Total Truth: Liberating Christianity from Its Cultural Captivity [Anglais] [Relié]

As a religiously adrift young adult in the 1960s, Pearcey found her way to the Swiss retreat, and the intellectually rigorous faith, of the Calvinist maverick Francis Schaeffer. This book continues the Schaeffer-inspired project that Pearcey and Chuck Colson began in How Now Shall We Live?—awakening evangelical Christians to the need for a Christian "worldview," which Pearcey defines as "a biblically informed perspective on all reality." Pearcey gives credibly argued perspectives on everything from Rousseau's rebellion against the Enlightenment, to the roots of feminism, to the spiritual poverty of celebrity-driven Christianity. She also provides a layperson's guide to the history of America's anti-intellectual strain of evangelicalism. Unfortunately for the book's chance at a wide audience, several chapters are devoted to a critique of Darwinism and defense of Intelligent Design—with no substantive engagement with the many thoughtful Christians (John Polkinghorne, Ken Miller, Nancey Murphy, etc.) who dissent from Intelligent Design's scientific and philosophical program. Still, Pearcey deftly applies Schaeffer's core insight that modernity has been built on a "two-story" view of reality—with "facts" on the ground floor and "values" up in the air. Her critique of this view is compelling, and her final chapters, which begin to sketch an integrated Christian way of living and thinking, are exceptional. This is the rare long book that leaves one wanting to read more.
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Pearcey argues passionately. . . . [she] can help Christians develop a more consistent orientation to all of life with a Christian worldview.

Fabulous . . . Pearcey’s worldview guide [is] getting rave reviews from many sources. We highly recommend it.

Very well written and spiced with anecdotes. Would that every Christian pastor and youth group leader read this book.

Probably the most significant book of 2004. I pray its influence and impact will be felt for decades.

Viewed by many as the Francis Schaeffer of her generation . . . essential reading for all serious-thinking Christians.

An outstanding writer. If you buy only one book this year, this would be at the top of the list.

Does God belong in the public arena of politics, business, law, and education? Or is religion a private matter only--personally comforting but publicly irrelevant? In today's cultural etiquette, it is not considered polite to mix public and private, or sacred and secular. This division is the single most potent force keeping Christianity contained in the private sphere--stripping it of its power to challenge and redeem the whole of culture.

In Total Truth, Nancy Pearcey offers a razor-sharp analysis of the public/private split, explaining how it hamstrings our efforts at both personal and cultural renewal. Ultimately it reflects a division in the concept of truth itself, which functions as a gatekeeper, ruling Christian principles out of bounds in the public arena.

How can we unify our fragmented lives and recover spiritual power? With examples from the lives of real people, past and present, Pearcey teaches readers how to liberate Christianity from its cultural captivity. She walks readers through practical, hands-on steps for crafting a full-orbed Christian worldview.

Finally, she makes a passionate case that Christianity is not just religious truth but truth about total reality. It is total truth.

Nancy Randolph Pearcey is the Francis A. Schaeffer scholar at the World Journalism Institute, where she teaches a worldview course based on the study guide edition of Total Truth. In 2005, Total Truth won an Award of Merit in the Christianity Today Book Awards and the prestigious ECPA Gold Medallion Award in its Christianity & Society category.