There’s a dense but compelling book called How the Scots Invented the Modern World, which traces how Reformed theology shaped the foundation of Western civilization—anchoring society in truth, virtue, community, and covenantal accountability. That thread once held our cultural fabric together. Over the last half-century, we’ve steadily pulled at that thread and wonder why things are falling apart. The result is that we are now living among the frayed ends.

The unraveling actually did not begin in the revolution of the 1960s, rise of globalism or proliferation of the Smartphone. The unraveling began in the Garden. It began when we exalted personal freedom above moral obedience—when we replaced dependence on God with devotion to self. When “me” became more important than “we.”

Three Core Reformed Foundations We’ve Forgotten:

1. Human Sinfulness
Reformed theology begins here: the deepest problem our world faces is not systemic or structural—it’s internal. It’s you. It’s me. The human heart is bent inward. But we’ve shifted the blame. We demonize “them” in order to forget the log in our own eye. Our refusal to name and restrain personal sin is rotting the root of civic life.

2. The Need for Community
We were never meant to journey alone. In Christ, we were meant to become one body. But expressive individualism has dethroned that vision. Commitment feels oppressive. Accountability sounds like judgment. Disagreement becomes a reason to de-church. As one pastor observed, “I’ve seen people leave churches over politics, but I’ve never seen someone change their politics because of their church.” That inversion reveals our true allegiances. We look for any reason in relationships or life to hit the escape button.

3. Freedom Constrained by Virtue
“All things are permissible,” Paul wrote, “but not all things are beneficial.” Reformed liberty is never raw license—it’s always tethered to love of the neighbor. But freedom detached from virtue becomes mere self-indulgence. Whether it’s the sexual revolution or the rampant consumerism, we’ve baptized selfishness and called it freedom.

Postmodernity dismantled our shared story.
Subjectivism privatized truth.
Individualism made responsibility feel oppressive.

We now inhabit the world we chose—one where truth is optional, community is fragile, and virtue is negotiable. But this didn’t happen overnight. It started in a garden, when Adam and Eve believed dependence was weakness and independence was worth the fall.

The antidote to radical individualism is found in the roots of Reformed theology that reminds us:

• We are not in charge—God is.
• We did not choose Him—He chose us.
• But, God chose us for service, not self indulgence.
• Alone, we are distorted, but in Christ, we are redeemed.
• We are loved by grace, not because of our efforts or our identities.
• And we are part of the one grand Story found in Scripture that can lead our souls home.