Total Truth

May 31, 2004
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.