Total Truth: Liberating Christianity from Its Cultural Captivity
Overview
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.
Top Highlights
“Redemption is not just about being saved from sin, it is also about being saved to something—to resume the task for which we were originally created.” (Page 47)
“The first step in forming a Christian worldview is to overcome this sharp divide between ‘heart’ and ‘brain.’ We have to reject the division of life into a sacred realm, limited to things like worship and personal morality, over against a secular realm that includes science, politics, economics, and the rest of the public arena. This dichotomy in our own minds is the greatest barrier to liberating the power of the gospel across the whole of culture today.” (Page 20)
“In short, it is not as though Christians have faith, while secularists base their convictions purely on facts and reason. Secularism itself is based on ultimate beliefs, just as much as Christianity is. Some part of creation—usually matter or nature—functions in the role of the divine. So the question is not which view is religious and which is purely rational; the question is which is true and which is false.” (Page 42)
“The great historian of religion Martin Marty once said every religion serves two functions: First, it is a message of personal salvation, telling us how to get right with God; and second, it is a lens for interpreting the world.” (Page 35)
“As Romans 1 puts it, we either worship and serve the true God or we worship and serve created things (idols). 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.” (Page 40)
Pearcey helps readers see how many modern Christians unwittingly accept a sacred/secular split, which allows them to relegate faith to the private sphere of life. She then clearly puts forth a Scriptural picture of integrating all of life under the liberating Lordship of Christ and shows what that truth means for the areas of public policy, family life, science, business, law, education, and more.
-Covenant Magazine
This book continues the Schaeffer-inspired project that Nancy 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.' This is the rare long book that leaves one wanting to read more.
-Publishers Weekly
On one level, this book is a lucid, easy-to-understand manual for worldview thinking. But it also breaks new ground in worldview analysis.
-World Magazine
Pearcey is an outstanding writer with the ability not only to express deep thoughts in a very readable way, but one who also understands a biblically reformed world and life view. If you buy only one book this year, this would be at the top of the list.
-Equip for Ministry
Total Truth questions the modern American cultural attitude of keeping religion a private matter, claiming that Christianity's truth is best served by being brought into the public sphere to maximize its influence.
-Midwest Book Review
Thoroughly researched, well-written and well-argued, Total Truth will prove to be a useful and easily accessible guidebook for many who seek to develop a comprehensive biblical worldview that affects not only beliefs but actions.
-CaliforniaRepublic.org
- Title: Total Truth: Liberating Christianity from Its Cultural Captivity
- Authors: Nancy Pearcey, Phillip E. Johnson
- Publisher: Crossway
- Print Publication Date: 2005
- Logos Release Date: 2011
- Pages: 512
- Language: English
- Resources: 1
- Format: Digital › Logos Research Edition
- Subjects: Apologetics; Christian life; Christianity › Philosophy; History › Philosophy; History › Religious aspects--Christianity
- ISBNs: 9781433502200, 9781433500879, 9781433507243, 9781433522352, 9781581344585, 9781581347463, 1433502208, 1433500876, 1433507242, 1433522357, 1581344589, 1581347464
- Resource ID: LLS:5263CE033B222D64C6FD8CCED8793A7E
- Resource Type: Monograph
- Metadata Last Updated: 2022-09-28T20:29:20Z