After a two-year hiatus, the sixth “Center for Christian Studies – First Things Lecture” is now in the books. Once again, the event was a great success. In fact, this was the largest crowd so far.
On Monday evening, September 19, about 350 people flocked to hear Carl Trueman, Professor at Grove City College, Contributing Editor at First Things, and best-selling author. The lecture topic was “The Sentimental Death of a Culture.”
Trueman described culture, following Philip Rieff, as a set of motives that direct the self outward. We now live in an age that exalts sentiment and self-expression, an inward turn that portends the death of any meaningful sense of culture. This development of expressive individualism is reflected in the decline of such important social institutions as nation, family, and church, and, conversely, the increasing popularity and prestige of theater, hospitals, and other institutions that exist to make one feel good. Typical of Trueman, it was an engaging and wide-ranging speech, and I won’t attempt to summarize the entire thing.
We at the Center for Christian Studies are grateful to Carl Trueman for sharing his insights with our community, and we are grateful again to First Things magazine for co-sponsoring the event. We look forward to future collaboration with First Things.
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You can view a video of Trueman's talk here. Due to technical problems, the first several minutes of Trueman's talk were not captured.