- Total Truth - Liberating Christianity From Its Cultural Captivity by Nancy Pearcey.
Pearcey, a disciple of the late Francis Shaeffer brings forward a great cultural analysis of the Church in contemporary culture. One of the better "calls" to Biblical worldview thinking for all of life that I have seen in recent days. A mini-review is online here
One quote that has connected with me from Pearcey:
The church is meant to be a plausibility structure for the gospel. When people see a supernatural dimension of love, power, and goodness in the way Christians live and treat one another, then our message of biblical truth becomes plausible. But what if people see Christians practicing injustice and compromising with the world? Then who will believe our message? A verbal presentation of a Christian worldview message loses its power if it is not validated by the quality of our lives.
Nancy Pearcey, Total Truth, Liberating Christianity From Its Cultural Captivity (Wheaton: Crossway Books, 2004) 355
Another book which I have read a summary article by the author...
- The Scandal of the Evangelical Conscience -Why Are Christians Living Just Like The Rest Of The World? by Ronald J. Sider.
Sider has published a good summary of the books content in Books & Culture Magazine. Now Sider has a history of overstating things (his book Rich Christians in an Age of Hunger has undergone several evolutions - the first which was communistic in economic theory and quite alarmist and wrong about free markets being an evil against the poor - the current version recognizing that free markets can be good for the poor, etc - An analysis is available in the Religion and Liberty Journal A Publication of the Acton Institute for the Study of Religion and Liberty), but the statistics here seem to speak on their own. The conclusion - The people of God are living no differently than the world. This is no surprise to me as I have met many younger believers (my generation) who think the church is not worldly and "with it" (whatever "it" is) enough...go figure.
One of the hopeful things in this article is that those who hold to Biblical orthodoxy - ie Sound Doctrine (yes, the D word) actually live differently in a world of moral chaos. Two cheers for Doctrine...Hip Hip, Hooray!
Out...
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