Rating: 
(Wheaton, Illinois: Crossway Books, 2004)
512 pgs
Nancy Pearcey is one of the leading Christian apologists of our day. She has a long pedigree, including rejecting the Christian faith as a teenager herself and eventually finding herself sitting around the dinner table with Francis Schaeffer at his chateau in the Swiss Alps. Pearcey co-authored an earlier work with Chuck Colson. This book has become a textbook for many Christian universities and seminaries, and well it should.
Pearcey claims that her own story is descriptive of many North American youth today. She grew up going to church, but her Sunday School teachers and youth workers never taught her a Christian worldview. Nor did they prepare her for the rabid atheists she would be assaulted with in university. She states: “Training young people to develop a Christian mind is no longer an option; it is part of their necessary survival equipment” (19). She also argues that, “The best way to drive out a bad world view is by offering a good one” (58).
This book is over 400 pages long and written extensively enough to be a textbook. So I will not try and summarize all of her points. She cites much science as well as philosophy that at times stretched me and my limited background in apologetics. In fact, one of the reasons I read this book is because I have two children currently working on Ph.D’s in apologetics and they instructed me that every Christian ought to have a rudimentary background in apologetics and this book would surely provide me with that!
Pearcey argues that secular thought has pushed Christianity from the public square. Naturalists argue that religion, if it has a role at all, concerns morals and values. However, it does not deal with facts or science. Pearcey argues that too many Christians have accepted this false dichotomy and unnecessarily yielded the field of science and truth to secular Darwinists.
Pearcey goes into great detail outlining the course of history and various prominent philosophers who were intimidated by science and yielded the field without even challenging many of the secularist’s presuppositions.
An interesting section of this book is in the “false” evidence cited by evolutionists in defending and promoting Darwinism. She cites evidence where evolutionists promote and defend their view even when there is no evidence to support it. Pearcey shows the hypocrisy of evolutionists who denounce Christians for being unscientific, but then these same people promote science that lacks evidence. They make their own “leap of faith” even while ridiculing Christians for trusting in an invisible Creator.
Pearcey also makes a solid case for why Christianity provides a robust worldview that not only is supported by scientific evidence, but it also “works” practically in life when practiced. Pearcey demonstrates how evolutionary theory cannot determine what is “right” or “wrong.” In fact, it is impossible to practice evolutionary ethics because society could not sustain it. She also points out how evolutionary theory breaks down repeatedly when addressing ethics. For example, evolutionary theory suggests that traits survive in creatures because they serve a purpose. But then when confronted with such issues as rape or infanticide, Darwinian ethicists must conclude that nature sees a reason to have these practices survive through the generations. Such ethicists find themselves forced to find the “good” in rape etc. Pearcey points out that clearly an ethic based on evolutionary theory is unsustainable.
Pearcey seems to go off on something of an excurses where she examines how, historically, evangelicals conceded the field of intellectual thought to the secularists. I felt that this took up too much space in the otherwise captivating book. Her point is valid, that evangelicals too quickly yielded large areas of truth and were content to talk about spiritual matters and morality. Nevertheless, this might have been shortened to keep the book length somewhat more manageable.
Overall, however, I felt that Pearcey did a great job in making the reader familiar with the key issues. She certainly made me want to read more and to familiarize myself with the key apologists. While I had previously learned to be wary of naturalist interpretations of science, Pearcey gave me compelling examples of how they misuse evidence and remain blindly devoted to their naturalistic views regardless of where the evidence takes them.
Pearcey also made me realize afresh the great need for Christian thinkers and apologists. Historically, Christians have produced some of the most brilliant minds through the ages. But, as she points out, many of those minds today have left the field of science or apologetics and have confined themselves to talking to other Christians about matters of faith. This book gave assurance to this father that his children were on the right track by all three majoring in apologetics!
Pearcey concludes by saying: “May God give us grace to be world view missionaries, building lives and communities that give an authentic witness of His existence before a watching world” (378).
by Richard Blackaby