How did so many people in our day come to believe that sexuality is at the core of a person’s individual identity? And how is it that inner psychology and subjective feelings came to have more cultural authority than a person’s actual biology? Shane Rosenthal discusses these questions and more with Carl Trueman, author of The Rise & Triumph of the Modern Self.
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In times past, if you said “I feel like a man trapped in a woman’s body,” people would have said, “No, it’s your feelings that are wrong. We need to address what is going on inside your head and bring it into conformity with your body.” The fact that transgenderism now is plausible indicates that we no longer take bodily authority with the same seriousness as we once did. This idea is part and parcel of a major change that has happened over the last three hundred years whereby our inner feelings — that voice of nature within us — has come to hold an authoritative position in how we think of ourselves and what we consider to be our identity.
Carl Trueman
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