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REMAKING THE WORLD: How 1776 Created the Post-Christian West
Andrew Wilson
How 7 Transformational Events in 1776 Paved the Way for Today’s Post-Christian West
With dizzying social transformations in everything from gender to social justice, it may seem like there’s never been a more tumultuous period in history. But a single year in the late 18th century saw a number of influential transformations—or even revolutions—that changed the social trajectory of the Western world. By understanding how those events influenced today’s cultural landscape, Christians can more effectively bear witness to God’s truth in a post-Christian age.
In Remaking the World, Andrew Wilson highlights 7 major developments from the year 1776—globalization, the Enlightenment, the Industrial Revolution, the Great Enrichment, the American Revolution, the rise of post-Christianity, and the dawn of Romanticism—and explains their relevance to social changes happening today. Carefully examining key documents and historical figures, Wilson demonstrates how a monumental number of political, philosophical, economic, and industrial changes in the year of America’s founding shaped the modern West into a “WEIRDER” society: Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich, Democratic, Ex-Christian, and Romantic. This thoroughly researched yet accessible book offers a unique historical perspective on modern views of family, government, religion, and morality—giving Christians the historical lens they need to understand today’s post-Christian trends and respond accordingly.
Illustrations
Author's Note
Part One: Changes
Chapter 1: Roots: The Presence of the Past
Chapter 2: Quirks: The WEIRDER World
Part Two: Origins
Chapter 3: Maps: Becoming Western
Chapter 4: Patriots: Becoming Democratic
Chapter 5: Lights: Becoming Educated
Chapter 6: Skeptics: Becoming Ex-Christian
Chapter 7: Machines: Becoming Industrialized
Chapter 8: Lovers: Becoming Romantic
Chapter 9: Profits: Becoming Rich
Part Three: Responses
Chapter 10: Christians: Grace, Freedom, and Truth
Chapter 11: Opportunities: Possibilities for a Postsecular World
Acknowledgments
Endnotes
Select Bibliography
Index
ENDORSEMENTS
“Andrew Wilson’s book is extraordinary in every way: extraordinary in the breadth of research; extraordinary in the multitude of world-significant events that Wilson identifies for 1776; extraordinary in the depth of his insight on what those events meant (and continue to mean); extraordinary in the verve with which he makes his arguments; and, not least, extraordinary in the persuasive Christian framework in which he sets the book. Remaking the World is a triumph of both creative historical analysis and winsome Christian interpretation.” -Mark Noll, Research Professor of History, Regent College; author, America’s Book: The Rise and Decline of a Bible Civilization, 1794–1911
“Andrew Wilson is a wise and witty guide through the eventful year 1776 (eventful in, as he shows, sometimes surprising ways). He convincingly demonstrates that we’re still living in the wake of that historical moment—and offers shrewd suggestions for how Christians might navigate those rough waters.” -Alan Jacobs, Distinguished Professor of Humanities, Baylor University
“Andrew Wilson’s extraordinary Remaking the World delivers a gripping history of how the seeds of the post-Christian West were sown in the late eighteenth century. It is an intellectual tour de force and a model of Christian scholarship.” -Thomas S. Kidd, Research Professor of Church History, Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary; author, Thomas Jefferson: A Biography of Spirit and Flesh
“The eighteenth century is one of the most fascinating and important periods in human history, and in this book, Andrew Wilson shows exactly why. Remaking the World isn’t just a history book, however. It’s a wide-ranging examination and exploration of the past that makes sense of our present and shines a light on the future. Few books offer as compelling, rich, and insightful cultural analysis that covers so much ground as this one. It’s history for history lovers—and for the rest of us.” -Karen Swallow Prior, author, The Evangelical Imagination: How Stories, Images, and Metaphors Created a Culture in Crisis
“Brilliantly conceived, carefully researched, and written with verve, this book shows how one single year—1776—made the world all of us inhabit. Bringing together historical drama and specific events told in granular detail, this is history as it should be recounted—provocative, engaging, and consequential. Heartedly recommended!” -Timothy George, Distinguished Professor of Divinity, Beeson Divinity School, Samford University
“When Americans see ‘1776’ in the subtitle of a book written by an Englishman, they likely think they know what to expect—an apologia for monarchy. That’s not this book. Instead, Remaking the World offers an insightful and trenchant intellectual history of how the ideas and figures of a single year catapulted us into the present. A book like this should make Christians more discerning and critical about the taken-for-granted assumptions that we all believe are routine but are really the product of forces outside our control. Toward the end, Wilson gives Christians a pathway to witness to a world that thinks it has eclipsed the claims of Christianity but remains unable to explain itself apart from it.” -Andrew T. Walker, Associate Professor of Christian Ethics, The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary; Fellow, The Ethics and Public Policy Center
“This is an arresting book. Even though Andrew Wilson is a vocational pastor and not a professional historian, his historical judgment and modesty are exemplary. His narrative is sensitive to the many complex causes of ‘modernity,’ never gets bogged down in details, and is written with elegant and lively prose. I can think of no better book to help Christians understand how our world has (and has not) become post-Christian. In Remaking the World, Wilson has established himself among contemporary Christianity’s most subtle and interesting thinkers.” -Matthew Lee Anderson, Assistant Research Professor of Ethics and Theology, Institute for Studies of Religion, Baylor University; Cohost, Mere Fidelity
Andrew Wilson (PhD, King’s College London) is the teaching pastor at King’s Church London and a columnist for Christianity Today. He is the author of several books, including Incomparable; Echoes of Exodus; and God of All Things. Andrew is married to Rachel and they have three children: Zeke, Anna, and Samuel.
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