it longs for.

[Luke Evans · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a stunning book.

[David Glick · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of my favorite books from 2023. I do not know how a pastor writes such a stellar history book. Shades of Tom Holland, in that his historical method is solid but he also wants to speak to modern Western society.

[Michael G · Rating 2 out of 5]

I expected much more of this book than it delivered. I thought it was going to be a relatively original thesis that the events of 1776 wove together to create the world that we live in today. Unfortunately it was not that, rather a collection of interesting facts and stories from around 1776 that certainly in many ways preceded or lead to the world we live in, but without a clear “slam dunk” link. These collections of stories felt quite separate from the back end of the book where the author attempts some (relatively poor) analysis connecting the events of 1776 with Christianity today.

There is also the problem of the author’s impotent and cringeworthy pandering to his, our, age. Spare us the partially informed judgement on colonialism, which seems more aimed at an inclusive “big tent” appeal to an audience than fidelity to truth.

Overall, pretty weak. I take away nothing new that explains the modern age. There was plenty of interesting facts and stories though, which bumps the book up to two stars.

[Ethan Hayward · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was bracing myself for a very staunchly pro western pro Christian history book that denounces the cultural decline we’ve witnessed through the last decades. I could not have been more wrong! This was a very enlightening, and even coverage of the massive shifts in society since the enlightenment. He presents a helpful, objective framework that observes the unprecedented characteristics of our world today that appeared during this time, and explores possible explanations (not just the ones he subscribes to).

For Christians, I recommend without restraint. He actually managed to land the plane here and relate a lot of familiar facts and figures to how we could meet a struggling world with the hope of God’s grace.

Only shortcoming was how shallow some coverage in huge topics like slavery were, but I get the feeling this was intended as a survey so I don’t judge it too harshly there.

[Kris · Rating 4 out of 5]

A creative way to approach a discussion on Western Civilization, but he doesn't really focus on the year 1776 as much as he thinks he does. The first few chapters were the best--showing how close we are to that year, and what remarkable things happened then that had long-lasting influence. Later in the book he analyzes the way that mindsets drastically changed concerning government, industrialization, and the wider concept of romanticism. The book ends with a discussion on ways that Christians can address the fact that Christianity has lost influence in the West.

He references the concept of being WEIRD, see The WEIRDest People in the World: How the West Became Psychologically Peculiar and Particularly Prosperous.

[Drew Norwood · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not bad, but not what I hoped it would be. Remaking the World sets out to answer a broad range of important questions but too often gets bogged down in trivia. In the first chapter, Wilson says that "it is vital, as the Psalms and the Prophets remind us, to remember. . . It can help us understand why our world is the way it is--how it became Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich, Democratic, Ex-Christian, and Romantic, not least through the transformations of 1776--and how to love, live, and thrive in it." He also expresses his reason and goal for the book as helping to answer the questions: "How did believers in this turbulent and transformative era respond to what was happening around them? And what can we learn?" Even though there is a lot of helpful, interesting content in the book, I think the book overall falls short on this score. It seems like Wilson was attempting to write a book in the same vein as Carl Trueman's Rise and Triumph of the Modern Self, or maybe Bob Goudzwaard's Capitalism and Progress, but wasn't quite able to unite the giant scope with precise analysis.

It’s divided into three parts: (1) an introductory section, (2) the ways our world was changed in 1776–how it became WEIRDER—with one chapter devoted to each letter in the acronym, and (3) a final, “so what?”/response section. The first section was excellent; the second section was full of amazing historical coincidences and interesting stories, but poor at actually conveying a meaningful thesis for each topic; and the last section was disconnected and disappointing. As to the main, second section of the book, some chapters are better--more persuasive and compete--than others, but most of them either attempt too much or leave too much ambiguity to be helpful.

[Joseph Leake]

This is a richly interesting book: a detailed and informative overview of the various historical and cultural developments circa 1776 that have made the modern world what it is. In this respect it compares with Carl Trueman's Rise and Triumph of the Modern Self, although Wilson's focus is broader in scope (and Wilson is generally more sensitive and even-handed). All the same, I'm ambivalent about the value of books such as these (Wilson's or Trueman's). They're a double-edged sword. The great value of both books is that they help us see how our own cultural practices and predilections—what we take for granted—are shaped by history: the present-day Western world is not simply the de facto natural and right state of being.

At the same time, the picture offered of the past rings false, or hollow. I never feel less like I understand Romanticism or Enlightenment thought, or grasp the excitement of 18th century scientific developments (or what-have-you), than when I'm reading books such as these that purport to pull back the curtains of time, or of culture, in order to show you "how it all works." That's because what you're being shown is something notional or theoretical rather than fully alive. Wilson is not a dull writer by any means (he excels at compelling and engaging descriptions); but his discussion of past ideas or past movements is shaped by his need to make them explain the present. They have to fit into the puzzle.

The best way I can put it is this: when reading Wilson's book (and Trueman's), I found the connections between past and present to be highly informative, clarifying, and useful; but there also came those times when I said "But this is not what reading the poetry of Wordsworth or Keats is actually like; this is not really conveying the startlingness of Sir William Jones' suggestion that Latin and Greek must come from the same common linguistic source as Sanskrit in India." You tell me what Romanticism "is", or why scientific discoveries "mattered," in order to explain things about the present; but then, informative though those connections are, I can't help but feel that this abstracted description of the past pales before the reality—the delight, the complexity— of The Prelude or Endymion or Grimm's Law of Consonant Changes.

[Gretchen · Rating 4 out of 5]

I had heard nothing but excellent reviews about the quality of this one. I also wondered if it could deliver on the promise of all of the glowing compliments about the winsomeness and pleasant and compelling tone of the author. Now I know that the answer is yes, it certainly does. I learned much and enjoyed myself in the process.

[Kuwabatake · Rating 4 out of 5]

Providence, unerring providence, governs all events. And grace, unchangeable grace, is faithful to its purpose. May we live by faith on both. -- Augustus Toplady

Pretty good read. Like a lot of books like this, the beginning 10% and the ending 5% were really top notch. The middle 85% is simply this grand historical context the author feels he needs to discuss to make his points. Could have been one really good essay. Why has the essay died? Guess that's what substack is for... probably time I get one.

[Zack Clemmons · Rating 4 out of 5]

Delightful. I’m a great admirer of Andrew Wilson, and I aspire to his fecundity of mind and sincerity of interest and dogged broadness of reading, especially in the midst of a devoted pastoral ministry.

[Vaughan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Eloquently woven together history that gives a framework for the current state of Western culture is my cup of tea. A must read if you enjoy history

[Darcy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Before Remaking the World, the most recent Andrew Wilson book I had read was his Sophie and the Heidelberg Cat, an illustrated children’s book about a little girl and a talking cat taking a walk on the rooftops of London. That should tell you something about Wilson’s range.

I’ll be honest, I don’t think I’m smart enough to review this book in any meaningful way, except to say that I loved it, learned so much about so many things (including steam engines?), and laughed far more than I expected to.

Instead, I’ll simply co-sign this endorsement from historian Mark Noll, whose enthusiasm for the book, coupled with the cover design, was the most convincing factor in my decision to read it:

“Andrew Wilson’s book is extraordinary in every way: extraordinary in the breadth of research; extraordinary in the multitude of world-significant events that Wilson identifies for 1776; extraordinary in the depth of his insight on what those events meant (and continue to mean); extraordinary in the verve with which he makes his arguments; and, not least, extraordinary in the persuasive Christian framework in which he sets the book. Remaking the World is a triumph of both creative historical analysis and winsome Christian interpretation.”
—Mark Noll, Research Professor of History, Regent College; author, America’s Book: The Rise and Decline of a Bible Civilization, 1794–1911

[Jonathan · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is, admittedly, within a genre I enjoy: a nonfiction book with a bold premise illustrated by carefully chosen supportive anecdotes, written with infectious energy for the subject matter. Wilson makes the claim that much of what we consider "the modern world" can be traced to 1776 (but not exclusively, or even mainly, in the US). We are WEIRDER (western, educated, industrialized, rich, democratic, ex-Christian, and romantic) in ways that would be foreign to most of our ancestors, and that is worth considering. I listened to the audiobook (read by the author) and was happy to be carried along for the ten-hour runtime. An intriguing book that distills an eventful era into thought-provoking insights.

[Wes Van Fleet · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wilson has written a well-researched and thought book that helps us understand ourselves, our cultures, and how the gospel answers the majority of our questions. Kind of like Truman’s The Rise and Triumph of the Modern Self, Wilson traces 7 themes showing how the West has gotten to where we are today. His final two chapters that assess and answer most of the issues and questions raised in the rest of the book are phenomenal. Interesting and hopeful book.

[Julianna · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is like a historical voyage.

I would recommend it to anyone who desires to better understand western culture + why the world looks the way it does today.

Fascinating historical tidbits that I never knew,

powerful insights on politics,

and a solid Christian perspective that so refreshing.

[Drake Osborn · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5! A great time, honestly. Keen without being poignant, thoughtful but not pedantic. Wilson is a people friendly writer, and this compelling history of world shaping modern ideas and events helped shaped my view of the world for the better, that is, the clearer.

[Ronnie Batchelor · Rating 5 out of 5]

I thought the book exceeded the hype — which is saying something. Such an interesting premise, convincingly argued, and so well written. Loved the many stories and the final sections on opportunities/conclusions. Such a great read. Five actual stars.

[Barry · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was really great. I should text out a proper review at some point, but for now I’ll just tack on this one from TGC:

https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/re...

[Andrew Krom · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wilson reminds Christians that the "Loss of influence is not a cause for panic. The doctrines, experiences, and practices that the church needs today are much the same as the ones she needed in the eighteenth century, and the tenth, and the second. We are responsible for obedience not outcomes, faithfulness not fruit; if we do not see the results we used to by praying, worshipping, reading Scripture, serving the poor, preaching the gospel, sharing the sacraments, and loving one another, we carry on with those things regardless and walk by faith not by sight." (288)

This book was very encouraging. As I was reading through this book with a friend we kept referring to it as a "connector book" because it connected aspects of history and philosophy with theology that we did not initially connect together. The book's argument was strong and cohesive, the only chapter that seems like an outlier is chapter 3. The majority of the book seems to be arguing that culture and worldview made a WEIRDER culture, but the 3rd chapter argued that it was geography.

Overall, this was an excellent book and I am glad I read it. Also, the book is 360 pp not 473 that GoodReads currently has listed as of April 2024.

[Elizabeth Santelmann · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a book gave me a biography reading list a mile long.

Despite seeming like it might be about the Revolutionary War it’s written by a pastor from the United Kingdom. It’s a broader examination of what happened at the end of the 18th century that led to such global change.

Wilson argues that our post-Christian culture was born in the 18th century and not modern times. He argues against the fact that the dark ages were “dark” and that many things that led to the success of the Industrial Revolution had their roots in middle age discovery.

He wrestles with the success, crimes, culture, and eventual global superpower of the western world and how that comes in contrast with other previous regional superpowers.

The main theme it seems though is that we aren’t truly post-Christian in the west. Many things that we assume to be “natural order” aren’t really that. By looking at other times, places, and cultures we can better understand what is “natural” and what is from Christian influence. Once we have our Christian baseline, we then can see what parts of our cultural belief are a reversion to pagan belief and which are secular humanism and which are invisibility retained Christianity.

Again I’d probably have to read this 3+ times to “get it all” but at the end that’s what I’m chewing on.