Goodreads Mobile | see what your friends are reading

May 29, 2008

Kirk rated it:

Whoever controls the origin story—the foundational belief about our origins—controls the culture. That is the premise of this provocative, articulate book. In our culture the origin story is controlled by Evolutionists with the result being that Christians have lost their voice in the culture—we have become culturally irrelevant. She makes an erudite and impassioned argument against Evolution and in favor of Creation citing numerous scholarly works.

Nancy Pearcy, a scholar who is equa More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Feb 28, 2008

Joel rated it:

If you want a comprehensive presentation of worldview apologetics, this is the book to which I would turn. Excellent scholarship covering historical development of philosophy to today, as well as the concurrent development of Christian thought. Great reflection on where we have come from, where we are headed, and what sense to make of the world in which we live as believers. Best of all, Pearcey avoids sounding like a textbook and remains readable throughout the book's near 400 pages.

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Jan 28, 2009

Keith rated it:

As I finished this book I was washed over with a variety of impressions. First, this book should be read by every Christian educator, no matter what grade level of training. Second, if you haven't been impressed to read F. Shaeffer's works before you read Pearcy's work, I think you will be after reading it. Third, I'm exhausted having to just keep up with the end/footnotes! But I love this thorough documentation. Don't overlook one of them. Fourth, I find the final chapters a paradox. They appea More...

1 comment like (1 person liked it)

Feb 10, 2012

Nate rated it:

Very few books have shaken my paradigm as much as "Total Truth" by Nancy Pearcy has. She is amazing at exegeting the culture and pinpointing where Christianity has pulled away from the public sphere and bought into the dichotomy of value/fact. The book is split into several parts, beginning with a set up of how we got into the mess we find ourselves in and then she hits a homerun with recommendations towards resolving the problem. I've read far too many books that bash Christianity wit More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Sep 04, 2011

Katie rated it:

Nancy Pearcey really did make some great points in this book about the importance of unifying our faith with our lives. She is very convincing about the need to have a Christian worldview in order to “always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have” as Peter states in 1 Peter 3:15. She is obviously also very in-tune with some of the problems that campus ministry faces today since she herself wrestled with some misgivings in college. More...

0 comments like

Mar 11, 2011

Bryan rated it:

Cultural apologetics at its finest. A tasteful analysis of various worldviews (particularly the Christian worldview), their historical and philosophical roots, and the story of how each has impacted and shaped the culture over time into what it is today. A truly great read.

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

May 18, 2009

Steven rated it:

I discovered this book accidentally when something I read on the internet brought me to Pearcey's analysis of anti-intellectualism in the Evangelical church. Many can agree on the problem, but Pearcey places it in its interesting historical context.

This book is about much more, however, as its title suggests. Pearcey argues, rightly of course, that Christianity is meant to convey all truth, the Total Truth. Not that the Bible contains every possible answer but that truth is not so More...

0 comments like

Jan 12, 2011

Jonathan rated it:

Perhaps the best book I've ever read outside the Bible up to this point has been Total Truth by Nancy Pearcey. . . The book is divided into four sections: What's in a Worldview, Starting at the Beginning, How We Lost Our Minds, and What's Next: Living It Out. Section one reads a little bit like How Shall We Then Live tracing dualistic thought from Platonic Dualism through Augustine and Aquinas all the way to our present modernist outlook. The second section deals with the Intelligent Design vs. More...

0 comments like

Feb 07, 2012

Jeremy rated it:

One of the most helpful books that I've ever read. It took a while (I think I started in September or October), but I plowed through it like I did with Beeke's book on Calvinism. Pearcey covers basic worldview elements, then dives into an exploration of how deeply Darwin's thoughts have affected American thought, education, religion, home life, etc. A significant point here—one that I was already aware of, but one that she hammered home—is that Darwinism is not simply a neutral, faithless positi More...

0 comments like

Jan 03, 2012

Paul rated it:

Pearcy makes a few good points in her book. However, I was more struck by the fact that she, on one hand, takes dualism to task (a good thing), but yet ends up establishing her own sort of dual construct. Although Pearcy makes a good case for the Christian worldview, she trips up by insisting on a legalistic framework that would restrict the church in how it interacts with the world. She seemingly wants to sing hymns and pass out church bulletins when the rest of civilization is listening to More...

0 comments like

Feb 10, 2012

Lynn rated it:

I just re-read this. It's the most valuable book I have read in the last few years.
The author's conversational style makes what could be difficult subject matter (history, apologetics, philosophy) easy to follow.

Every worldview must answer three questions: 1) Creation -- How did we get here? 2) Fall -- How did we get in the terrible mess we're in? 3) Redemption -- How do we get out of this mess?
Her arguments not only challenge the different worldviews' direct truth claims, More...

0 comments like

Jun 22, 2009

Lauren rated it:

A heady worldview number by Nancy Pearcy, a student of Schaeffer, Total Truth attempts to prove that underlying assumptions about the world infiltrate every facet of our lives. Though the work is not as audacious as to suggest it itself is total truth, it does argue for the existence of total [capital-t:] Truth in the world.
She has interesting comments on philosophy, women and work, Darwinism and the rise of Evangelicalism (a particularly fascinating section). Pearcy uses philosophy and More...

0 comments like

Jun 01, 2009

John rated it:

I liked this book so much that I read the appendices.
I liked it so much that I almost want to start reading it again.
I liked it so much that I want to read everything Francis Schaeffer wrote (the author was greatly influenced by Schaeffer).
I liked it so much that I want to run away to wherever the author is teaching and take whatever class she's teaching. (Can't wait for the question-and-answer sessions.)
Nancy Pearcey's argument is that Christianity isn't just about a con More...

1 comment like (2 people liked it)

May 31, 2011

Jesse rated it:

This is an important and comprehensive book. Nancy Pearcey is well-read and easy to read. The book breaks out nicely into three sections: diagnosing the problematic worldview of today’s society, the rise of this dominant paradigm, and the history of Christianity’s slow acquiescence to this paradigm. Stated simply: the dominant paradigm is evolution (and a few others: atheism, modernism, and postmodernism) and Christianity gave up the battle because we’re Gnostics. The book was a good over view a More...

0 comments like

Oct 26, 2011

W rated it:

This very engrossing book will certainly be a topic of my thoughts while jogging around the 6 Acre Wood during the evenings. It analyses the concept of worldview and postulates that even Naturalism is a comprensive kind of worldview and complete religion. I particularly enjoyed the analysis of the America's 2 "Great Awakenings" and how they affect us today. The author's more passionate interest is the topic of intelligent design. I enjoyed this line: "It is beginning to look like More...

0 comments like

Jan 06, 2010

Julie rated it:

This book is a must read for any Christian. It’s long. It’s heady. It took me a long long time to get through it because I had to read many of the paragraphs three and four times to “get it.” Very comprehensive book on the importance of having a Biblical, Scripturally sound Christian worldview. She makes the case that it is of the utmost importance that we quit living “fragmented” lives. Essentially, she says that when we filter certain parts of our thinking through secular rather than Bible bas More...

0 comments like

Aug 02, 2011

Elenareads added it

Everyone should read this book! She was a research aid to the founder of Prison Fellowship and Author of How Now Shall We Live-Chuck Colson. She spent time at L'abri with Frances Schaeffer and his wife who were servants of Christ through opening their lives to wanderers and seekers. F.S. spoke of treating all men as bearers of the Image of God and thus winning them for Christ. This book is heavily philosophical, yet if you read slow enough, it is mind boggling yet intensely interesting. My f More...

0 comments like

Jun 29, 2009

Rachel rated it:

This book was a wonderful explanation of how Christian's worldview impacts every part of life. There can be no fact/value, sacred/secular, or private/public dichotomies in the life of a Christian. Everything on earth can be expressed through the creation, fall, redemption framework.
Creation = how did GOD originally design it?
Fall = how did the fall of man/nature corrupt it?
Redemption = how can GOD restore it (and how can we help in that)?
What is the natural end conclu More...

0 comments like

Sep 13, 2009

Cathy rated it:

Has anyone else ever had the overwhelming desire to buy 100 copies of a book you just read and pass them out to anyone and everyone you thought would actually read it? That is how this book left me feeling. Nancy Pearcy does an amazing job of stripping cultural assumptions down to their roots, then following their development through the ages, in order to show the reader the basis of philosophical assumptions we have inherited through culture. Reading this book was like chewing up a plaque in More...

1 comment like (2 people liked it)

Sep 25, 2011

Randy rated it:

Christians in North America tend to view their Christianity strictly in terms of their individual commitment to Jesus Christ, and they see their part in the Great Commission as sharing their faith and bringing others also into such a saving relationship. Yet they are frustrated by a feeling of having their hands tied, of unspoken assumptions which they may sense but not be able to put their finger on. More than in any other nation, professing American evangelicals make up a sizable percentage More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jun 18, 2011

Debi rated it:

Recommended read for every Christian. It is a wake-up call for Christians at the ease with which our culture and its secular worldview is now taking over our schools and even our own way of looking at things. We have relegated the spiritual to a compartment of our lives instead of allowing it to integrate all facets of how we live.
Part of the book takes us through the historical aspects of how the church came to be what it is today. As well as how men and women's roles have changed throug More...

0 comments like

Oct 26, 2011

Steve rated it:

Really good worldview summary from a Schaefferite.
Very clear classifications of worldviews in terms of Scheaffer's upper/lower story worldview analysis model.

There are good sections on Intelligent Design and science, and the application of Darwinian Naturalism to all spheres.

The history section on how anti-intellectualism took hold in american (and british) evangelicalism was very good. Whitefield was one of the first promoters of the personality of the evangelist, More...

0 comments like

Jan 07, 2011

James rated it:

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here

0 comments like

Aug 11, 2011

Sally rated it:

Parker and I have been reading and discussing this book for several months now; today was our last discussion! He got lost in some sections of the book, and his review was, 'I already knew this stuff; they just said it in longer and more complicated ways." My favorite chapters were on the development of the evangelical movement and the way women have taken over religion in our culture. I appreciated seeing the historical backgrounds to many current issues.

0 comments like

Nov 11, 2009

Jeanie rated it:

This year has been a very insightful year,since i started studying christian apologetics. This book was definitely the cherry on the cake not only from a scientifical perspective (physics, cosmology etc etc) but now from a more in depth look into philosophy, history, politics, education and even psychology. I recommend this book to anyone who is interested in world-views (whether or not you world-view is thorough and accurate enough to explain any objective or subjective experience) and to any C More...

0 comments like

Oct 24, 2008

Sarah rated it:

This book has impacted me and my perspective on truth and truth in the world perhaps more than any other book in several years. Anyone who claims to profess belief in orthodox Christian faith needs to read this book of intellectual integrity and examine their own worldview. It might possibly be beneficial to those who aren't professing Christians, as the author chrnoicles the history and progression of the fact/value split, and exposes the extreme and often unfounded ways that Darwinianism and n More...

0 comments like

Jan 07, 2011

Todd rated it:

It's hard for me to really describe how much is in this book. There are a lot of hard questions I didn't even know to ask that Pearcey discusses in a way that is easy to understand.

This book, among others, is really helping me understand why I believe what I believe. Not only that, books like this one train me on how to explain what I believe to others.

Here are that I have started to ponder, not because I don't know the answer, but because I sometimes struggle in articu More...

0 comments like

May 30, 2010

Brian rated it:

Ms. Pearcey is a bright women who bumped elbows (was trained by) with the great Francis Schaeffer at L'Abri in Switzerland. She takes her knowledge and fills this book full with many valuable things for the Christian. A book not to be missed for the laymen.

0 comments like

Apr 01, 2009

Chani rated it:

This book was okay for what it is. It's apologia for western culture, using Christianity to justify it. I did like the way the information was presented and the way it was organized. For me anyway, this was a hard book to read.

~*

0 comments like

Dec 08, 2011

Tim rated it:

Thorough attack on the secular-sacred divide and how Christianity speaks into all facets of life. A lot of outside sources so it was easy to feel a bit overwhelmed and lose track of the point while trying to catch everything she was saying

0 comments like

reviews