The Rise and Triumph of the Modern Self: Cultural Amnesia, Expressive Individualism, and the Road to Sexual Revolution

by Carl R. Trueman

Second worlds are those worlds that are characterized not so much by fate as by faith. The obvious example here is Christianity.6 The Christian faith shaped the cultures of the West in an incalculably deep way. Law codes were rooted in the will of God revealed in the Bible. Aquinas’s theory of law builds his entire moral edifice on the character of God himself. Concepts of justice and mercy were shaped by the Bible’s teaching. Our law courts still reflect that thinking to some degree: witnesses on the stand are traditionally required to place their hands on a sacred text (typically the Bible) and swear to tell the truth. The idea that they—and indeed, the entire proceedings—are in some sense accountable to the sacred is thus dramatically displayed in the very actions that surround the business of the courtroom.