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The Desecration of Man: How the Rejection of God Degrades Our Humanity
From the author of The Rise and Triumph of the Modern Self, an account of how the rejection of the imago Dei is unraveling Western culture and how we might recover what it means to be truly human
As church attendance falls, suicide rates climb, and birth rates plummet, Christian pundits have suggested disenchantment and the loss of tradition are to blame for our spiritual malaise. But what if the problem is both much simpler and much more serious?
In The Desecration of Man, Carl Trueman argues that modern man's crisis of meaning stems from a rejection of a simple fact—that he was made in the image of God. Unmoored from the basic moral fact that secures human dignity, we violently disrespect our own minds and bodies through abortion, pornography, casual sex, gender transitions, and more—and in this disrespect we blaspheme against God himself, with devastating practical and spiritual consequences.
With gentle pastoral wisdom, deep insight into church history, and an impressive command of philosophical genealogies, The Desecration of Man speaks to those troubled by the spiritual sickness of our time and points toward consecration to a God who is alive and loving as a solution. The Early Church triumphed over Rome because it offered life in place of death. It is time for modern Christians to offer the same kind of vision.
As church attendance falls, suicide rates climb, and birth rates plummet, Christian pundits have suggested disenchantment and the loss of tradition are to blame for our spiritual malaise. But what if the problem is both much simpler and much more serious?
In The Desecration of Man, Carl Trueman argues that modern man's crisis of meaning stems from a rejection of a simple fact—that he was made in the image of God. Unmoored from the basic moral fact that secures human dignity, we violently disrespect our own minds and bodies through abortion, pornography, casual sex, gender transitions, and more—and in this disrespect we blaspheme against God himself, with devastating practical and spiritual consequences.
With gentle pastoral wisdom, deep insight into church history, and an impressive command of philosophical genealogies, The Desecration of Man speaks to those troubled by the spiritual sickness of our time and points toward consecration to a God who is alive and loving as a solution. The Early Church triumphed over Rome because it offered life in place of death. It is time for modern Christians to offer the same kind of vision.
256 pages, Hardcover
Published April 7, 2026
195 people are currently reading
974 people want to read
About the author
Carl R. Trueman
96 books556 followersCarl R. Trueman (PhD, University of Aberdeen) is the Paul Woolley Professor of Church History at Westminster Theological Seminary and pastor of Cornerstone Presbyterian Church (OPC) in Ambler, Pennsylvania. He was editor of Themelios for nine years, has authored or edited more than a dozen books, and has contributed to multiple publications including the Dictionary of Historical Theology and The Cambridge Companion to Reformation Theology.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 51 reviews
April 16, 2026
Our culture has, in Nietzsche’s words, killed God. Yet this comes at a high price, for now we must create not only our own systems of morality but also our own meaning. Those who kill God must themselves become gods: a weight we were never made to carry. Hence the clamoring for significance via radical expressive individualism we see today. The result of all this means that the ascendant heresies of the moment are anthropological. No longer do people debate whether Christ was divine or how exactly the hypostatic union works. Adrift from transcendental moorings, they rather debate whether men can become women, all the while ironically claiming that both categories are mere constructions. The only hope is a return to the creed, cult, and codes of revealed Scripture. It really is the only way out.
February 9, 2026
Poignant, powerful and persuasive. We are men and women made in the image of God. We are not objects to be used or manipulated. Our churches must be teaching these truths and her people must be living them out in a world that desecrates the image of God.
Consecration is the answer to the desecration of man.
“Anthropology is inseparable from theology…
We cannot believe the Apostles’ Creed, recite it in church on a Sunday, and then treat others with snarling contempt for the rest of the week.“
Consecration is the answer to the desecration of man.
“Anthropology is inseparable from theology…
We cannot believe the Apostles’ Creed, recite it in church on a Sunday, and then treat others with snarling contempt for the rest of the week.“
April 14, 2026
Compelling, as usual and as expected. This is a wonderful culmination and summation of his former works, yet he does sharply elevate his assessment of secularism from mere disenchantment to something more sinister: desecration with "ecstatic enthusiasm." Providing a compelling diagnosis and remedy, he ultimately claims that there is no third way between ordinary Christianity and nihilism.
May 4, 2026
Easily five stars. This book is simply astounding. It is a relief to hear the truth spoken. Trueman, in the core of this book, states that in rejecting God, modern man has not (as they think) liberated himself; they have instead desecrated themselves, and the only answer is not re-enchantment but reconsecration through the creed, worship, and moral life of the local church.
The root cause is simple: modern man's crisis of meaning stems from a rejection of the fact that he was made in the image of God. Unmoored from the imago Dei, human dignity loses its foundation, and what follows is not merely confusion but self-destruction.
Trueman traces this desecration through three specific areas. On the sexual revolution, he argues that it has [and inevitably will keep doing so] reduced people, especially women, to objects that exist solely for the use of others. Pornography is his clearest example: it takes the mysterious, creative sexual act and commodifies it for third-party consumption, stripping it of personhood entirely. On reproductive technology, children become commodities to be bought and sold rather than gifts received. On death and mortality, the culture of desecration has rapidly embraced assisted suicide and euthanasia, treating the end of life as simply another arena for autonomous self-determination.
His proposed solution is what he calls creed, cult, and code, the true beliefs, practices, and morality of historic Christianity, as found within the local church. Re-enchantment alone is insufficient. The modern crisis of anthropology must find its solution among religious communities worshiping in local contexts, for it is in worship that human beings are brought into the presence of the God in whose image they are made. The answer to desecration is consecration, a full return to the living God through the life of the church.
The root cause is simple: modern man's crisis of meaning stems from a rejection of the fact that he was made in the image of God. Unmoored from the imago Dei, human dignity loses its foundation, and what follows is not merely confusion but self-destruction.
Trueman traces this desecration through three specific areas. On the sexual revolution, he argues that it has [and inevitably will keep doing so] reduced people, especially women, to objects that exist solely for the use of others. Pornography is his clearest example: it takes the mysterious, creative sexual act and commodifies it for third-party consumption, stripping it of personhood entirely. On reproductive technology, children become commodities to be bought and sold rather than gifts received. On death and mortality, the culture of desecration has rapidly embraced assisted suicide and euthanasia, treating the end of life as simply another arena for autonomous self-determination.
His proposed solution is what he calls creed, cult, and code, the true beliefs, practices, and morality of historic Christianity, as found within the local church. Re-enchantment alone is insufficient. The modern crisis of anthropology must find its solution among religious communities worshiping in local contexts, for it is in worship that human beings are brought into the presence of the God in whose image they are made. The answer to desecration is consecration, a full return to the living God through the life of the church.
March 27, 2026
3.5 stars, rounded up.
This is a solid, if not terribly thorough, diagnostic of what has gone so wrong with modern Western culture. Trueman identifies the issue not so much as one of disenchantment, which has proven a popular scapegoat of late, but of desecration: we used to believe that humanity is created in the image of God but no longer, thus forfeiting the foundation of a morality that treats others as valuable subjects rather than useful objects. This has resulted not merely in a loss of beauty and mystery (disenchantment) but in actual reveling in the ugliness of defilement and transgression(desecration). Man has not in fact succeeded in rendering himself godlike but rather has made himself nothing, reducing himself to something worse than dirt. We see the evidence of this in the growing popularity of euthanasia; the transformation of abortion from regrettable but necessary evil (“safe, legal, rare”) to commendable, casual, positive good; the gnostic alienation of the mind/feelings from the physical body; and the widespread use and approval of such things as IVF and surrogacy.
The remedy for such desecration, the commodification and worse of humanity, cannot be mere re-enchantment; it must be reconsecration. And this has “a definite shape”; it can only be accomplished through a return to Christianity in its fullness of “creed, cult, and code”.
One of the most salient and helpful parts for me was how Trueman traced the development of ideas leading us to where we are today — discussing Nietsche, Kant, Freud, Descartes, Simone de Beauvoir, Marx, Luther, Rousseau, Jonathan Edwards, Dawkins, and Scruton, etc along the way. And the single most incisive point for me was his explanation of how today identity is anchored in one’s feelings and desires, whereas for most of history, it was anchored in one’s community and behavior. Look around and you can see the dismal result of this almost everywhere.
But while I’m nearly in complete agreement with Trueman’s argument and perspective, I do think the book itself is underdeveloped. I think he fails to make a positive case for things he takes for granted. I agree with him that how we die, how we express sexuality, and how we build families and have children are all central to what it means to be human and therefore “sacred”, but I wanted him to explain why and how this is the case. Or even to explain what it means for something to be sacred. As is, I think his audience is very narrow: people like Dawkins and Scruton who want to preserve the morality or trappings of Christianity without assenting to its truth claims, as well as “Christians” who embrace the truth claims and aesthetics but refuse to actually abide by Christian morality. Such readers as these will certainly find themselves challenged by Trueman’s charge that Christianity must be believed and lived in its fullness in order to pull us out of the muck we’ve made for ourselves.
*ARC provided by NetGalley*
This is a solid, if not terribly thorough, diagnostic of what has gone so wrong with modern Western culture. Trueman identifies the issue not so much as one of disenchantment, which has proven a popular scapegoat of late, but of desecration: we used to believe that humanity is created in the image of God but no longer, thus forfeiting the foundation of a morality that treats others as valuable subjects rather than useful objects. This has resulted not merely in a loss of beauty and mystery (disenchantment) but in actual reveling in the ugliness of defilement and transgression(desecration). Man has not in fact succeeded in rendering himself godlike but rather has made himself nothing, reducing himself to something worse than dirt. We see the evidence of this in the growing popularity of euthanasia; the transformation of abortion from regrettable but necessary evil (“safe, legal, rare”) to commendable, casual, positive good; the gnostic alienation of the mind/feelings from the physical body; and the widespread use and approval of such things as IVF and surrogacy.
The remedy for such desecration, the commodification and worse of humanity, cannot be mere re-enchantment; it must be reconsecration. And this has “a definite shape”; it can only be accomplished through a return to Christianity in its fullness of “creed, cult, and code”.
One of the most salient and helpful parts for me was how Trueman traced the development of ideas leading us to where we are today — discussing Nietsche, Kant, Freud, Descartes, Simone de Beauvoir, Marx, Luther, Rousseau, Jonathan Edwards, Dawkins, and Scruton, etc along the way. And the single most incisive point for me was his explanation of how today identity is anchored in one’s feelings and desires, whereas for most of history, it was anchored in one’s community and behavior. Look around and you can see the dismal result of this almost everywhere.
But while I’m nearly in complete agreement with Trueman’s argument and perspective, I do think the book itself is underdeveloped. I think he fails to make a positive case for things he takes for granted. I agree with him that how we die, how we express sexuality, and how we build families and have children are all central to what it means to be human and therefore “sacred”, but I wanted him to explain why and how this is the case. Or even to explain what it means for something to be sacred. As is, I think his audience is very narrow: people like Dawkins and Scruton who want to preserve the morality or trappings of Christianity without assenting to its truth claims, as well as “Christians” who embrace the truth claims and aesthetics but refuse to actually abide by Christian morality. Such readers as these will certainly find themselves challenged by Trueman’s charge that Christianity must be believed and lived in its fullness in order to pull us out of the muck we’ve made for ourselves.
*ARC provided by NetGalley*
April 22, 2026
Just superb. Better than ‘Rise and Triumph,’ equal parts clarifying, heart-breaking, and beautiful.
“My argument has been that modern man’s attempts at [self-deification] have led not to his deification but his desecration. In shattering the moral limits, the obligations, and the teleology that originally rested on an understanding of man as the divine image, we have paradoxically reduced ourselves…we have desecrated humanity.” (187)
The answer? Consecration through our creed (renewed commitment to Christian teaching on God and man), cult (individual and communal practices of embodied worship), and code (reimagine of our practices of life in modern world).
“My argument has been that modern man’s attempts at [self-deification] have led not to his deification but his desecration. In shattering the moral limits, the obligations, and the teleology that originally rested on an understanding of man as the divine image, we have paradoxically reduced ourselves…we have desecrated humanity.” (187)
The answer? Consecration through our creed (renewed commitment to Christian teaching on God and man), cult (individual and communal practices of embodied worship), and code (reimagine of our practices of life in modern world).
April 27, 2026
The central issue of our age is anthropology. The central question is: what is man? And there are essentially two - and only two - answers. Nietzsche’s Madman calls us to a life without limits, boundaries, and purpose - i.e. desecration. But it will cost us our humanity in the process. Christ, on the other hand, calls us to a life of faith (creed), worship (cult), and obedience (code) in community (church) - i.e. a life consecrated to God. There is no third option - all else is nihilism.
This is an excellent follow-up to Strange New World, and though it covers some familiar territory (e.g. expressive individualism), it is more prescriptive and less historically focused than its predecessor.
This is an excellent follow-up to Strange New World, and though it covers some familiar territory (e.g. expressive individualism), it is more prescriptive and less historically focused than its predecessor.
April 23, 2026
Trueman uses Nietzsche’s Madman to explore the vacuum at the heart of resurgent cultural Christianity.
Those who wish to retain the moral and ethical building blocks of the West without connection to a living faith are definitionally nihilists- they possess the courage to kill God but not the courage to achieve godhood through independently derived moral values.
One cannot act as if Christianity is true - one must believe that Christianity is true.
Those who wish to retain the moral and ethical building blocks of the West without connection to a living faith are definitionally nihilists- they possess the courage to kill God but not the courage to achieve godhood through independently derived moral values.
One cannot act as if Christianity is true - one must believe that Christianity is true.
April 27, 2026
I don’t know the last time I finished a book in a single week. Between Ivan and Alyosha consuming what felt like the entirety of my intellectual bandwidth for all of Lent (and into the first few weeks of Eastertide) and keeping Lochie alive required whatever ten brain cells I had left. Lately, I haven’t read nearly as much as I usually do. I’ve gone from finishing one or two books a week to struggling through one or two books a month. It seems Dostoevsky and parenthood have formed an unholy alliance against my Goodreads goal and I am very much not on track to hit my numbers.
“The Desecration of Man” felt urgent. It demanded immediate attention. It needed to be read in as few sittings as possible. Not because the material is enjoyable, in fact it was grotesque and made me want to turn away many times. But because the issues it addresses are so pressing.
In the way we’ve come to expect from Trueman, he identifies cultural realities many of us can sense but struggle to put into words. Then he names them with remarkable clarity and tackles them head on. He never minces words when confronting massive cultural problems. And he speaks with academic clarity and pastoral care.
Before going any further, two acknowledgements are necessary. First, shoutout to the Colson Center for giving away free copies of this book. Without that, this book probably would have sat on my reading list for a few more months.
Second, shoutout to Spotify for carrying the audiobook, narrated by Trueman himself. Parenting Lochie has forced me into far more audiobook supplementation than I would normally admit. But this message felt pressing enough for me to set aside my literary snobbery for a moment. Desperate times call for desperate measures.
Trueman’s central argument is simple. Our society has desecrated what it means to be human. Many of the circles I inhabit diagnose our cultural moment with words like “disillusionment”, “disembodiment”, and “disenfranchisement”. Those words describe something real. People feel detached from institutions, communities, and even their own bodies in our postmodern, postliberal world. I mean my own philosophy of ministry document says that “I aim to reenchant the faith for a disillusioned people.” But Trueman argues those words don’t go far enough! So he offers a better one “desecration.”
Modern society hasn’t merely drifted into disenchantment. It has actively desecrated the Image of God. We no longer treat humanity as sacred, given, and dignified by divine design. Instead, we treat the self as endlessly malleable raw material that we can reconstruct according to personal desire. Trueman argues that we have turned the self into a commodity to be bought, sold, and traded.
And so Truman sets society against two men. One is Jesus Christ and the other is Nietzsche's Mad Man. And this is where Trueman shines. He shows that our debates over sexuality, abortion, pornography, gender ideology, and transhumanist dreams do not exist in isolation. They all flow downstream from a deeper question. What is a human being? Is it the image bearer of the a loving divine, or is it a commodity to be traded on the market?
And if humanity amounts to nothing more than biological matter animated by preference and protected by consensus, then of course we turn our bodies into tools. Of course we self author our identities. Of course we treat limits as things to be beat into submission. And of course we treat inconveniences as death itself.
A world that no longer sees people as sacred eventually starts treating people as disposable. That thought should chill us! We learn the world is fallen two pages into the Bible. And anyone who has ever turned on the news for 5 seconds instinctively knows this. When my dad died, someone had to identify his body. Someone had to look at his dead corpse and say this is the man who was in life known as Enzo McEwen. And too often we think of the problems of the secular world as something that is far off. My Christian community doesn’t struggle with this, how can it affect me? But Trueman makes us look at the corpse. He forces us to look at a problem we have refused to acknowledge for far too long. This is a dead society which in life was hurting but at least governed by basic ideals of Christendom.
What I appreciated most about this book, however, is that Trueman refuses to end in cultural despair. He doesn’t sit in nostalgia for a world that never existed, like so many conservative commentators are tempted to do. And he doesn’t call Christians to become angry culture warriors yelling into the internet void, which is refreshing because the internet already has plenty of those and none of them seem particularly happy. Instead, he calls the church to consecration.
The answer to a desecrated world is a church that takes worship seriously. A church that forms people through liturgy, sacrament, doctrine, discipline, and ordinary embodied faithfulness. Christians won’t defeat modern fragmentation by posting better takes online. We resist by becoming people shaped by Word, sacrament, prayer, and community. By becoming holy.
That may disappoint people searching for a grand political strategy. But Scripture has always favored ordinary means. Bread, wine, water, preaching, and prayer. God seems remarkably unbothered by our desire for flashier solutions.
And if I’m honest, I see the need for that reminder everywhere around me. I see young men drifting between nihilism and outrage, discipled more by podcasts than pastors. I see marriages buckling under the weight of expressive individualism. I see parents terrified that faithfulness alone won’t be enough to prepare their children for the world they’re inheriting. I see churches tempted to mirror the culture’s panic rather than offer a distinctly Christian peace.
And if I’m really honest, I can see traces of the same impulses in my own heart. The temptation to confuse cynicism with discernment. The temptation to believe one more article, one more podcast episode, or one more perfectly crafted argument will somehow steady a world that feels unstable. It won’t. Christ will.
Christ still builds His church. Christ still saves sinners. Christ still sanctifies ordinary saints through ordinary means. And Christ still reigns over a world that often looks like it has forgotten Him. The world may mock, distort, and desecrate the image of God in man, but it cannot erase it. And the same Christ who restores all things is still restoring people.
And as we wait for the King to make all things new, may we remember that our bootstraps cannot save us. Our political strategies can not save our fallen world. A million hours of Johnathan Haidt’s content cannot lift us out of despair. Only our sovereign God can. Come quickly, Lord Jesus. Amen.
“The Desecration of Man” felt urgent. It demanded immediate attention. It needed to be read in as few sittings as possible. Not because the material is enjoyable, in fact it was grotesque and made me want to turn away many times. But because the issues it addresses are so pressing.
In the way we’ve come to expect from Trueman, he identifies cultural realities many of us can sense but struggle to put into words. Then he names them with remarkable clarity and tackles them head on. He never minces words when confronting massive cultural problems. And he speaks with academic clarity and pastoral care.
Before going any further, two acknowledgements are necessary. First, shoutout to the Colson Center for giving away free copies of this book. Without that, this book probably would have sat on my reading list for a few more months.
Second, shoutout to Spotify for carrying the audiobook, narrated by Trueman himself. Parenting Lochie has forced me into far more audiobook supplementation than I would normally admit. But this message felt pressing enough for me to set aside my literary snobbery for a moment. Desperate times call for desperate measures.
Trueman’s central argument is simple. Our society has desecrated what it means to be human. Many of the circles I inhabit diagnose our cultural moment with words like “disillusionment”, “disembodiment”, and “disenfranchisement”. Those words describe something real. People feel detached from institutions, communities, and even their own bodies in our postmodern, postliberal world. I mean my own philosophy of ministry document says that “I aim to reenchant the faith for a disillusioned people.” But Trueman argues those words don’t go far enough! So he offers a better one “desecration.”
Modern society hasn’t merely drifted into disenchantment. It has actively desecrated the Image of God. We no longer treat humanity as sacred, given, and dignified by divine design. Instead, we treat the self as endlessly malleable raw material that we can reconstruct according to personal desire. Trueman argues that we have turned the self into a commodity to be bought, sold, and traded.
And so Truman sets society against two men. One is Jesus Christ and the other is Nietzsche's Mad Man. And this is where Trueman shines. He shows that our debates over sexuality, abortion, pornography, gender ideology, and transhumanist dreams do not exist in isolation. They all flow downstream from a deeper question. What is a human being? Is it the image bearer of the a loving divine, or is it a commodity to be traded on the market?
And if humanity amounts to nothing more than biological matter animated by preference and protected by consensus, then of course we turn our bodies into tools. Of course we self author our identities. Of course we treat limits as things to be beat into submission. And of course we treat inconveniences as death itself.
A world that no longer sees people as sacred eventually starts treating people as disposable. That thought should chill us! We learn the world is fallen two pages into the Bible. And anyone who has ever turned on the news for 5 seconds instinctively knows this. When my dad died, someone had to identify his body. Someone had to look at his dead corpse and say this is the man who was in life known as Enzo McEwen. And too often we think of the problems of the secular world as something that is far off. My Christian community doesn’t struggle with this, how can it affect me? But Trueman makes us look at the corpse. He forces us to look at a problem we have refused to acknowledge for far too long. This is a dead society which in life was hurting but at least governed by basic ideals of Christendom.
What I appreciated most about this book, however, is that Trueman refuses to end in cultural despair. He doesn’t sit in nostalgia for a world that never existed, like so many conservative commentators are tempted to do. And he doesn’t call Christians to become angry culture warriors yelling into the internet void, which is refreshing because the internet already has plenty of those and none of them seem particularly happy. Instead, he calls the church to consecration.
The answer to a desecrated world is a church that takes worship seriously. A church that forms people through liturgy, sacrament, doctrine, discipline, and ordinary embodied faithfulness. Christians won’t defeat modern fragmentation by posting better takes online. We resist by becoming people shaped by Word, sacrament, prayer, and community. By becoming holy.
That may disappoint people searching for a grand political strategy. But Scripture has always favored ordinary means. Bread, wine, water, preaching, and prayer. God seems remarkably unbothered by our desire for flashier solutions.
And if I’m honest, I see the need for that reminder everywhere around me. I see young men drifting between nihilism and outrage, discipled more by podcasts than pastors. I see marriages buckling under the weight of expressive individualism. I see parents terrified that faithfulness alone won’t be enough to prepare their children for the world they’re inheriting. I see churches tempted to mirror the culture’s panic rather than offer a distinctly Christian peace.
And if I’m really honest, I can see traces of the same impulses in my own heart. The temptation to confuse cynicism with discernment. The temptation to believe one more article, one more podcast episode, or one more perfectly crafted argument will somehow steady a world that feels unstable. It won’t. Christ will.
Christ still builds His church. Christ still saves sinners. Christ still sanctifies ordinary saints through ordinary means. And Christ still reigns over a world that often looks like it has forgotten Him. The world may mock, distort, and desecrate the image of God in man, but it cannot erase it. And the same Christ who restores all things is still restoring people.
And as we wait for the King to make all things new, may we remember that our bootstraps cannot save us. Our political strategies can not save our fallen world. A million hours of Johnathan Haidt’s content cannot lift us out of despair. Only our sovereign God can. Come quickly, Lord Jesus. Amen.
April 27, 2026
What is man? What does it mean to be human? If we’ve killed God and find ourselves dancing on his grave, we’re profaning what was once considered sacred and, with the vacuum that’s been created, self-creatively making deities of ourselves. But what if, as the wise man said, “There is a way that seems right to a man, but the end of that way is death”?
And what if we’re not objects? What if we’re subjects afforded dignity by being created in the image of God? What if God is not dead, and the only shot we’ve got at the pursuit of truth and beauty and goodness is God-glorification for our joy as taught in the historic, orthodox Christian faith?
How can we rediscover what it means to be men and women of whom God is mindful, who dwells among us and crowns us, “in Christ” with glory and honor?
Trueman reveals to creatures that there is a Person more significant than ourselves — the Creator that made us.
What if we can move from desecration to consecration?
Through Creed, and Cult, and Code, Trueman argues that slowly, as a culture, we can find our way back to exclaiming, “O Lord our Lord, how excellent is your name in all the earth!”
And what if we’re not objects? What if we’re subjects afforded dignity by being created in the image of God? What if God is not dead, and the only shot we’ve got at the pursuit of truth and beauty and goodness is God-glorification for our joy as taught in the historic, orthodox Christian faith?
How can we rediscover what it means to be men and women of whom God is mindful, who dwells among us and crowns us, “in Christ” with glory and honor?
Trueman reveals to creatures that there is a Person more significant than ourselves — the Creator that made us.
What if we can move from desecration to consecration?
Through Creed, and Cult, and Code, Trueman argues that slowly, as a culture, we can find our way back to exclaiming, “O Lord our Lord, how excellent is your name in all the earth!”
April 15, 2026
Dr Carl Trueman is perhaps the sharpest and most cogent historian and social critic since Christopher Lasch. And The Desecration of Man is a profound prognosis of the ill health of many nations in the global north in the 21st century.
Throughout The Desecration of Man, Trueman asks an array of fundamental questions about life, death, transhumanism, the sexual revolution, bioethics, and more.
The big picture of the book presents desecration and consecration as an alternative to the Weberian image of a move from enchantment to disenchantment.
Carl argues, like William Cavanuagh in The Migration of the Holy, that this is illusory. The world was never fundamentally disenchanted.
The world became enchanted with the state and the market, with slick politicians and party promises, with Amazon packages, Starbucks, and smart phones.
Furthermore, if we accept the dubious hypothesis of a disenchanted world, Christians will often proffer re-enchantment as an alternative. This has been the approach of lesser Christian writers such as Rod Dreher.
Au contraire, Dr Trueman says the common notion of 'enchantment' is too vague and Carl lays out a helpful Christian schema of creed, code, and cult in its stead. These are all part of the consecration of the world. It is quite a simple little trifecta of course, but it is remarkable just how few Christians are involved with all three. The result is disintegration within the church, a real weakening of the body, and makes us vulnerable to the major cultural ailment of desecration.
Trueman looks at nominal Christians who may have the 'cult' element nailed down to some degree, enjoying the aesthetics of the Christian faith, the beauty of her arts, and so on but who do not really believe it. They do not believe that this peculiar near-eastern man, Yeshua from the little town of Nazareth is who He says He is - the God of the universe, who created the earth, the moon, the stars, black holes, and all sorts.
While an admirer in many ways, Carl refers to Roger Scruton as an example of this focus on cult. From my conversations with Dr Mark Dooley, a friend of Roger's and author of several books about him, this may not be accurate about the great English philosopher.
Whether or not it is true about Roger in particular, Carl's major point stands and there are some out there who do meet this description unfortunately.
Others may appreciate the 'code' of the Christian way, its basic moral worldview, and call themselves 'cultural Christians', especially in opposition to Islam and Islamism, but lack that distinct Christian creedal imperative and the beauty of the liturgical life. We see this even in the new atheists' Richard Dawkins.
The 'cult' here refers to the Christian community - think, culture and what binds us together in worship, rather than a small group of fundamentalists with tin foil hats.
Many others then call themselves Christians and claim to believe it in a creedal manner, but if they are not living the code and their cultural liturgies are primarily secularist, as James K.A. Smith would have it, then these prepositional claims are shallow and misleading. They are kidding us and themselves.
Dr Trueman gives the example of racists in the church, who clearly do not really believe the Christian faith in practice. Ours is demonstrably a universal faith, open to all ethnic groups and cultures. Our unity is a pentecostal balance of unity and diversity. God condemns partiality many times in His revealed word so group can be chauvinistic about their ethnic identity. That is a form of idolatry and ignores God's revelation that there is neither 'Jew nor Greek...' in that divisive manner.
The portions of the book on death and bioethics were especially unsettling and raise profound questions for any serious Christian, or human person, to wrestle with. The developments in gene editing, and so on, unveil the underlying nihilism of much modern life and should stop us in our tracks.
We must prayerfully consider: What is a human person and why are they ultimately valuable, if at all? How do we discern between enhancing human life and transcending our humanity itself, in a manner that undermines the goodness of our identity as embodied souls created in God's image and likeness?
Moreover, who is going to decide what humans should and should not be born? Is there a danger of a new eugenics today - even if those involved portend to be scientific and have 'good intentions'?
This brought Ivan Illich to my mind once again and his prophetic idea of 'the corruption of the best is the worst'. He wrote about modern medicine with this very much in mind. As part of this problem, we need to think and pray deeply about the fruits of our actions and our systems. Simple intentions are not enough and the road to hell is truly paved with good intentions.
We must be cautious of the 'cobra effect' and about setting perverse incentives, especially when we are dealing with human life and death.
Dr Trueman points out some of the major limitations in secularist responses to these big questions, alongside aforementioned Christian foibles. The shallow new atheist types are rightly chastised and Carl shows that Nietzsche's reading of modernity is more precise. But he goes beyond Neech and does not leave us with a mere lament or an Ubermensch.
Trueman commends a more integrated liturgical Christian life, where we are formed and informed in a properly sacred tradition. Although a reformed Christian, he takes inspiration from the conscientious approach of Roman Catholics to the premier moral issues of our time and pleads with all Christians not to drift thoughtlessly with the cultural tide. Nor are we to succumb to the reductionism of secularist materialist culture and the language it uses. We are to play our part and add to the great body of uniquely Christian moral reflection and action.
Later in the book, Carl commends Christian marriage and speaks to its importance as an analogue of Christ and the Church. I would go a step further and use language that we are participating in that kingdom life here and now in some unique manner in our marital relationships. So, marriage is symbolic of that cosmic vision and promise, yes. But I think it also participates within it in a special way - partially now and fully in the new heaven and the new earth.
There probably needs to be a book written on that, taking the better parts of the Eastern and Oriental Orthodox views of marriage (Dr Vigen Guroian, John Meyendorff, John Abdalah and Nicholas G. Mamey) and juxtaposing it with a more positive view of Eros and human sexuality.
I trust this will play a key part in any Christian renewal in secularist nations. In his book Sexual Desire and Love, Dr Eric Fuchs has shown me how much of a blind spot this has been in Christian history. I do not ultimately agree with Nietzsche that the Christian way has 'poisoned the well of eros', but I do think most Christians have got this wrong so far in the tradition. However, I think there is good news to break through on that front and perhaps that will be one of the silver linings of the sexual revolution. it brings questions of human sexuality to the fore. My friend, Dr Michael Martin seems to be ahead of the curve on this.
Fr. Alexander Men once said, when asked about the early church, 'perhaps we are the early church.' This gives me hope that the good news of the gospel is becoming more clear in ways we might not have heard before. The Gospel has not fundamentally changed, but our ears were closed to different frequencies in the past.
The earlier centuries of church history had their major Christological challenges, Carl suggests, and we have our anthropological ones today.
Let us consider: What does it mean to be truly human? What does Christ reveal?
So, we must rise to the challenge of incarnation humanism and pray for the triumph of orthodoxy once more in our day. This consecration of the world marries nicely with Dr David Fagerberg's work and the impetus placed on liturgical mission by Winfield Bevins. I think it is possibly very fruitful as it moves us away from the individualistic framing of many issues by Christians today and can bring together the different Christian denominations towards a common focus, without flattening all distinctions.
Trueman rightly notes that major cultural change will take time, but we rest assured that the gates of hell will not prevail over the church of a real man, Yeshua of Nazareth.
Throughout The Desecration of Man, Trueman asks an array of fundamental questions about life, death, transhumanism, the sexual revolution, bioethics, and more.
The big picture of the book presents desecration and consecration as an alternative to the Weberian image of a move from enchantment to disenchantment.
Carl argues, like William Cavanuagh in The Migration of the Holy, that this is illusory. The world was never fundamentally disenchanted.
The world became enchanted with the state and the market, with slick politicians and party promises, with Amazon packages, Starbucks, and smart phones.
Furthermore, if we accept the dubious hypothesis of a disenchanted world, Christians will often proffer re-enchantment as an alternative. This has been the approach of lesser Christian writers such as Rod Dreher.
Au contraire, Dr Trueman says the common notion of 'enchantment' is too vague and Carl lays out a helpful Christian schema of creed, code, and cult in its stead. These are all part of the consecration of the world. It is quite a simple little trifecta of course, but it is remarkable just how few Christians are involved with all three. The result is disintegration within the church, a real weakening of the body, and makes us vulnerable to the major cultural ailment of desecration.
Trueman looks at nominal Christians who may have the 'cult' element nailed down to some degree, enjoying the aesthetics of the Christian faith, the beauty of her arts, and so on but who do not really believe it. They do not believe that this peculiar near-eastern man, Yeshua from the little town of Nazareth is who He says He is - the God of the universe, who created the earth, the moon, the stars, black holes, and all sorts.
While an admirer in many ways, Carl refers to Roger Scruton as an example of this focus on cult. From my conversations with Dr Mark Dooley, a friend of Roger's and author of several books about him, this may not be accurate about the great English philosopher.
Whether or not it is true about Roger in particular, Carl's major point stands and there are some out there who do meet this description unfortunately.
Others may appreciate the 'code' of the Christian way, its basic moral worldview, and call themselves 'cultural Christians', especially in opposition to Islam and Islamism, but lack that distinct Christian creedal imperative and the beauty of the liturgical life. We see this even in the new atheists' Richard Dawkins.
The 'cult' here refers to the Christian community - think, culture and what binds us together in worship, rather than a small group of fundamentalists with tin foil hats.
Many others then call themselves Christians and claim to believe it in a creedal manner, but if they are not living the code and their cultural liturgies are primarily secularist, as James K.A. Smith would have it, then these prepositional claims are shallow and misleading. They are kidding us and themselves.
Dr Trueman gives the example of racists in the church, who clearly do not really believe the Christian faith in practice. Ours is demonstrably a universal faith, open to all ethnic groups and cultures. Our unity is a pentecostal balance of unity and diversity. God condemns partiality many times in His revealed word so group can be chauvinistic about their ethnic identity. That is a form of idolatry and ignores God's revelation that there is neither 'Jew nor Greek...' in that divisive manner.
The portions of the book on death and bioethics were especially unsettling and raise profound questions for any serious Christian, or human person, to wrestle with. The developments in gene editing, and so on, unveil the underlying nihilism of much modern life and should stop us in our tracks.
We must prayerfully consider: What is a human person and why are they ultimately valuable, if at all? How do we discern between enhancing human life and transcending our humanity itself, in a manner that undermines the goodness of our identity as embodied souls created in God's image and likeness?
Moreover, who is going to decide what humans should and should not be born? Is there a danger of a new eugenics today - even if those involved portend to be scientific and have 'good intentions'?
This brought Ivan Illich to my mind once again and his prophetic idea of 'the corruption of the best is the worst'. He wrote about modern medicine with this very much in mind. As part of this problem, we need to think and pray deeply about the fruits of our actions and our systems. Simple intentions are not enough and the road to hell is truly paved with good intentions.
We must be cautious of the 'cobra effect' and about setting perverse incentives, especially when we are dealing with human life and death.
Dr Trueman points out some of the major limitations in secularist responses to these big questions, alongside aforementioned Christian foibles. The shallow new atheist types are rightly chastised and Carl shows that Nietzsche's reading of modernity is more precise. But he goes beyond Neech and does not leave us with a mere lament or an Ubermensch.
Trueman commends a more integrated liturgical Christian life, where we are formed and informed in a properly sacred tradition. Although a reformed Christian, he takes inspiration from the conscientious approach of Roman Catholics to the premier moral issues of our time and pleads with all Christians not to drift thoughtlessly with the cultural tide. Nor are we to succumb to the reductionism of secularist materialist culture and the language it uses. We are to play our part and add to the great body of uniquely Christian moral reflection and action.
Later in the book, Carl commends Christian marriage and speaks to its importance as an analogue of Christ and the Church. I would go a step further and use language that we are participating in that kingdom life here and now in some unique manner in our marital relationships. So, marriage is symbolic of that cosmic vision and promise, yes. But I think it also participates within it in a special way - partially now and fully in the new heaven and the new earth.
There probably needs to be a book written on that, taking the better parts of the Eastern and Oriental Orthodox views of marriage (Dr Vigen Guroian, John Meyendorff, John Abdalah and Nicholas G. Mamey) and juxtaposing it with a more positive view of Eros and human sexuality.
I trust this will play a key part in any Christian renewal in secularist nations. In his book Sexual Desire and Love, Dr Eric Fuchs has shown me how much of a blind spot this has been in Christian history. I do not ultimately agree with Nietzsche that the Christian way has 'poisoned the well of eros', but I do think most Christians have got this wrong so far in the tradition. However, I think there is good news to break through on that front and perhaps that will be one of the silver linings of the sexual revolution. it brings questions of human sexuality to the fore. My friend, Dr Michael Martin seems to be ahead of the curve on this.
Fr. Alexander Men once said, when asked about the early church, 'perhaps we are the early church.' This gives me hope that the good news of the gospel is becoming more clear in ways we might not have heard before. The Gospel has not fundamentally changed, but our ears were closed to different frequencies in the past.
The earlier centuries of church history had their major Christological challenges, Carl suggests, and we have our anthropological ones today.
Let us consider: What does it mean to be truly human? What does Christ reveal?
So, we must rise to the challenge of incarnation humanism and pray for the triumph of orthodoxy once more in our day. This consecration of the world marries nicely with Dr David Fagerberg's work and the impetus placed on liturgical mission by Winfield Bevins. I think it is possibly very fruitful as it moves us away from the individualistic framing of many issues by Christians today and can bring together the different Christian denominations towards a common focus, without flattening all distinctions.
Trueman rightly notes that major cultural change will take time, but we rest assured that the gates of hell will not prevail over the church of a real man, Yeshua of Nazareth.
May 4, 2026
A thoughtful assessment of modern culture and the historical ideas and movements that lead to it. Trueman is an excellent "cultural expositor." In this book, he identifies and evaluates how Western culture currently understands anthropology - that is: what is humanity? What is its purpose? What or who gives it significance? This was a pretty insightful and helpful read overall, but it does require slow reading (at least, for me!), since the author is very intelligent and makes extensive use of the english dictionary!
May 1, 2026
While repeating some ideas from previous books, Trueman nonetheless accurately diagnoses the problem of desecration in our age, before prescribing the correct medicine for this moral malaise — consecration.
“…one cannot transform the social imaginary by fiat. One can only do it by starting with the consecration of ordinary people doing ordinary things in their local communities. That's where the code-especially the code of hospitality — and the cult-worship that enacts the gospel and grips the imagination — are so important.
And coincidentally, that is exactly how the early church turned the world upside down.”
“…one cannot transform the social imaginary by fiat. One can only do it by starting with the consecration of ordinary people doing ordinary things in their local communities. That's where the code-especially the code of hospitality — and the cult-worship that enacts the gospel and grips the imagination — are so important.
And coincidentally, that is exactly how the early church turned the world upside down.”
April 26, 2026
This is a significant book. Trueman has earned a reputation as one of our culture's most insightful commentators, and this latest book shows why. It is a continuation of his work from 'The Rise & Triumph of the Modern Self', and it had the same effect on me: bringing clarity and understanding to the cultural chaos of our age.
Trueman excels at the tracing of intellectual developments through time. In this book, he shows how the role of the creative and the artist moved from being a preserver of culture to what we have mostly had for a century now: the creatives and artists as transgressors and desecrators of the sacred.
"The key thing here—and the key thing with Rousseau, Edwards, and the Romantics—is that the intrinsic moral structure of human nature is independent of, and prior to, the specific cultures in which individual human beings exist. That is why Nietzsche’s Madman came too early. The idea that human beings had a moral shape was still assumed by the cultural elites and still part of the social imaginary. But what happens when that idea fades and then disappears? When the technological liquefaction of the world and the inward move to find the authentic self combine to fatally undermine that idea? That is when the hour of the Madman truly arrives."
"This provided fertile soil for the emergence of the notion of the transgressor as hero among artists and intellectuals in the nineteenth century. And given that the boundaries being transgressed were religious in origin, the path to seeing desecration as a moral imperative also emerged. Desecration of all that was once considered holy became a hallmark of that authenticity that expressive individualism craved."
"The traditional role of art was expressing and transmitting communal values. The emergence in modernity of this Wildean artist as transgressor is therefore both consonant with the kind of expressive individualism that characterizes modern man and destructive of those stable, traditional values built upon a sacred order. To put it more bluntly, the artist by his transgressive ideals produces work that destroys the cultural residue of the God who has died."
"Indeed, transgression and revolution—the active negation of what is—become the very means of self-realization. In theological terms, the spirit that negates—from the spirit of the modern expressive individual in the street to that of the various critical theorists who populate college lecture halls—is the spirit of desecration, pronouncing a decisive “no” to anything ever deemed sacred, while not necessarily offering anything constructive as a replacement."
"When transgression and negation become the great values of a society, then permanent revolution becomes the default cultural setting. Or to use theological language, when desecration is virtue, the profanation of all that is holy is not a moment or a phase. It is the ongoing norm."
***
Helpful stuff.
This account certainly helps explains the modern phenomenon of subversive art. Thankfully, there are still many 'rebel' artists who use their God-given gifts in non-transgressive ways.
Trueman excels at the tracing of intellectual developments through time. In this book, he shows how the role of the creative and the artist moved from being a preserver of culture to what we have mostly had for a century now: the creatives and artists as transgressors and desecrators of the sacred.
"The key thing here—and the key thing with Rousseau, Edwards, and the Romantics—is that the intrinsic moral structure of human nature is independent of, and prior to, the specific cultures in which individual human beings exist. That is why Nietzsche’s Madman came too early. The idea that human beings had a moral shape was still assumed by the cultural elites and still part of the social imaginary. But what happens when that idea fades and then disappears? When the technological liquefaction of the world and the inward move to find the authentic self combine to fatally undermine that idea? That is when the hour of the Madman truly arrives."
"This provided fertile soil for the emergence of the notion of the transgressor as hero among artists and intellectuals in the nineteenth century. And given that the boundaries being transgressed were religious in origin, the path to seeing desecration as a moral imperative also emerged. Desecration of all that was once considered holy became a hallmark of that authenticity that expressive individualism craved."
"The traditional role of art was expressing and transmitting communal values. The emergence in modernity of this Wildean artist as transgressor is therefore both consonant with the kind of expressive individualism that characterizes modern man and destructive of those stable, traditional values built upon a sacred order. To put it more bluntly, the artist by his transgressive ideals produces work that destroys the cultural residue of the God who has died."
"Indeed, transgression and revolution—the active negation of what is—become the very means of self-realization. In theological terms, the spirit that negates—from the spirit of the modern expressive individual in the street to that of the various critical theorists who populate college lecture halls—is the spirit of desecration, pronouncing a decisive “no” to anything ever deemed sacred, while not necessarily offering anything constructive as a replacement."
"When transgression and negation become the great values of a society, then permanent revolution becomes the default cultural setting. Or to use theological language, when desecration is virtue, the profanation of all that is holy is not a moment or a phase. It is the ongoing norm."
***
Helpful stuff.
This account certainly helps explains the modern phenomenon of subversive art. Thankfully, there are still many 'rebel' artists who use their God-given gifts in non-transgressive ways.
April 28, 2026
"Our chief end is to glorify God and enjoy him forever. Only when we realize that will we also realize what it means to be truly human here and now." (Pg. 210) Truman laid out a well-argued thesis that the reason the world is the way it is results from the desecration of God, man, and all that is holy and good. I really benefited from his insight into many relevant cultural topics. It allows the reader to better understand how we got here in the first place, but also how to fix it. Truman says, "If desecration is the pervasive problem of our day, then nothing less than consecration is the answer." (Pg. 209) This consecration happens in the context of the church, where creed, cult, and code are essential to consecrate image bearers. I highly enjoyed this book, even though it was a little harder to read. My only critique (although understanding his own objective was to explain the problem and not solve it) was that he did not really present a practical application for believers on how to enact this consecration. Creed, cult, and code were mentioned in the end, and although encouraging, it was not the most helpful for me. Despite this, I would highly recommend the book to anyone who wishes to better understand the world and culture around us today.
April 28, 2026
There is a yawning gap between the culture and the church. The answer to the question, what is man, is central to this divide. In. “The Desecration of Man” Carl Truman explores the nature of and the reasons for this gap, which is led to the very desecration of man, who was created in the image of God.
Some Christians may pick up this book thinking that they will get an insight into the terrible culture around them. However, what they may find is that they are one of the desecrator’s that is being described. Our current cultural moment does not exist in a vacuum; rather, it results from over a century of philosophy, that, and essence, attempts to kill God, and replace God with something conceived by man. Truman traces this back to the philosophy of Nietzsche.
Truman deftly conducts a postmortem of the culture that is the result of this philosophical thread. The problem, as described by Truman, is the fact that the culture has essentially killed God and tried to replace God with self, but that self evidently has only worked to desecrate man.
So, what is the solution? Consecration. Truman explores the importance of Creed, cultus, and code. This is Ware. The book may have the sharpest edge for the church in the United States of America. There’s much to glean from Truman‘s argument. Reading Truman, here is reminiscent of Rod Dreher. It is my hope that this book begins a more fervent focus for the church on anthropology. It is also my Hope that Truman‘s Clarion call to the church is heeded. Happy reading!
Some Christians may pick up this book thinking that they will get an insight into the terrible culture around them. However, what they may find is that they are one of the desecrator’s that is being described. Our current cultural moment does not exist in a vacuum; rather, it results from over a century of philosophy, that, and essence, attempts to kill God, and replace God with something conceived by man. Truman traces this back to the philosophy of Nietzsche.
Truman deftly conducts a postmortem of the culture that is the result of this philosophical thread. The problem, as described by Truman, is the fact that the culture has essentially killed God and tried to replace God with self, but that self evidently has only worked to desecrate man.
So, what is the solution? Consecration. Truman explores the importance of Creed, cultus, and code. This is Ware. The book may have the sharpest edge for the church in the United States of America. There’s much to glean from Truman‘s argument. Reading Truman, here is reminiscent of Rod Dreher. It is my hope that this book begins a more fervent focus for the church on anthropology. It is also my Hope that Truman‘s Clarion call to the church is heeded. Happy reading!
May 4, 2026
Thoughtful. Thought-provoking. Academic. Weighty.
I love Carl Trueman and his careful, theological thinking about the current state of western culture. This book answers the question: “What is Man?”
Trueman argues that much of the expressive individualism and social imaginary (current default way of thinking) of today’s western mind is due to our rejection of the doctrine of the imago dei. When man rejects the truth that we are made in God’s image, we spiral into a desecration of what it means to be human. We lose the sacredness and holiness of how God made man, and the purpose and end for which we were made.
Trueman does a good job being clear and articulated his argument well. He’s very philosophical and historically rooted in his treatment. He shows “how we got here” exceptionally well, always. The book could be pretty academic if you have never read Trueman before. It’s kinda like swimming in the deep end from page 1. So be ready.
I also wish the book had a bit more of a gospel flavor to it.
He does this at the end, but I wish it was more throughout.
I love Carl Trueman and his careful, theological thinking about the current state of western culture. This book answers the question: “What is Man?”
Trueman argues that much of the expressive individualism and social imaginary (current default way of thinking) of today’s western mind is due to our rejection of the doctrine of the imago dei. When man rejects the truth that we are made in God’s image, we spiral into a desecration of what it means to be human. We lose the sacredness and holiness of how God made man, and the purpose and end for which we were made.
Trueman does a good job being clear and articulated his argument well. He’s very philosophical and historically rooted in his treatment. He shows “how we got here” exceptionally well, always. The book could be pretty academic if you have never read Trueman before. It’s kinda like swimming in the deep end from page 1. So be ready.
I also wish the book had a bit more of a gospel flavor to it.
He does this at the end, but I wish it was more throughout.
April 16, 2026
Trueman is excellent again in his diagnosis and analysis of current trends in our society. If you have read The Rise and Triumph of the Modern Self (or its abridgement, Strange New World), then much of what you find here will be familiar. The different track he takes is following the idea of desecration, that modern society has rejected an orthodox anthropology and so now takes pleasure in desecrating what was once held sacred. Trueman's writing has always left me feeling invigorated, and this book had the same effect. I expect I will be using some of his insights in my teaching in the very near future.
April 28, 2026
The dilemma of the world’s desecration of all that is good, holy, and true can only be solved by the intentional consecration that comes by the Power of God’s Word and His Spirit through His people. This book is a direct guide to current state of culture and where we are today. Highly recommend.
April 28, 2026
Safe to say that Trueman has seized the mantle from O’Donovan as this generation’s leading Protestant cultural critic
April 10, 2026
Brilliant.
April 30, 2026
A faulty anthropology is at the root of modern ills and there is only one way to restore it. Brisk, clear, and persuasive, building on some of CS Lewis's concerns from 80 years ago while offering bracing cautions against easy half-measures. Full review on the blog.
April 19, 2026
Consecration is the only way to cure desecration. This requires practicing creed, cult and code in Christ centered community.
Review of advance copy received from Netgalley
In Nietzsche's famous story where a "madman" declares that "God is dead [and] we have killed him", the madman also opines that he has "come too early", and his hour had not yet arrived. Trueman submits that this is because while Enlightenment ideals 'killed' God, "religious beliefs, practices, and particularly the morality built originally on those beliefs, still exerted influence." Today, Trueman argues, "[t]he idea that human beings had a moral shape" is fading and disappearing. The hour of the madman has arrived (chs 2-3).
Trueman's book revolves around the question "What is man?". The Roman Catholic Church's Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church says:
In contrast, Trueman submits that the modern world has "apparently given the answer" to the question "What is man?": "The one who transgresses what was formerly considered sacred and thereby demonstrates his own godlike status." (Introduction) This definition of being truly human "requires the repudiation of all heteronomous or unchosen "natural" demands. Authenticity emerges as the key personal virtue and that presses us toward sloughing off external demands and expectations." Such desecration "is exhilarating. ... To refuse limits, obligations, and ends that are understood to be imposed by God is to rise to godlike status oneself." (ch 1)
The rest of the book explores this disagreement between the world and Scripture.
Desecration has many dimensions. It can stem from evolution teaching that man is "Just another species randomly cast up on the shores of existence" and thus, for example, this justifies Peter Singer's defence of abortion where human babies should be granted "no more rights than a newborn calf." It also manifests as "one human being treating another as a thing or an object", with "Pornography offer[ing] the most extreme contemporary example but it is simply the logic of the broader sexual revolution played out to its conclusion." A third example of desecration is "any belief that human beings are capable of creating their own ends in any absolute or final sense." (ch 1)
Trueman looks at the "aesthetic... of rebellion" replacing "[m]orality as an objective standard requiring conformity" and the rise of art pieces involving what scholar and cultural critic Philip Rieff calls "deathworks" ("A deathwork is a cultural assault on the sacred when the culture itself has lost its foundations and stability.") and diagnoses that "[t]oday, negation is the cultural default" (ch 3):
Three areas where this can be seen are in sexual morality and behaviour, mechanical reproductive technology, and technology that seeks to conquer death.
On the first, Trueman opines that a society's shifting sexual codes indicates that "a basic change in anthropology is occurring". The sexual revolution, against the background of fundamental changes in the answer to the question "What is man?", leads to "[t]he expressive individual [becoming] the sexually defined individual", laws regulating sexual activity and behaviour become "laws about identity" (thus turning sexual issues into hot-topic political issues), and a pervasive view of sex as recreation with a rejection of values like chastity and commitment (which "finds its end point in pornography" [Trueman diagnoses pornography as "merely the extension of the logic of the sexual revolution pressed to its conclusion."). This shift in mores and what it means to be human has implications on other issues such as abortion, paedophilia, bestiality, and so on (Trueman cites Peter Singer in this regard). And yes, modern culture is full of paradoxes: "Despite wanting sex to be mere recreation, we have an intuitive understanding that sexual acts are extremely important and cannot be equated with other forms of physical activity. That is why rapists are treated differently and typically more severely than those involved in other forms of physical assault." This is where sexual revolutionaries "find themselves in a bind", and how their revolution is ultimately "buil[t] on sand." (ch 4)
On the second, Trueman weighs in on IVF and surrogacy, opining that "once children are
the outcome of a technical medical procedure that manufactures life, the tendency to start seeing them as consumer products, as another form of commodity, is greater and greater." Reproductive technologies and fertility treatments, which require legal contracts at the outset, cause children to be born "first and foremost [not out] of a relationship between a mother and a father but of a legal arrangement". This leads to questions like whether abortion (or even infanticide) is acceptable "when one or more of the parents desires it or where a child is born with birth defects" (or where such defects may be predicted) (ch 5). On the third, Trueman opines that the modern world marginalises, ignores, medicalises, and/or trivialises death (eg. with assisted suicide, removal of death from churches and homes into hospitals and hospices, and a lack of a grappling with the reality of death which traditional liturgies [like the Book of Common Prayer's funeral liturgy] provide) – which "all indicate [an] inability to come to terms with it." (ch 6)
What, then, is to be done about this? Trueman answers: "The answer to desecration is consecration. ... the question now becomes: How do we reconsecrate our humanity?" The church as worshipping community is where "humanity as made in the image of God can be truly realized... [The church] is the place where the creedal truth expressed in the liturgy confronts our impulse to make ourselves gods and thereby leads to a transformation of each individual... in the church's worship the true is manifested in the beautiful and thereby leads us to the good." The church has to teach truth while worshipping well (conscious of how the manner she worships, teaches), and as an outpouring of the character of her God, she is to (among other things) be hospitable, care for the weak and vulnerable, and love her enemies (ch 7).
Brief Thoughts
This book reads more like a long article. While I agree broadly with Trueman and his diagnosis, I wonder if he takes it too far with his specific examples, especially in chapters 5-6. I am not sure, for example, that reproductive technologies lead to the consequences that Trueman claims, or that having "parenthood as defined by legal contract ultimately requires that society treats children as things". If legal contract being mixed into the parent-child relationship truly has this effect, what about laws (taking the view that law is a social contract) governing the parent-child relationship like the Bible stipulates? I can see how reproductive technologies being made available opens up societies to some questions which Trueman identifies, but I am not sure that it links as directly to desecration of humanity and children as Trueman seems to think.
Carl Trueman, ‘The Desecration of Man’ releases 7 April 2026. I am grateful to Netgalley for an advance reader copy.
Trueman's book revolves around the question "What is man?". The Roman Catholic Church's Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church says:
The fundamental message of Sacred Scripture proclaims that the human person is a creature of God (cf. Ps 139:14-18), and sees in his being in the image of God the element that characterizes and distinguishes him: "God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them" (Gen 1:27). God places the human creature at the centre and summit of the created order. Man (in Hebrew, "adam") is formed from the earth ("adamah") and God blows into his nostrils the breath of life (cf. Gen 2:7). Therefore, "being in the image of God the human individual possesses the dignity of a person, who is not just something, but someone. He is capable of self-knowledge, of self-possession and of freely giving himself and entering into communion with other persons. Further, he is called by grace to a covenant with his Creator, to offer him a response of faith and love that no other creature can give in his stead"
In contrast, Trueman submits that the modern world has "apparently given the answer" to the question "What is man?": "The one who transgresses what was formerly considered sacred and thereby demonstrates his own godlike status." (Introduction) This definition of being truly human "requires the repudiation of all heteronomous or unchosen "natural" demands. Authenticity emerges as the key personal virtue and that presses us toward sloughing off external demands and expectations." Such desecration "is exhilarating. ... To refuse limits, obligations, and ends that are understood to be imposed by God is to rise to godlike status oneself." (ch 1)
The rest of the book explores this disagreement between the world and Scripture.
Desecration has many dimensions. It can stem from evolution teaching that man is "Just another species randomly cast up on the shores of existence" and thus, for example, this justifies Peter Singer's defence of abortion where human babies should be granted "no more rights than a newborn calf." It also manifests as "one human being treating another as a thing or an object", with "Pornography offer[ing] the most extreme contemporary example but it is simply the logic of the broader sexual revolution played out to its conclusion." A third example of desecration is "any belief that human beings are capable of creating their own ends in any absolute or final sense." (ch 1)
Trueman looks at the "aesthetic... of rebellion" replacing "[m]orality as an objective standard requiring conformity" and the rise of art pieces involving what scholar and cultural critic Philip Rieff calls "deathworks" ("A deathwork is a cultural assault on the sacred when the culture itself has lost its foundations and stability.") and diagnoses that "[t]oday, negation is the cultural default" (ch 3):
The revolution that modernity represents is a never-ending one. It is not that the old beliefs, values, and practices are overthrown and something new and stable is put in their place. It is that the practice of overthrowing what is—whatever it may be—is the project. When transgression and negation become the great values of a society, then permanent revolution becomes the default cultural setting. Or to use theological language, when desecration is virtue, the profanation of all that is holy is not a moment or a phase. It is the ongoing norm.
Three areas where this can be seen are in sexual morality and behaviour, mechanical reproductive technology, and technology that seeks to conquer death.
On the first, Trueman opines that a society's shifting sexual codes indicates that "a basic change in anthropology is occurring". The sexual revolution, against the background of fundamental changes in the answer to the question "What is man?", leads to "[t]he expressive individual [becoming] the sexually defined individual", laws regulating sexual activity and behaviour become "laws about identity" (thus turning sexual issues into hot-topic political issues), and a pervasive view of sex as recreation with a rejection of values like chastity and commitment (which "finds its end point in pornography" [Trueman diagnoses pornography as "merely the extension of the logic of the sexual revolution pressed to its conclusion."). This shift in mores and what it means to be human has implications on other issues such as abortion, paedophilia, bestiality, and so on (Trueman cites Peter Singer in this regard). And yes, modern culture is full of paradoxes: "Despite wanting sex to be mere recreation, we have an intuitive understanding that sexual acts are extremely important and cannot be equated with other forms of physical activity. That is why rapists are treated differently and typically more severely than those involved in other forms of physical assault." This is where sexual revolutionaries "find themselves in a bind", and how their revolution is ultimately "buil[t] on sand." (ch 4)
On the second, Trueman weighs in on IVF and surrogacy, opining that "once children are
the outcome of a technical medical procedure that manufactures life, the tendency to start seeing them as consumer products, as another form of commodity, is greater and greater." Reproductive technologies and fertility treatments, which require legal contracts at the outset, cause children to be born "first and foremost [not out] of a relationship between a mother and a father but of a legal arrangement". This leads to questions like whether abortion (or even infanticide) is acceptable "when one or more of the parents desires it or where a child is born with birth defects" (or where such defects may be predicted) (ch 5). On the third, Trueman opines that the modern world marginalises, ignores, medicalises, and/or trivialises death (eg. with assisted suicide, removal of death from churches and homes into hospitals and hospices, and a lack of a grappling with the reality of death which traditional liturgies [like the Book of Common Prayer's funeral liturgy] provide) – which "all indicate [an] inability to come to terms with it." (ch 6)
What, then, is to be done about this? Trueman answers: "The answer to desecration is consecration. ... the question now becomes: How do we reconsecrate our humanity?" The church as worshipping community is where "humanity as made in the image of God can be truly realized... [The church] is the place where the creedal truth expressed in the liturgy confronts our impulse to make ourselves gods and thereby leads to a transformation of each individual... in the church's worship the true is manifested in the beautiful and thereby leads us to the good." The church has to teach truth while worshipping well (conscious of how the manner she worships, teaches), and as an outpouring of the character of her God, she is to (among other things) be hospitable, care for the weak and vulnerable, and love her enemies (ch 7).
Brief Thoughts
This book reads more like a long article. While I agree broadly with Trueman and his diagnosis, I wonder if he takes it too far with his specific examples, especially in chapters 5-6. I am not sure, for example, that reproductive technologies lead to the consequences that Trueman claims, or that having "parenthood as defined by legal contract ultimately requires that society treats children as things". If legal contract being mixed into the parent-child relationship truly has this effect, what about laws (taking the view that law is a social contract) governing the parent-child relationship like the Bible stipulates? I can see how reproductive technologies being made available opens up societies to some questions which Trueman identifies, but I am not sure that it links as directly to desecration of humanity and children as Trueman seems to think.
Carl Trueman, ‘The Desecration of Man’ releases 7 April 2026. I am grateful to Netgalley for an advance reader copy.
May 7, 2026
Despite the frighteningly divided time we find ourselves in today, it seems at least one thing almost everyone can agree upon is that the modern world is and has been in decline for quite some time now. Though we may disagree about what is ultimately to blame for this (technology, capitalism, secularism, disenchantment, "the left", "the right", etc.) or even what all has gone wrong, the general sense that the 21st century just "feels off" is common. Among young people I would say this impression seems ubiquitous. I can't tell you how many times I have read the sentence "society when it's my turn to be an adult" online. And in much the same way that C. S. Lewis would argue the human heart's aching and groaning for meaning and significance points us to a lost communion with a God who provides these things, it might be well to argue that modern society's aching and groaning for "something not this" points us to a shared way of living and thinking that has gone missing. Now examining society in all of its details and facets is something no 200 page book can do, but Carl Trueman argues that a common theme we can find at the end of each line of analysis is a crisis in anthropology. We have lost sight of what it means to be human.
Traditionally, a person had a defined place in the world. This came with well understood rights, responsibilities, relations, and restrictions. These were set in place historically by religions, and in the West's case, Christianity. The doctrine of the imago dei set out for us where exactly we are to be with respect to God, the world, ourselves, and each other. These are given to us, each a blessing kept pure, not to be corrupted. But, as has been the case since Genesis 3, mankind is not too fond of leaving well enough alone. Now with hundreds of years of philosophical and technological development behind us, those old answers no longer feel sufficient. We must instead "unchain this earth from the sun" and break down those old rules of what man can, cannot, and ultimately should, be. If you're familiar with the idea of a "deathwork" from The Rise and Triumph of thr Modern Self, the argument is that our culture itself has become a kind of living deathwork of all that came before it.
Trueman focuses on our culture's attitude toward sex, reproduction, and death as three of the most significant ways we have utterly lost our way in our common ("social imaginary's") understanding of what a human is. Sex, once considered a sacred marital act, is now seen as a matter of cheap recreational pleasure to be indulged in whatever way or extent consenting parties choose. People became objects to draw self-gratification from, not partners loved and bonded with. Christian sexual ethics are intentionally trampled upon routinely as someone who has spent all of 15 minutes online could know. Once related but seemingly not anymore is reproduction. A pregnancy used to feel almost miraculous with divine mystery. There was awe at the propagation of mankind. But today you can buy someone else's pregnancy or terminate your own if you live in the right jurisdiction. The unborn became an object, whose significance it is now an individual's to decide. Oh, and we can't forget those trying to build artificial wombs now can we? Death, once understood as a part of life, and something that is a present reality to everyone, is now something we spend our entire lives pretending doesn't exist until it does. There are also people alive today who genuinely believe that through effort and technology, they will live forever. We either implicitly or explicitly think we can outrun our own mortality. All these things (and far more) can be summed up by the word desecration. The 21st century is built on desecrating the very things we are made to be.
Reading Trueman is always sobering in the sense of providing a clear-minded explanation of things many Christians probably feel a hint of intuitively, but haven't had laid out for them in detail with relevant historical context. This sobriety comes with a helping of bad news about the past, present, and future of our world. It's not "fun" to read Trueman books but it is quite helpful in gaining some footing in the crazy, crazy times we live in.
I like what Kevin DeYoung says about this book: that it's a "cultural lament." Lamentation is (at least to me) an important, and almost necessary activity to keep one's head on straight nowadays. We have whole a book and then some in our Bibles dedicated to it. But of course lamentation should never be done merely for its own sake. Lamenting just to lament gets nobody anywhere. Rather it is meant to remind us of the One our secured hope is actually in, to point us back to the perfect and only comfort we can find in this life. Trueman makes recommendations at how we can consecrate rather than desecrate the sacredness of man by more strongly adhering to our faiths and traditions. These are small things we can do in our lives and churches to fight back against the tide of our culture. Yes our individual or local church's actions might not reverse the course of society but it's 1. the only worthwhile thing we can do 2. what we're called to do, and 3. what Christ himself did. Therefore, though we may weep more, let us as well pray more, worship more, and love more, crying out with Jeremiah:
Restore us to yourself, O Lord, that we may be restored!
Renew our days as of old.
- Lamentations 5:21
Traditionally, a person had a defined place in the world. This came with well understood rights, responsibilities, relations, and restrictions. These were set in place historically by religions, and in the West's case, Christianity. The doctrine of the imago dei set out for us where exactly we are to be with respect to God, the world, ourselves, and each other. These are given to us, each a blessing kept pure, not to be corrupted. But, as has been the case since Genesis 3, mankind is not too fond of leaving well enough alone. Now with hundreds of years of philosophical and technological development behind us, those old answers no longer feel sufficient. We must instead "unchain this earth from the sun" and break down those old rules of what man can, cannot, and ultimately should, be. If you're familiar with the idea of a "deathwork" from The Rise and Triumph of thr Modern Self, the argument is that our culture itself has become a kind of living deathwork of all that came before it.
Trueman focuses on our culture's attitude toward sex, reproduction, and death as three of the most significant ways we have utterly lost our way in our common ("social imaginary's") understanding of what a human is. Sex, once considered a sacred marital act, is now seen as a matter of cheap recreational pleasure to be indulged in whatever way or extent consenting parties choose. People became objects to draw self-gratification from, not partners loved and bonded with. Christian sexual ethics are intentionally trampled upon routinely as someone who has spent all of 15 minutes online could know. Once related but seemingly not anymore is reproduction. A pregnancy used to feel almost miraculous with divine mystery. There was awe at the propagation of mankind. But today you can buy someone else's pregnancy or terminate your own if you live in the right jurisdiction. The unborn became an object, whose significance it is now an individual's to decide. Oh, and we can't forget those trying to build artificial wombs now can we? Death, once understood as a part of life, and something that is a present reality to everyone, is now something we spend our entire lives pretending doesn't exist until it does. There are also people alive today who genuinely believe that through effort and technology, they will live forever. We either implicitly or explicitly think we can outrun our own mortality. All these things (and far more) can be summed up by the word desecration. The 21st century is built on desecrating the very things we are made to be.
Reading Trueman is always sobering in the sense of providing a clear-minded explanation of things many Christians probably feel a hint of intuitively, but haven't had laid out for them in detail with relevant historical context. This sobriety comes with a helping of bad news about the past, present, and future of our world. It's not "fun" to read Trueman books but it is quite helpful in gaining some footing in the crazy, crazy times we live in.
I like what Kevin DeYoung says about this book: that it's a "cultural lament." Lamentation is (at least to me) an important, and almost necessary activity to keep one's head on straight nowadays. We have whole a book and then some in our Bibles dedicated to it. But of course lamentation should never be done merely for its own sake. Lamenting just to lament gets nobody anywhere. Rather it is meant to remind us of the One our secured hope is actually in, to point us back to the perfect and only comfort we can find in this life. Trueman makes recommendations at how we can consecrate rather than desecrate the sacredness of man by more strongly adhering to our faiths and traditions. These are small things we can do in our lives and churches to fight back against the tide of our culture. Yes our individual or local church's actions might not reverse the course of society but it's 1. the only worthwhile thing we can do 2. what we're called to do, and 3. what Christ himself did. Therefore, though we may weep more, let us as well pray more, worship more, and love more, crying out with Jeremiah:
Restore us to yourself, O Lord, that we may be restored!
Renew our days as of old.
- Lamentations 5:21
Review of advance copy received from Netgalley
A fascinating and lucid account of the social imaginary of our day, one that is intermixed with all manner of secular Marxism focused on power and the power struggle. Truman approaches these cultural dynamics through the lens of Nietzsche’s Madman, the fictional character of philosophical use showing how one cannot have traditional, cultural, or social morality without a transcendent God, and man has killed God and must transcend into his place. Without the fundamental story of a Moral Maker who made consecrated beings in His Image, humanity is bound for the desecration of the madman. Trueman, using this fictional character to his own use, showcases different areas of culture and society, from death to politics to sex, that have been desecrated by Marxian and Nietzschean philosophy. For Trueman, the way out of this nightmare of desecration, is not a re-enchantment of a pseudo Christian ideal, but a full embodied cult, creed, and code present only in the Holy Church.
Trueman is at his best in this book in my opinion. At first I thought it was a recapitulation of the ideas in Rise and Triumph, but his treatment on areas such as death I found captivating, compelling, and new. Further, he strikes a different note than he did in earlier works, and is far more ecumenical, complimenting the cult, creed, and code of other traditions. Certainly in this, there is still the traditional mindset one would expect with a Westminsterian, but with good faith and charity.
My only apparent struggle of this book is I am not sure who I would recommend this too. Obviously any Christian wrestling with the cultural and philosophical dynamics of our day would find this a useful addition to their liturgy. However, it does not answer any particular question a brother or sister in Christ may have. That is not inherently a flaw, but is worth noting in the overall value of it. All that to be said, I enjoy reading CS mostly because of that same reason, so it’s a wash
Also for whoever may be still reading, chapter 2 is a slog, but get past it.
I received a ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review!
Trueman is at his best in this book in my opinion. At first I thought it was a recapitulation of the ideas in Rise and Triumph, but his treatment on areas such as death I found captivating, compelling, and new. Further, he strikes a different note than he did in earlier works, and is far more ecumenical, complimenting the cult, creed, and code of other traditions. Certainly in this, there is still the traditional mindset one would expect with a Westminsterian, but with good faith and charity.
My only apparent struggle of this book is I am not sure who I would recommend this too. Obviously any Christian wrestling with the cultural and philosophical dynamics of our day would find this a useful addition to their liturgy. However, it does not answer any particular question a brother or sister in Christ may have. That is not inherently a flaw, but is worth noting in the overall value of it. All that to be said, I enjoy reading CS mostly because of that same reason, so it’s a wash
Also for whoever may be still reading, chapter 2 is a slog, but get past it.
I received a ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review!
April 8, 2026
Carl R. Trueman sets forth a uniquely Christian anthropology that accounts for our privileged position as God’s image bearers. He traces humanity’s rejection of God and our loss of connection to the transcendent through our love affair with technology, the detachment of sex from God’s original design, and the separation of “Christianity” from a robust commitment to the faith. His use of the word desecration forces the reader to do business with the loss we’ve experienced to our personhood and to our connection with a holy God.
Rapid changes in our “social imaginary,” including the public acceptance of immorality and the decline in society’s value of life for its own sake, are trail markers on a downward path, so Trueman offers only guarded hope: “The changes in Western society may be happening at a disorienting speed, but the conditions that have led to this moment are many and have been laid down over centuries. There is no quick fix here.“
Even so, I was encouraged by the book’s guidelines for a slow fix, an acknowledgement that “the answer to desecration is consecration.” Consecration must involve both the intellect and the imagination of humanity. Our beliefs shape our worship, and both are crucial for shaping our ethics and our relationships.
Trueman asserts that the church is the most reasonable and obvious place for this chain reaction of rescue to occur, for the claims of Christianity are both corporate and historical. Through prayer, singing, and meaningful dialogue, we affirm the beliefs that tie us back to our Creator and to our true identity as his image bearers. Then, rooted in right belief, we care for one another and extend the love of Christ to the least, the last, and the lost.
The long game of hospitality and ordinary habits of holiness become acts of cultural warfare when we realize that this is how the early church turned the world upside down. (Acts 17:6)
Rapid changes in our “social imaginary,” including the public acceptance of immorality and the decline in society’s value of life for its own sake, are trail markers on a downward path, so Trueman offers only guarded hope: “The changes in Western society may be happening at a disorienting speed, but the conditions that have led to this moment are many and have been laid down over centuries. There is no quick fix here.“
Even so, I was encouraged by the book’s guidelines for a slow fix, an acknowledgement that “the answer to desecration is consecration.” Consecration must involve both the intellect and the imagination of humanity. Our beliefs shape our worship, and both are crucial for shaping our ethics and our relationships.
Trueman asserts that the church is the most reasonable and obvious place for this chain reaction of rescue to occur, for the claims of Christianity are both corporate and historical. Through prayer, singing, and meaningful dialogue, we affirm the beliefs that tie us back to our Creator and to our true identity as his image bearers. Then, rooted in right belief, we care for one another and extend the love of Christ to the least, the last, and the lost.
The long game of hospitality and ordinary habits of holiness become acts of cultural warfare when we realize that this is how the early church turned the world upside down. (Acts 17:6)
April 29, 2026
"Rise and Triumph of the Modern Self" part 2. Some repetition and overgeneralization, but over all very thought provoking.
"Transgression of the sacred is exhilarating precisely because it makes us feel like gods, the creators of our own meanings and our own selves.""Even as we revel in the short term highs of one act of desecration after another, we know deep down, it does not work in the long term.""We are on the brink of using the exceptional abilities that come from being made in God's image to make ourselves into nothing exceptional at all." After ignoring our God given purpose, where can we find meaning? Destruction may feel liberating, but if you destroy your very foundation where can you stand? Trying to build on the ebbing tide of popular opinion will not lead to stability or growth.
Security, identity, belonging, purpose, and competency are all crucial foundations to our well being (Kathy Koch), but if our only mainstay, is the opinions of other humans, no wonder this polarizing society has led to personal identities and mental securities that are paper thin. It makes sense why even a hint of disagreement would be crushing. "It is not enough to tolerate sexual minorities... The reason why such positive affirmation of a variety of sexual identities is important is simple. Our sense of self is always dialogical. We feel we have value to the extend that others treat us as having value. Thus the social affirmations of the feelings of our psychological space is critical to our sense of personhood. Once society teaches us that our sexual desires are a fundamental part of our identity, then we crave public affirmation of those desires." But a shifting society, by its very nature, is incapable of providing an individual with constant personal affirmation. Any salve found there just bubble wraps our increasing fragility- a crumb to our ravenous hunger. We need to anchor to something more secure- the only One capable of providing all that we need.
"Transgression of the sacred is exhilarating precisely because it makes us feel like gods, the creators of our own meanings and our own selves.""Even as we revel in the short term highs of one act of desecration after another, we know deep down, it does not work in the long term.""We are on the brink of using the exceptional abilities that come from being made in God's image to make ourselves into nothing exceptional at all." After ignoring our God given purpose, where can we find meaning? Destruction may feel liberating, but if you destroy your very foundation where can you stand? Trying to build on the ebbing tide of popular opinion will not lead to stability or growth.
Security, identity, belonging, purpose, and competency are all crucial foundations to our well being (Kathy Koch), but if our only mainstay, is the opinions of other humans, no wonder this polarizing society has led to personal identities and mental securities that are paper thin. It makes sense why even a hint of disagreement would be crushing. "It is not enough to tolerate sexual minorities... The reason why such positive affirmation of a variety of sexual identities is important is simple. Our sense of self is always dialogical. We feel we have value to the extend that others treat us as having value. Thus the social affirmations of the feelings of our psychological space is critical to our sense of personhood. Once society teaches us that our sexual desires are a fundamental part of our identity, then we crave public affirmation of those desires." But a shifting society, by its very nature, is incapable of providing an individual with constant personal affirmation. Any salve found there just bubble wraps our increasing fragility- a crumb to our ravenous hunger. We need to anchor to something more secure- the only One capable of providing all that we need.
April 19, 2026
This book was a deeply thought provoking. It is a Christian take on how the very idea of man is desecrated by the advent of modernity. Scholars in the past have used the word disenchantment to refer to the loss of wonder and magic in our understanding of the word. Carl Trueman argues that traditional Christian thought had defined man as someone created in the image of the god, he had a transcendental significance, this has defined him, given his identity, also made his body sacred. As Friedrich Nietzsche's madman argues in Thus spoke Zarathustra tries to warn the atheist about the ramifications of the death of god. It has significance to define human life, limits and bounds, morality everything has no basis with the death of god. This book focuses fundamentally on what is a man with this death of god. Especially the sacredness of human body which Trueman argues is desecrated. He argues in detail about sex, gender identity, abortion in this regard.
I was more thinking how do we define man in the Vedanta or Budhdhist tradition in the east. Why should i limit myself to Christian thought. In Vedanta the body is just a dress that one wears, its the athma that is eternal, so evolution is just change in the annamayakosha or the bodily exterior, the athma has no gender it is just referred to as 'that'. So the idea of gender transformations or bodily changes or sexual orientation are not a desecration of man. In fact these are changes in the surface, the eternal atma is unaffected by these external changes. In fact if in the future human life can express outside a body even then there is no desecration as with Vedantha.
I was more thinking how do we define man in the Vedanta or Budhdhist tradition in the east. Why should i limit myself to Christian thought. In Vedanta the body is just a dress that one wears, its the athma that is eternal, so evolution is just change in the annamayakosha or the bodily exterior, the athma has no gender it is just referred to as 'that'. So the idea of gender transformations or bodily changes or sexual orientation are not a desecration of man. In fact these are changes in the surface, the eternal atma is unaffected by these external changes. In fact if in the future human life can express outside a body even then there is no desecration as with Vedantha.
April 18, 2026
I waited with baited breath for Carl Trueman’s, “The Desecration of Man: How the Rejection of God Degrades Our Humanity,” to be released as I did with all of his books. As always, it was interesting, thought provoking, and a valuable look at out 21st century culture. He spent the first six chapters describing how our culture’s banishment of God from our lives threatened our understanding of ourselves, our sexual lives, our ethics, and our view of death, along with the inherent harm that accompanies such an action. The last chapter declared that the proper response was to be found in Christ’s Church, particularly its creed (doctrine), its cult (worship), and its code (the life that proceeds from the doctrine and worship). At times, reading Trueman is like listening to Dennis Miller when he was on Monday Night Football: he was clever, aware, but used stories, quips, and illustrations that were over the heads of most of his listeners (not that the average MNF viewer belonged to MENSA). His (Trueman’s) literary, cultural, and philosophical explanations are beyond the average reader, or at least beyond this reader who dropped Introduction to Philosophy after one class. It is an excellent book, although a challenging read. It seemed longer than its 256 pages, yet, worth the work.
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