Total Truth: Liberating Christianity from its Cultural Captivity - A Book Review

Total Truth

In her book “Total Truth: Liberating Christianity from its Cultural Captivity” author Nancy Pearcey discusses the way the modern mind has been fragmented into a split between the realm of facts and the realm of values. To be clear she believes that this development, which started with the emergence of Platonism, is an error which needs to be corrected so that Christian truth-claims can once again have a place at the table in the public arena. For the Christian, who is completely unaware of this problematic development, reading Pearcey’s book will be both highly engaging and very enlightening. Her writing has both theological and philosophical depth, yet is written an accessible manner that both the scholar and the laymen can appreciate. Pearcey sheds a great deal of light on the precarious predicament modern Christendom is presently in. In her book she offers helpful suggestions on how Christianity can once again thrive despite its ongoing battle with Postmodernism.

The Fact/Value Split

As mentioned above the overall theme of the book is the impact of what Pearcey calls the Fact-Value Split. Because of various philosophical developments throughout history, Western Civilization has determined that only what is deemed to be objective, factual information, such as scientific discovery, is appropriate for public discourse. On the other hand, anything that has to do with values or belief, such as morality and religion, is relegated to the private realm. This latter realm is thought not to have any objective basis and is, in fact, entirely subjective, having no factual foundation. It is easy to see how this is a problem for Christianity, since it is inevitably relegated to the subjective realm of faith and values.

Destructive Consequences

According to Pearcey, the results of this paradigm are far-reaching and largely destructive. Because of this way of thinking most Christians live as if they were suffering from split-personality disorder. On the one hand there is their professional life, which takes place in the public realm of facts. And then there are their Christian beliefs and values, which have no place in the public realm. Consequently, they leave their secular work place, go home to their families and churches, quietly practice their faith, and the two worlds never intersect in a meaningful way. Thus, the Gospel is restrained to the private sphere and is rarely permitted to venture into the public where chastisement awaits those who dare cross the line.

A Battle of Worldviews

Christians must break out of this mold by reclaiming Christianity’s hold on the whole realm of truth. In our modern context this means challenging the naturalistic worldview that lies at the foundation of the Fact-Value Split. Christians must expose the weakness and error of Darwinism, which declares that we are nothing but biological machines created by blind, impersonal forces and that consequently we have neither freedom of the will nor the ability to know objective truth. If we can defend the Christian view of origins, namely that we were created by God, then much of battle is already won. Where we came from says a lot about where were going. If we were created by God then we have real value. Even though we fell from grace we have hope, because Jesus died and rose again to redeem mankind.

How Do We Turn Things Around?

It seems that one of the underlying purposes of Total Truth is to help create a cultural milieu in which the grand narrative of salvation history can again be viewed as intellectually viable. In order to accomplish this goal Pearcey recommends a blend of presuppositionalist and evidentialist apologetics. Christian’s should appeal to people’s common sense beliefs. This beliefs include among other things, that we can trust our everyday sense perceptions, that we have free will, and objective moral values and duties exist. These are our basic presuppositions. Then Christians can use various evidentialist arguments to demonstrate that the Christian worldview is the only worldview that can adequately account for these basic beliefs that everyone shares, if not in theory, at least on a practical level. Some people may deny that we can’t trust our everyday sense perceptions, that we don’t have free will, and that objective moral values and duties don’t exist in theory, but in reality nobody lives life as if these basic beliefs were not true. This betrays the fact that their worldview is grossly inadequate. Christians can get their foot in the door by gently exposing such inconsistencies and offering Christianity as the only viable alternative. Readers who are willing to challenge their thinking and their behavior will benefit greatly from these and other insights offered in Total Truth. If the church would rise from its slumber and take on the poisonous worldviews that people are succumbing to, then great things could be accomplished for the Kingdom of God.

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What Hills Are Worth Dying For?

A Common Idiom Applied to Christian Theology

In military campaigns hills are often strategic locations from which to wage war. When the enemy has set up shop on a hill to gain an advantage the commander must decide whether attempting to force the enemy to abandon their fortress will be worth the lives it will cost to accomplish the task. In other words, is it a hill worth dying for? This idiom has been used in various ways, but I think it could also be applied to Christian theology.

Two Hills Worth Dying For

There are some doctrines that are indispensable to the Christian faith. Perhaps the most foundational of these is the belief that God exists. You don't get a divine savior of the world if there isn't anything divine in the first place. It's safe to say that the existence of God is a hill worth dying for in regards to the Christian faith. But theism is a good ways away from Christian theism. In order to get that you have to have Christ, and more specifically the resurrected Christ. So another essential component of the Christian faith is not so much a doctrine as it is an event: The resurrection of Jesus Christ. If there was a man who claimed that God would raise him from the dead and actually made good on that claim, then Christianity is looking pretty superior to other world religions, and Jesus' claim to be the divine savior of the world is looking very credible. The death and resurrection of Jesus is definitely a hill worth dying for. The belief in the existence of God and the event of the resurrection are like the engine of a car - you're not getting anywhere without them. They may not be the only hills a Christian should be willing to die for, but they are probably the most important.

Unnecessary Causalities of War

Unfortunately, some Christians can't seem to distinguish between the essential and second-order doctrines of the Christian faith. Though their intentions may be good the result of raising second-order doctrines on par with essential ones can be very costly. This can be observed when a teenager is taught her whole life that the belief in a literal 6-day creation is a hill worth dying for, and ends up pursuing a degree in science at a secular university. In her science classes she is convinced that the earth is billions of years old, which conflicts with her former belief that the earth was created in 6 days and has only been around for a few thousand years. Now if she still believes that young earth creationism is an essential tenant of Christianity, then at best she'll deny the doctrine of inerrancy. But it's also probable that she'll end up abandoning her faith all together, as many teenagers do once they leave their home church and go off to college.

A Word of Admonition

Of course these kinds of scenarios could be avoided if Christians were taught to keep all doctrines in proper perspective. The young woman described above didn't need to abandon her faith or even deny the inerrancy of scripture merely because she was persuaded that young-earth creationism is false. Had she been taught to take a more reasonable stance in regards to other views, she could have adjusted her beliefs about the age of the earth without the essential tenets of her faith being affected. But unfortunately there are many like her that end up throwing out the baby with the bath water and deny the existence of God and the resurrection of Jesus just because they were convinced that an opinion they held about a second-order doctrine is false. The same can be said of non-believers who reject Christ, because well-meaning Christians have told them that they can't be Christians unless they affirm a particular view concerning a non-essential tenet of the Christian faith. This is tragic. As Christians we need to do a better job of distinguishing between the essentials and non-essentials so that we don't end up endangering people's faith on account of hills that aren't worth dying for.

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The Twofold Purpose of Apologetics

Apologetics Defined

Perhaps we should start by defining the word "apologetics". As they say,  "that's a pretty big word, like 'mayonnaise'" that not everyone is going to be familiar with. First of all, apologetics has nothing to do with apologizing for anything, especially the Christian faith. So, let's get that out of the way right off the bat. The word "apologetics" is derived from the Greek word "apologia" found in 1 Peter 3:15, which admonishes believers always to be ready to make a defense (apologia) to anyone who asks for a reason for the hope that is in them. Christian Apologetics may be loosely defined as a branch of theology that seeks to defend the truth claims of Christianity. For example, a Christian apologist may seek to defend Christianity's claim that Jesus rose from the dead or, on a more foundational level, that God exists.

Objections to Apologetics

Now many have objected that only a doubting Thomas would need to have their faith defended. Don't we just take things the existence of God the resurrection of Jesus by faith? To which I reply, "Of course! And Muslims take it by faith that Allah is God and Mohammed is his prophet. But what makes your faith any more legitimate than his?" You might want to reply by offering some good reasons why Christianity should be embraced and Islam rejected. But if you do that, well then you've engaged in Christian apologetics! At this point you may retort that you can't argue anyone into heaven, and you'd be absolutely right. Salvation is accomplished through the power of the Holy Spirit who enlightens the hearts and minds of sinners. But has it ever crossed your mind that the Spirit of God uses sound reasoning as tool the free those who are dead in their sins from the shackles that have bound their minds? Giving some one good reasons to trust in Christ doesn't usurp the power of the Spirit - it's function of the Spirit itself! 2 Corinthians 10:5 says, "We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ." That's precisely what the Christian apologist seeks to do! Non-Christians often reject Christ, because of anti-Christian arguments and pretensions that have enslaved their minds. We are called to demolish their objections so that they can be free to embrace the knowledge of God.

So What's the Point?

In answering some objections to apologetics we already, in essence, unveiled the twofold purpose of apologetics. Simply put, Christian apologetics can accomplish two things if done well. First, it can strengthen the faith of those who have already placed their faith in Christ. Did you know that the vast majority of the kids in our churches' youth groups will drop out of church indefinitely after they go to college? You know one reason why this happens? They've spent their whole lives in a church that hasn't done jack squat to prepare them to stand firm in their faith in the real world. And once they enter that world the enemy of the souls uses every means possible to squash their vulnerable faith. They go on to attend a liberal arts college and inevitable register for a class taught by some atheist ideologue who's had a lot of practice students' faith to shreds and he takes great pleasure in doing so. Things might turn out very differently if the church would start taking apologetics seriously.

The second purpose apologetics can serve is evangelism. In case you haven't noticed many people nowadays will just as likely believe in fairies and leprechauns as in a resurrected Jesus. In that kind of intellectual climate it's imperative that Christians come prepared to make a well reasoned case for the Christian faith. Doing so can take away the defenses around the unbelievers' heart and mind and bring them closer to a point where they are willing to give Christianity some serious thought. As we already discussed, that in itself isn't enough. The Spirit of God has to be at work in their lives. But if we allow ourselves to become a tool of God by preparing ourselves to demolish objections to the Christian faith, we'll give the Spirit of God a lot more to work with.

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