Central Abbotsford

This week’s newsletter is a review and some thoughts on a theological book that I recently read – if that’s your thing, read on! But even if it isn’t, at the end, I’ve included some takeaways that all of us can hopefully apply in our lives.

One of the more insightful Christian thinkers that I have followed over the past few years is Carl Trueman. If you are not familiar with him, Trueman is an English theologian who now resides in the USA working as a professor of Biblical and theological studies, and is also a prolific writer and cultural commentator from a perspective of orthodox Christian belief. He rose to new prominence in 2020 when he published his most popular book: The Rise and Triumph of the Modern Self, looking at how radical expressive individuality has become the default starting point for defining what it means to be human. Earlier this year, he released a new book, which is a follow-up in many ways, titled The Desecration of Man: How the Rejection of God Degrades our Humanity. I recently read it, and would like to share my thoughts regarding Trueman’s insights.

At the outset of the book, Trueman diagnoses the problem that lies at the heart of our current cultural situation, when he argues “To the question ‘What is man?’ our world has apparently given the answer: the one who transgresses what was formerly considered sacred and thereby demonstrates his own godlike status.” Essentially, he argues that the rise and triumph of the modern self has led to the false promise that we, as humans, have the authority to define our existence – and anything related to it – on our own terms. 

Against that backdrop, Trueman argues that according to the story of the Bible, “human beings are created by God with a given set of dependencies and obligations, limits and ends. We are rational, dependent, limited, and teleological beings. And the ways in which we formalize these traits are the moral codes that define what it is to be human.” In other words, we don’t get to define ourselves; God has given us great freedom in how we operate in His world, but He has never given us sovereignty over ourselves. We are made in His image, which means He retains ownership rights, whether we like it or not. The desecration of man is the denial of this reality – the denial that there is anything sacred in humanity.

Trueman contends that this desecration is the shadow side of the supposed self-determination and self-definition of modern humanity. After all, if we have the ability to define what it means to be human – if that is not imposed upon us from an outside source with authority over us – then we also have the ability to define who is not human. 

This, of course, has impacted the way that many social and cultural issues are discussed. If there is nothing sacred about humans and their relationships to one another, then marriage is nothing more than a contract between two people, able to be severed at will. There is no reason why the boundaries of one’s earthly life, or at least the natural endpoint of death, should be outside of one’s own control; hence the increased acceptance of what has come to be known as medical assistance in dying. Further, if humanity is not conveyed to someone until the moment of birth, then there is no basis for any restriction on terminating a life before it becomes truly human. All of these conversations become possible, even plausible, only once humanity is desecrated.

However, the desecration of man has impacts far beyond simply these issues that have come to define the “culture wars” of the past half-century or so. Especially in the context of relationships and communications that are easily mediated and depersonalized through the Internet, all of us are being discipled away from envisioning the image-bearer on the other end of that opinion or comment online that angered us. The increased ability of artificial intelligence to create very plausibly realistic generative video may indeed exacerbate this – after all, if we can’t trust our eyes as to what or who is genuinely human, maybe the definition is indeed as fluid as our culture believes?

In his conclusion, Trueman gives us an important diagnostic question to help guide us in navigating a world where the default position is that little, if anything, is sacred – “the key question to ask of any attitude, behavior, medical procedure, or piece of technology is: Does this shape the social imaginary in a way that makes us treat others as objects or commodities, or does it encourage us to think of them as persons made in the image of God?”

So, what then, are the takeaways for the everyday people of Central Abbotsford? I have a few:

1. Think Well About Your World

That last question that Trueman poses is a very good one. Oftentimes, our first and only question when faced with a new technological development is “does it work to accomplish what I want?”. As Christians, we should be wary of whether limiting our analysis to the pragmatic is something that actually contributes to (or is a result of) the desecration of man. 

When Trueman refers to the “social imaginary” in that quote, what he means is the collection of thoughts and beliefs that are broadly plausible. In a world that has removed God from the social imaginary, let us guard against doing the same, even inadvertently.

2. Consider Where You Are Discipled

It has become a cliché in church settings to make the observation that even weekly church attenders only spend about 1% of their waking hours in church. And even if you come for dinner and stay for dessert at Central Abby, that number still only goes up to about 3%. What is influencing you in your other 97-99%? What weight do you give to that time in church? Are you more formed in your views of the world by political and social commentary, or the teaching of Scripture?

Trueman argues that the resacralization of man requires three things only available at church: cult, creed, and code. Cult means the gathered and orderly worship of the church. Creed means the fundamental teachings of Christian orthodoxy. Code is the living out of the Christian moral code in our lives. In Northview’s lingo, these map out fairly neatly onto gather, grow, and go. But they only matter insofar as we let them impact us. 

3. Remember You Are Not Your Own

In 1 Corinthians 6:19-20, Paul asks “Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.” 

Because you are an image-bearer of God, you have immense value. Because He so loved the world, He sent His Son to the earth to live a perfect life, and die on behalf of all those who call upon Him as Lord and Saviour. For Christians, God has a doubly-effective claim to authority and ownership over you.

Some will argue that the ability to define what is a human is what gives us value. But this ignores the inverse reality that this ability just as easily allows humanity to be stripped. When we belong to God, when we are subordinate to Him, we do not and cannot possess this power. The desecration of man has led, in various forms, to evils both great and small – let us remember where our true value comes from, and seek to honour and glorify Him, and honour and respect the image-bearers that He has created, in all that we do, word, deed, and thought alike.