Every now and again I sit down to write a review for a book and realize I am really under-equipped to review it well. I might have read it, enjoyed it, and benefitted from it, but lack the knowledge or expertise to confidently analyze it. This is exactly the case with Andrew Wilson’s Remaking the World: How 1776 Created the Post-Christian West.

The book’s big idea is that the year “1776, more than any other year in the last millennium, is the year that made us who we are.” In this case, the “us” refers to those who live in what we might call the modern, industrialized West. Of course when we hear “1776” we probably think first of the American Revolution. And when we learn that the author is an Englishman we might think we know what he is going to say. But we would be misled, for his point is not to argue that everything went wrong when America threw off its loyalty to the crown. What he argues is that if we want to understand who we are, we need to understand that year, for “it was a year that witnessed seven transformations taking place—globalization, the Enlightenment, the Industrial Revolution, the Great Enrichment, the American Revolution, the rise of post-Christianity, and the dawn of Romanticism.” Together these transformations “remade the world and profoundly influenced the way we think about God, life, the universe, and everything.” Of course each of the transformations has roots that extended much deeper in history and none of them took place neatly between January and December of that year. Yet each of them has some distinct connection to 1776.
As for those of us who live in the modern, industrialized West, Wilson describes this society as one that, “relative to others past and present, is … WEIRDER: Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich, Democratic, Ex-Christian, and Romantic.” In each of these seven descriptions, we are outliers compared to the great majority of people past or present who have lived in non-WEIRDER times and places. “The vast majority of people in human history have not shared our views of work, family, government, religion, sex, identity, or morality, no matter how universal or self-evident we may think they are.”
The book means to prove that our WEIRDER society can best be understood, or perhaps only be understood, in light of the year 1776. To do that Wilson first defends his use of WEIRDER as an apt description of you and me and the people around us. And I think few of us would seriously argue that our society is anything but Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich, Democratic, Ex-Christian, and Romantic (provided we understand “romantic” in the sense he means it rather than assuming he means that we are obsessed with wooing and swooning in an amorous way).
Having defended his acronym, he spends one chapter on each of them, showing how that descriptor is appropriate and how it connects to 1776. He does this a little out-of-order in relation to the acronym, opting to approach them as W-D-E-E-I-R-R. And it’s right about here that I realize I am under-equipped to really provide rigorous analysis. I resonated with his descriptions and enjoyed his observations and appreciated his arguments. But in the end, I do not know enough about history, and especially Western history around 1776, to know if his arguments hold. That is a level of analysis that will need to wait for people whose historical credentials far exceed my own. And I will legitimately look forward to reading such reviews and analyses.
This would probably be an appropriate juncture to point out that the book was positively endorsed by Thomas Kidd and Mark Noll, both of whom are true historians. I will also point out that two of the book’s endorsements used the word “verve” to describe the author’s efforts—possibly a first in Christian publishing, but also a good descriptor since it really is an enjoyable and lively look at a subject that in the hands of the wrong author could easily be drab or boring.
With his analysis of each of the letters in the acronym behind him, Wilson closes with two chapters that ask and answer questions like these: “What challenges and opportunities emerge from Westernization or Romanticism or Industrialization, and what should we do about them? How should Christians act in an Ex-Christian culture? What does faithful Christianity look like in the shadow of 1776? And here, I believe, we can draw a great deal of wisdom from an obvious source: faithful Christianity in 1776. How did believers in this turbulent and transformative era respond to what was happening around them? And what can we learn?” These chapters provide a solid place to end and provide an opportunity for personal application.
I very much enjoyed reading Remaking the World. It is an enjoyable book, a well-paced book, and, dare I say it, one written with verve. It takes on an audacious thesis and, as far as I can tell (even while admitting I’m entirely unqualified to judge), one the author defends well. I think you’re likely to enjoy it just as much as I did.
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This week’s Free Stuff Friday is sponsored by Grassmarket Press, a new imprint of Crown & Covenant Publications. They are giving away the first three books from Grassmarket Press (I Have a Confession by Nathan Eshelman, What Is Love? by Kyle Borg, and Worship, Feasting, Rest, Mercy by Daniel Howe) to each of ten winners.

Grassmarket Press aims to provide short books on Reformed and Presbyterian teaching and practice—for regular people. Each book is slim and lightweight, yet durable. They contain engaging stories, practical examples, and clear, biblical teaching.
I Have a Confession
In your town, there are probably many churches saying they follow the Bible, yet they worship very differently and take different positions on big issues. How can we find a church that promotes right thinking about the Bible, encourages unity with truth, protects us from error, and helps us proclaim the good news? That is the heart of confessional churches and being a confessional Christian. This book is an introduction to confessions and what they’re supposed to do (and not do), focusing on the Westminster Confession of Faith.
Stephen G. Myers: “Too many Christians today see confessions of faith as dry, obscure straitjackets. In this accessible, engaging work, Nathan Eshelman dispels these caricatures, showing how the Westminster Confession, in particular, brings Christians clarity in the gospel and guidance in the Christian life. Many Christians, both new and mature, will be in his debt.”
What Is Love?
There are many voices in every corner of our world that are trying to tell us what love is. We need that noise quieted by a voice that strong and true. In the Bible, God speaks clearly and fully in defining and describing what love is in all the different relationships of life. This book is an encouragement to stop and listen, to consider that which the Scriptures call the lightning flash of the Lord.
Rosaria Butterfield: “Accessibly and delightfully written, Pastor Borg’s What is Love? arms Christians to recognize and distinguish real love from its counterfeits. All Christians in a post-Obergefell world that uncritically believes ‘love is love’ need to read this book.”
Worship, Feasting, Rest, Mercy
“One day a week, we lay aside our tools, wash off the sweat, stop pursuing our agendas, and feast and sing in honor of God.”
The world tells us that work is our identity. Career, income, and the toys they let us buy determine our success or failure. But God says otherwise. The Sabbath is His weekly message that the good things we have are His gift. Once a week he invites us to set aside our labor, trust him to provide, and celebrate his faithfulness.
In this book, Daniel Howe makes the case that the Christian Sabbath is not about what we’re forbidden from doing. It’s about what we get to do: honor and enjoy God’s gift of rest, and share it with others.
Coming Soon
Look for more titles from Grassmarket Press in 2023–24, including Worthy: The Worship of God by Nathan Eshelman; Good News for the Poor by Pete Smith; The Elders of the People by Drew Gordon; and Loving the Trinity by Barry York.

To Enter:
Fill out the form below with your name and email address—limit one entry per person. When you enter, you agree to be added to Crown & Covenant’s email list. The winner will be notified by email and must have a North American shipping address. The giveaway closes on Monday, April 17 at 12 p.m. EST.

There are few blessings richer than having a good name, and few honors greater than having an upright reputation. “A good name is to be chosen rather than great riches,” says Solomon, and “a good reputation is more valuable than costly perfume.”1 That being the case, it falls to us to tend to names carefully, to respect what others hold most dear. We might justify carelessness with another man’s trifles and trinkets, but most certainly not with his good name.

Yet none of us can deny that we have often been reckless with what others count precious. None of us can deny that we have often besmirched a name rather than honored it, diminished it rather than strengthened it. We have found greater joy in being harsh than kind, in tearing down than building up. We have begun rumors, we have spread gossip, we have fostered false impressions, we have believed untruths, we have failed to love our neighbor as ourself.
Sometimes we have been motivated by envy, for when we draw a comparison to someone else and feel our own lack, it is far easier to tear down the other person than to raise up ourselves. Sometimes we have been motivated by jealousy, for when we see the possessions or accomplishments of another, our hearts may conspire against them. Sometimes we have been motivated by sheer greed, thinking that there is praise enough for only one, so that plaudits given them somehow diminish us.
And so we slander them by fabricating what is false and malicious; we defame them by letting information stand when we know it to be false; we malign them by spreading rumors to others; we lie about them when we pass along information that is uncorroborated or exaggerated; we gossip against them when we tell third parties what they have no business knowing; we are ungracious to them when we focus more on their flaws than their virtues, more on their weaknesses than their manifold strengths.
“Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy,” says Jesus, and we prove we have been recipients of mercy when we dispense it in turn to our fellow man. And while that mercy comes in many forms—hearts that care, hands that help, words that strengthen—it also finds expression in protecting another person’s name.
We act in mercy when we act in their good—to stop gossip rather than pass it on, to overlook offenses rather than make them known, to set aside unconfirmed information rather than believe it, to boast of God’s victories in a life rather than the world’s, the flesh’s, or the devil’s. This is true whether they are friends or family members, obscure or famous, Christians or unbelievers, for we get no free passes when it comes to lying, exaggerating, gossiping, and other such transgressions. Is it no less a sin to gossip about a hated politician than a beloved parent, a wayward celebrity than a treasured friend, for all are created in the image of God, all have dignity and worth, all are to be objects of our love, all fall under the sacred banner of “neighbor.”
Jesus says that the one who has been forgiven much will love much and in just that way, the one who has been shown much mercy will be eager to extend it to others. We who believe in Jesus Christ have been granted mercy beyond measure and, therefore, ought to be joyfully merciful in return—merciful even, and perhaps especially, to protect the precious blessing that is a good and upright name.

1Proverbs 22:1 NIV; Ecclesiastes 7:1 NLTInspired, in part, by Thomas Watson’s commentary on the Sermon on the Mount.