Total Truth (Nancy Pearcey)

We all have a worldview—a "perspective on all reality" that "tells us what the world is like and how we should live in it. A worldview "is like a mental map that tells us how to navigate the world effectively." "Our worldview is the way we answer the core questions of life that everyone has to struggle with: What are we here for? What is ultimate truth? Is there anything worth living for?" We all live by some set of convictions. In Total Truth, Nancy Pearcey looks at worldview through three strands:

1) The secular/sacred dichotomy (what it is, how it came to be, why it is false, and why it matters)

2) Creation, "the foundational starting point for any worldview." She critiques Darwinism—"both its scientific claims and worldview implications."—and shows how the latter has been extended far beyond science into many spheres of life.

3) History of the American church acquiesing on worldview, or 'how we got here.'

She concludes with some practical and personal application. After all, "Christianity is not just religious truth, it is total truth—coveraing all reality."

Some thoughts from this work (not intended to be a comprehensive summary):

- "Humans are inherently religious beings, created to be in relationship with God—and if they reject God, they don't stop being religious; they simply find some other ultimate principle upon which to base their lives." Everyone has (or seeks) answers to life's basic questions, to include where did we come from, what is wrong with the world, and what is our purpose in it?

- Nobody (and no philosophy) is neutral. "Every system of thought begins with some ultimate principle," and "whatever a system puts forth as self-existing is essentially what it regards as divine." From there, "we always process data in light of some theoretical framework that we have adopted for understanding the world."

- For the Christian, the basic framework is Creation, Fall, Redemption. "A genuinely biblical theology must keep all three principles in careful balance: that all created reality comes from the hand of God and was originally and intrinsically good; that all is marred and corrupted by sin; yet that all is capable of being redeemed, restored, and transformed by God's grace." Thus, "there is a biblical perspective on everything—not just on spiritual matters." All we do must be viewed through, and transformed by, the Gospel. Everything is sacred.

In any field, the way to construct a Christian worldview perspective is to ask three sets of questions:

1. CREATION: How was this aspect of the world originally created? What was its original nature and purpose? 

2. FALL: How has it been twisted and distorted by the Fall? How has it been corrupted by sin and false worldviews? Cut off from God, creation tends to be either divinized or demonized—made into either an idol or an evil.

3. REDEMPTION: How can we bring this aspect of the world under the Lordship of Christ, restorting it to its original, created purpose?

- A worldview involves total truth, but over the centuries, a dualism (or two-story truth) has arose and continued: call it secular vs. sacred, matter vs. mind, truth vs. values, reason vs. romanticism. Whatever the terms, the theory behind it is the same: that reality is split into 'neutral/true for all' and 'subjective/true for me.' This false dichotomy produces significant (though often unchallenged) problems and contradictions for its adherents.

- Creation is the starting point for all worldviews, and merits special focus. The major competing worldview to Christianity is naturalism, based on Darwin. The Darwinist is "already persuaded of philosophical naturalism: that nature is all that exists, or at least that natural forces are all that may be invoked in science." And so they restrict "science to methodological naturalism," and look at life as "a closed system of cause and effect." That is an assumption—their ultimate principle and unquestioned truth. In being unwilling to consider an intelligent design in any part of what they observe, they show a bias based on their underlying worldview. The "claim that science can operate without any philosophical premises proved, in the end, to be a cover for discarding Christian premises while smuggling in naturalistic ones." Again, nobody is neutral. We all have assumptions. 

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This book makes a lot of good points. I agree with Pearcey on nearly all fronts. That said, I found the book repetitive. The same basic point (worldview is a total truth, and the dichotomy prevalent today is a problem) is stated again and again, in different ways, at different points. Throughout the history of the world and of the church, she shows myriad ways how the dichotomy manifested itself and why it mattered. Not a bad thing, but it got repetitive. In addition, I felt some of her arguments treated the opposing viewpoints a touch unfairly (or her claims made assumptions I'm not sure were valid). I agree with her arguments, but you still have to be fair to the opposition. Finally, the last section felt more like a rant against specific things than a general practical/personal application, so that was a letdown. I am focusing on the negative things here . . . overall, the book is solid, but I like The Soul of Science book better.

Rating: A-