CFC Lecture

Carl Trueman: The Freedom of the Christian and the Bondage of the Shrill

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Technology is reshaping the world in very significant ways.

The printing press changed the world during the time of the Reformation, and recent technological developments are changing how we communicate and interact with each other. Some of these changes are positive, but not all of them are. What social costs do our technologies bring?

Dr. Carl Trueman recently delivered the annual Drummond-Bush Lecture for the L. Russ Bush Center for Faith and Culture. In his lecture, he highlights three social costs suggests some ways we can respond. You can watch the video above, or read a few excerpts below.

Carl R. Trueman is a graduate of the Universities of Cambridge (MA) and Abderdeen (PhD) and formerly served on faculty at the Universities of Nottingham and Aberdeen and Westminster Theological Seminary (PA). Before joining the Grove City College faculty in 2018, he was the William E. Simon Visiting Fellow in Religion and Public Life at Princeton University. He is married with two adult sons and is also an ordained minister in the Orthodox Presbyterian Church. He is the author of numerous books, including Histories and Fallacies and The Rise and Triumph of the Modern Self, both from Crossway, and joint editor (with Bruce Gordon) of The Oxford Handbook of Calvin and Calvinism (Oxford University Press).

The purpose of polemics in the church is not the gotcha, the destruction of the other person; it’s the pursuit of the truth.

Highlights:

  • “The phenomenon of social acceleration is where technological developments take place so fast that societies not able to accommodate selves to latest technological developments before next ones come around.”
  • “Technology has created rival authorities…. The trans movement is driven in part by passionate and moving videos posted online that kids are watching.”
  • “The technological way of life tends toward disembodiment and isolation…. COVID taught us to tap into something which was already latent in us — to view others in adversarial light… as people that prevent me from being me.”
  • “Technology tilts us towards ‘gotchas,’ not towards truth…. Twitter allows for the ripping out of context of what people say. And when you take something out of context, you destroy its meaning.”
  • “The purpose of polemics in the church is not the gotcha, the destruction of the other person; it’s the pursuit of the truth.”
Disclaimer

All opinions and views expressed by guest speakers are solely their own. They do not speak for nor represent SEBTS. Read our expressed views and confessions.

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Center for Faith and Culture

The L. Russ Bush Center for Faith and Culture seeks to engage culture as salt and light, presenting the Christian faith and demonstrating its implications for all areas of human existence.

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