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432 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2020
"None of this is to argue that we should simply lament the situation, for expressive individualism is not an unmitigated evil. In some ways it marks a significant improvement on that which it replaced. One of the aspects of the modern culture of expressive individualism is the emphasis it places on the inherent dignity of the individual. The more strictly hierarchical nature of honor-based societies... contained much that a Christian might criticize, not least the notion that some human beings are worth more than others because of their positions within the social hierarchy... Yet it is here, in the idea of the equal dignity of all human beings, that one of the problems with the modern political project becomes clear. The idea that all human beings are of equal worth is rooted in the idea that all human beings are made in the image of God. The problem with expressive individualism is not its emphasis on the dignity or the individual value of every human being... it is the fact that expressive individualism has detached these concepts of individual dignity and value from any kind of grounding in a sacred order."