Month: May 2025 (Page 3 of 3)

Carl Trueman, wrote an enlightening article about Phillip Rieff’s distinction between first, second and third worlds.  Rieff is know for his emphasis on the therapeutic self; a concept of happiness resulting from an inner, psychological happiness.  “Everything else,” notes Trueman, “must conform to my inward desires and pander to my personal needs.  There’s no need for me to fit into larger society and learn to behave in accordance with society norms.”   

Rieff is not interested in either geographics nor economics.  He rather is interested in the type of culture that societies embody.  Trueman believes Reiff’s paradigm helps us understand why the world seems so unstable and chaotic at this time. 

The first-world cultures, “are those in the past that build their moral orders on the basis of notions of fate or the gods.”  In this culture, fate is the controlling idea.  “It is not God as some transcendent being who is in charge, but it is still a force prior to the natural order and beyond the control of mere men and women, that make the rules.” 

The second-world cultures, “are those where the law has authority because it reflects the character of God.”  Second-world societies include Christendom and the world of Old Testament Judaism.  According to Rieff, “both first and second worlds justify their morality by appeal to something transcendent, beyond the material world.  But the second-world cultures appeal not only to supernatural power but to divine integrity.”  Our concepts of justice and mercy have been shaped by a biblical worldview.  “Rieff would say that in second-world cultures, the law has authority because it points beyond the culture and beyond fate to something sacred that grounds it.”

By the term third world, Rieff, “means that a society has moved into a completely secular mode.”  “In a secular society, law codes can only be justified and grounded in society itself.  There’s nothing beyond this society, and that makes law codes inherently unstable.”  When the sacred order is abandoned, cultures are left without any foundation at all.  A culture without a sacred order is left, “justifying itself only by reference to itself.”  This is what we see in our culture today.

As a result, society becomes incredibly unstable and in constant change.  We all sense this instability in our daily lives.  It is hard to live with second-world assumptions, while attempting to ground morality and ethics in higher divine authority in a third world setting.  The third world does not see the Bible as having any authority.  Trueman notes, “I think that’s where a lot of the communication breakdown” happens today. Living in the third world,  we are plagued by what Flannery O’Connor called “Christ-hauntedness.”

The goal of the second world was to help pagans see how Jesus was better than their dead idols.  But Trueman maintains, “While there’s still a place for exposing heart-idols in our own times, our goal in the third world must be to help our more secular friends see that their worldview lacks any firm foundation.”  While present day culture keeps shifting in its beliefs and values, Trueman challenges us to “model community life in the church that’s rooted in the Rock.”

All men who are followers of Jesus in our day, need the reminder that there are no “Lone Rangers.”  We witness to our secular culture  as a believing community.  Jesus who is the truth reminds us of the impact community has when He instructs us, “A new command I give you: Love one another.  As I have loved you, so you must love one another.  By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another. (John 13:34-35)