Crisis of Confidence: Reclaiming the Historic Faith in a Culture Consumed with Individualism and Identity

Carl R. Trueman

Carl R. Trueman has produced a matured version of his 2012 book The Creedal Imperative. Much has transpired in the decade that followed. Trueman was sensitive to this, and he states, “The creedal imperative is greater today than it was ten years ago because the God to which the creeds and confessions point remains the same even in these times of change and flux, and we need perhaps more than ever to be remined of that fact and its implications. ” At the heart of the book Trueman sees expressive individualism (the idea that we are defined by
our inner feelings, that our relationships with others place no natural or necessary obligations upon us, and that we can pick and choose them as they serve our emotional needs) as what Christians need to realize as the zeitgeist of Western Culture. Particularly in chapter 5 entitled Confession as Praise, we find a good summation and what Trueman’s antidote is: A common confession in a creed is good: it makes the point that my faith is the faith of the other people in the church—both today and throughout the ages. Creeds teach me who I am—one of a vast multitude redeemed by Jesus Christ; and reciting them corporately enacts that reality Sunday by Sunday. This book is recommended as it is more difficult to engage our Christianity in a holy huddle and we need unity to navigate as one Church Body.