Enlightenment individualism prepared the foundation for self-expression, which has culminated in the identification of oneself with one’s sexual urges. Not only can the modern individual define who he is, but, in so doing, can also contribute to the re-definition of what humanity itself is.

In checking the news it is reported that a man who identifies and presents as a woman has won a beauty pageant—being crowned as Miss Nevada USA. This news comes next to an item reporting that the Supreme Court declined to hear a case in which a transgender girl sued the school board for barring her from the girls’ toilets because she was actually a boy—thereby granting the individual a “victory” in the courts. These stories, along with that of a man supplanting a woman weightlifter on the Olympics team and the ongoing story of Bruce (Caitlin) Jenner running for governor of California, pushes the transgender issue before our eyes daily.

The question of how we got here and why is the opening premise of Carl R. Trueman’s important book, The Rise and Triumph of the Modern Self: Cultural Amnesia, Expressive Individualism and the Road to Sexual Revolution. Mr. Trueman, who is a Scot, is professor of Biblical and Religious Studies at Grove City College. His study combines sharp social observation with a perceptive and profound analysis of the philosophical trends from the last four hundred years which have brought Western man to the crisis of self-awareness that has so many wondering who they are and what they are here for.

Beginning with the revolutionary French thinkers of the eighteenth century, Mr. Trueman shows how rationalistic individualists like Rousseau laid the foundations for the emotive individualists of the nineteenth-century Romantic movement. These thinkers in turn set the stage for Nietzsche, Darwin, Marx, and Freud as the true fathers of the contemporary social scene.

In a nutshell, enlightenment individualism prepared the foundation for self-expression, which has culminated not only in the sentimentalism of romanticism, but ultimately in the identification of oneself not just with one’s emotions, but with one’s sexual urges. Thus, the post-modern person is encouraged to find his or her “true identity” in his or her sexual desires.

However, as the modern anti-procreation technologies have separated human sexuality from its true purpose and meaning, sexuality itself has become confused and confusing. Not knowing what sex is for, modern people have lost the truth of what a man is or what a woman is, and in losing the identity of man and woman the identity of humanity itself is threatened. Not only can the modern individual define who he is, but, in so doing, can also contribute to the re-definition of what humanity itself is.

Ending with chapters entitled “The Triumph of the Erotic” and “The Triumph of the Therapeutic,” Mr. Trueman unveils the bleak result of the shallow individualism that threatens the fabric of society and has brought such restlessness and misery to so many.

My only grumble with Mr. Trueman’s excellent book is the grumble one would expect from a Catholic reviewer of the writings of a Scottish Presbyterian: I believe Mr. Trueman did not dig deeply enough into the origins of the present cultural decay. The disintegration of a Biblical and revealed understanding of reality began not with Rousseau and the Enlightenment, but with the rupture between realism and religion that sprang from the nominalism of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, which then blossomed in the Protestant revolution. One can argue that Rousseau’s individualism was rooted in his upbringing in Calvin’s Geneva, and that Presbyterianism itself, with its revolutionary agenda, helped to lay the foundation for our present malaise.

An excellent companion to Mr. Trueman’s book is by husband-and-wife team, Benjamin and Jenna Silber Storey. Professor and Assistant Professor of Politics and International Affairs at Furman University, the Storeys’ Why We Are Restless also explores the enlightenment roots of the current pandemic of unhappiness. Beginning with Montaigne in the seventeenth century, the authors unlock his prototype individualism—a studied nonchalance… a philosophy that is summed up as a kind of Francophone coolness: “Chill out monsieur. Enjoy le bon vie. Don’t worry about the big questions. Life is short. Be happy.”

From there the authors explore the intense reaction to Montaigne’s easy going indifference acted out by the Jansenists and voiced by the powerfully attractive Blaise Pascal. Like Mr. Trueman, they see Rousseau as a key figure in the foundation of modern attitudes, but they move on to the next generation of French thinker—Alexis de Tocqueville with his acute observations of nineteenth century United States. De Tocqueville sees how Montaigne’s individualism, Pascal’s religious fervor and Rousseau’s radical individualism blossomed into the individualistic, energetic, entrepreneurial, religious, and revolutionary character that was becoming the persona of the United States of America.

The Storeys’ book is a valuable, accessible and learned resource to understand the depth of modern America’s restlessness and its roots in the thought and theories of the French writers of the last /four hundred years.They conclude their study with an appeal for us to make wise choices, to invest in liberal (and classical) education so that we might better understand our rootlessness and restlessness and therefore be open to St Augustine’s famous prayer that “O God, our hearts are restless until they find their rest in you.”

The restlessness of modern man has also been the study of a more contemporary French thinker—René Girard. In fact, the Storeys’ compilation of French philosophers might well have concluded with a chapter on Girard. Luke Burgis, director of programs at the Ciocca Center for Principled Entrepreneurship at Catholic University of America, has provided an excellent, accessible introduction to Girard. Wanting: The Power of Mimetic Desire in Everyday Life introduces Girard’s famous insight and explores and explains how imitation desire motivates so many of our decisions and actions. Mr. Burgis’ book is an excellent accent to Mr. Trueman’s and the Storeys’ studies of how we got where we are today.

Girard understood that once our basic needs are met, we are driven by desires that spring from our instinct to imitate others. This “mimetic desire” is an inner driver that consequently leads to competition, ambition, rivalry, the desire for revenge, and finally violence. Mr. Burgis’ book provides a solid understanding of Girard’s core idea with plenty of illustrations from the business world and from Mr. Burgis’ own life experience.

Understanding Girard sheds light on the thinkers analyzed by Mr. Trueman and the Storeys. “Aha!” We can mutter, “So that’s why Montaigne was so seemingly diffident—why Rousseau desired his freedom and Nietzsche, Freud, Marx, and the other architects of modernity did what they did and thought what they thought. Beneath it all they too were driven by the chthonic forces of mimetic desire!”

While one is always wary of a “master theory” that explains everything, Girard’s mimetic desire comes close. Critics of the theory have pointed out that Girard has only brought to light the depth and pervasiveness of the deadly sin of envy, and they have a point. Just as “our hearts are restless until they find their rest in God,” so it might be said, “Our hearts are discontented and envious until they find their contentment in their creator.”

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