Total Truth

Faced with constant challenges to their fully credible faith, Christianity's defenders have too often been content to think about and discuss issues within guidelines established by the critics instead of bringing a Christian agenda of their own. Nancy Pearcey corrects this. Telling us that always playing defense is still a mistake, "Total Truth" prepares readers to stand on solid ground and even to take the offense in a practical and loving way. Pearcey ably introduces readers to some of Christendom's best worldview resources: Luther's sturdy soteriology, the Scotch Reformers' epistemological confidence, and a too unfamiliar ontology from the Dutch Reformed school of Abraham Kuyper and Herman Dooyeweerd that provides a better (than faith vs science) framework to fully appreciate the Intelligent Design work of Phillip Johnson, Michael Behe, and William Dembski. She does not dig deeply for the Dutch treasures, but fully admits to them the debt of her approach. A well selected reading list at the end will guide readers who want to follow any of these threads beyond the last page. I agree with Nancy Pearcey. Francis Schaeffer is still a must-read for Christians in spite of some criticism for lacking academic rigor. He wasn't an academic. We'll benefit from his applied apologetic because its prophetic challenge to postmodernism becomes ever more useful with time. For the thirsty let me recommend Schaeffer's "The God who is There", "Escape from Reason", and "He is There and He is Not Silent". The last three contain his seminal thoughts. Readers will learn from them why worldviews are not empty ideas and words, they shape the way people live. Schaeffer's "The Mark of the Christian" is another small brilliant jewel. What makes "Total Truth" so useful is Pearcey's dead-on assertion that analyzing any worldview can reveal clearly what its ground motive really is. By using her analytical toolkit readers can dissect alternative worldviews and learn their real strengths and weaknesses. And Christians should not shrink from sharing this biblical ground motive: 1) God's CREATION, 2) the subsequent FALL that distorts the image God designed-in, and 3) His REDEMPTION of humans and eventual recreation of the entire cosmos in Christ. The Christian worldview explains all human experience and challenges other worldviews because it describes reality as it is. My complaints about "Total Truth" are minor in light of its immense scope and value. Allow me these: Few ancient Christian contributions are mentioned. One quote affirms that humans are icons of God, images of His being-in-relation. That's important! But Pearcey darkly glosses the motives of monasticism and gives un-nuanced critical treatment of neoplatonism that ignores entirely it's handling by the Cappadocian fathers and Maximus Confessor. [A fascinating side note is that Schaeffer's son, Frank, became an Orthodox Christian.] Finally, Pearcey says Hindu and Buddhist ideas were imported to the United Sta

This book is must reading for all Christians and Christian critics. Pearcey's mastery of the material, her clear thinking, her outstanding ability to express herself, and her compelling arguments are all a major reason why I predict that this book will become the standard work in the area. Pearcey makes a persuasive case for Christian involvement in society (to become the salt of the Earth). In my opinion, as a professional biologist very interested in the Darwinian controversies, the strongest part of the book (and the main reason why I bought it) is the section on Intelligent Design. She makes an excellent case for this world view and why it is critically important. I believe that her well done critique of Darwinism and her defense of Intelligent Design will improve the book's chances at achieving a wide audience. Many works exist that go into detail about the many problems with the conclusions of John Polkinghorne, Nancy Murphy and, especially, Ken Miller, as well as others who dissent from Intelligent Design's scientific and philosophical conclusions. To conclude that God may have created the laws of the universe and sat by watching as the creation created itself due to mutations being selected in the struggle for life, as does Ken Miller, suffers from major theological and, from my prospective, even more serious problems with the evidence from biology, genetics and, especially, molecular biology. My work is on mutations and it is clear that mutations have a limited ability to create. They may damage ribosome receptors in bacteria and, as a result, confer resistance to an antibiotic, but even here a fitness cost usually results.

Nancy Pearcey's Total Truth explains the essence of Christian worldview. While many scholars, including Francis Schaeffer, have extensively discoursed on worldviews, Pearcey communicates these lofty thoughts in an understandable manner. Total Truth is a must read. Using a plethora of external sources, Pearcey dissects the philosophy of modern society. She starts with the fact/value split in society, showing how our society constrains religion to the relativistic values realm while society deems science the only realm that universal absolutes can exist. Our society allows for religion and its moral implications provided that the religious do not impose their morality on others as universally valid. We have created a sacred/secular dichotomy that restricts Christianity to the realm of religious truth. Christianity must be viewed as ultimate Truth that pervades every part of our life. She delves deeper into the meaning of worldview. She explains, "[E]ach of us carries a model of the universe inside our heads that tells us what the world is like and how we should live in it. We all seek to make sense of life. Some convictions are conscious, while others are unconscious, but together they form a more or less consistent picture of reality." In essence, a worldview answers the question, "Why does reality exist?" Pearcey also tackles the most pervasive worldview in society, philosophical naturalism, which is an extension of atheism. After explicating the biological impossibility of evolution, she explores the philosophical implications of naturalism. From a naturalistic standpoint, the chemical processes in our minds should not reflect the order of the universe. For example, math, which is a conjuring of the human mind, should not function in nature. Naturalism has no rational explanation for reason or logic. Pearcey also notes, "[E]thics depends on the reality of something that materialistic science has declared to be unreal." After eliminating other worldviews as antithetical to reality, Pearcey traces the roots of Christianity, identifying the fact/value split in even the Great Awakening. She concludes with a call to Christians: we must "liberate Christianity from its cultural captivity," because Christianity is a worldview, not just a religion. A necessary for every Christian, philosopher, and inquisitive mind, Total Truth should be on every bookshelf.