To Change All Worlds: Critical Theory from Marx to Marcuse - Book Review

In this episode of Truth Tribe, I review Carl Trueman's newest book, "To Change All Worlds: Critical Theory from Marx to Marcuse." His magisterial 2020 volume, "The Rise and Triumph of the Modern Self," established him as an insightful, rigorous, and incisive analyst who writes lucidly about complex ideas and places them into a Christian context. He then followed up this book with a smaller summary volume, which added new material, which was called "Strange New World," which was published in 2022. His newest effort addresses in more depth elements taken up in that previous work, or actually those two previous works, the nature of Critical Theory and its influence in contemporary culture.

Although critical race theory has its roots in critical theory, Truman does not say much about critical race theory. We are again in his debt for an in depth analysis, rich in original source research and pertinent for understanding contemporary cultural and political currents. Hegel was right in at least one thing: to understand an age, you must understand its philosophy, and as Christians, we must expose it and counter it with biblical truth.

Truman, patiently and non polemically, explains critical theory. To do so, he explores the philosophies of major figures such as Hegel, Karl Marx, and Sigmund Freud, and culturally significant thinkers from the German Frankfurt school such as Herbert Marcuse and Max Horkheimer. He also consults Neo-Marxist thinkers such as John Lucas and Karl Koch and the Neo-Freudian Wilhelm Reich as a historian.

Truman's aim is more elucidation than reputation, and he exposes difficult ideas in readable prose—no mean feat. However, he is wisely critical of critical theory to summarize and review a book that explores several dense thinkers, and their significance is challenging. I'd rather teach it than review it. However, several salient ideas emerge, which I will discuss here.

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Douglas Groothuis, Ph.D., is Distinguished University Research Professor of Apologetics and Christian Worldview at Cornerstone University and the author of twenty books, including Beyond the Wager: The Christian Brilliance of Blaise Pascal (InterVarsity, 2024).

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