Intro and Chapter 1

In the introduction, the author, Nancy Pearcey, spells out her approach to the topic of worldview. Part 1," What's in a Worldview?", focuses on the dichotomy of the secular/sacred. It also gives the reader the tools to begin forming a Biblically based worldview in any field. Part 2 "Starting At the Beginning" addresses Creation. The author promises a critique of Darwinian evolution. Part 3, "How We Lost Our Minds", looks at history to help us discover why evangelicals fall short of having a strong worldview. Part 4"What Next? Living It Out" examines the practical aspects of living our faith.

In chapter 1, "Breaking Out of the Grid", the author paints a bleak picture, which I think most of us will recognize. We live our lives in completely separate compartments--public and private. What we believe as moral and spiritual beings seems in our minds to have absolutely no connection to our public lives of work. We accept common approaches, beliefs etc. in our chosen fields without a second thought. Could the Bible have anything to say about our day to day lives, or is it impractical and outdated?

We are often intimidated into silence by the secularist's mantra that "this is the way every reasonable person thinks". I agree with the author's bold assertion that Christianity does have something important to say about every aspect of our lives. As Pearcey points out "The only self-existent reality is God, and everything else depends on Him for its origin and continued existence.".

She points out that every philosophy holds something divine. "For the materialist, the ultimate reality is matter, and eveyrthing is reduced to material constituents. For the pantheist, the ultimate reality is a spiritual force or substratum, and the goal of meditation is to reconnect with that spiritual oneness. For the doctrinaire Darwinist, bilogy is ultimate, and everything, even religion and morality, is reduced to a product of Darwinian processes. For the empiricist, all knowledge is traceable ultimately to sense data, and anything not known by sensation is neutral."

At the end of this chapter, the author asks "How can we recover the conviction that Christianity is not only religious truth but total truth?" Next time we'll look at chapter 2, "Rediscovering Joy".