Is Christianity just religious truth?
Or is it truth about all of reality?
And if it's the latter (which it is) — why do so many so-called Christians check their faith at the door on Monday morning and don't pick it up again till church on Sunday? For at least some of them, they’ve been convinced of a lie, and that lie is debunked in Nancy Pearcey’s classic apologetic work, Total Truth: Liberating Christianity from Its Cultural Captivity, today’s book review.
Pearcey unleashes both barrels against the fragmented worldview by which Christians are bullied into compartmentalizing their faith. Total Truth is a masterpiece of an argument for a comprehensive Christian worldview that through us should touch every part of life — politics, business, education, law, the arts, etc.
This is not an argument for "Christian nationalism" or anything of the sort. This is an acknowledgment that all truth is God's truth; it is a rejection of the somewhat schizophrenic view that spiritual matters are personal and should not be brought into the public square, where things like "science" and "reality" reign supreme. Pearcey's book reminds us that the public square belongs to God too, and that science is His science; reality is what He created. As His ambassadors in the world, we have a duty to speak His truth into all matters that affect our neighbors, our families, and ourselves. We have a duty to speak truth, period.
Total Truth unfolds, step-by-step, a comprehensive Christian worldview. The book is packed with real-life examples to help readers visualize her philosophical arguments. I especially appreciated her extensive section on "beginnings" and her emphasis on the importance of articulating the truth of not just the gospel but of Genesis and the whole Bible. A listing of chapter sections and titles gives you an idea of the many places Pearcey will take you:
Worldview - Breaking Out of the Grid
Worldview - Rediscovering Joy (Send to Kamala? haha. Too soon perhaps.)
Worldview - Keeping Religion in its Place
Worldview - Surviving the Spiritual Wasteland
Beginnings - Darwin Meets the Berenstain Bears
Beginnings - The Science of Common Sense
Beginnings - Today Biology, Tomorrow the World
Beginnings - Darwins of the Mind
Losing Our Minds - What's So Good About Evangelicalism?
Losing Our Minds - When America Met Christianity — Guess Who Won?
Losing Our Minds - Evangelicals' Two-Story Truth
Losing Our Minds - How Women Started the Culture War
Living it Out - True Spirituality and Christian Worldview
Pearcey begins her book with this quote from her mentor, Francis Schaeffer:
Christianity is not a series of truths in the plural, but rather truth spelled with a capital "T." Truth about total reality, not just about religious things. Biblical Christianity is Truth concerning total reality — and the intellectual holding of that total Truth and then living in the light of that Truth.
That statement is good for us to hold in our hearts, but it takes some mental discipline to think through the ramifications of that so that we can robustly apply it to our lives. This book is a guidebook for that discipline. Like the first two books I've recommended this week (The Gospel According to Jesus, and The Invested Life) — I think Total Truth is a must read for every true Christ-follower.
By the way — these three books each provide an outstanding "curriculum" for teenagers who only have a few more years under your roof. Between them they will prepare your child with sound doctrine, apologetics, and principles of discipleship and evangelism. What more important use of your time, mom (or dad), than to commit to studying these books together with your teen son or daughter?
Purchase the book right here!