Nancy Randolph Pearcey is the Francis A. Schaeffer Scholar at the World Journalism Institute, where she teaches a worldview course based on the study guide edition of Total Truth: Liberating Christianity from Its Cultural Captivity. In 2005, Total Truth won the ECPA Gold Medallion Award in the Christianity & Society category, in addition to an Award of Merit in the Christianity Today book awards.
After graduating from Iowa State University with a Distributed Studies degree (philosophy, German, music), she earned a master’s degree in Biblical Studies from Covenant Theological Seminary in St. Louis, then pursued further graduate work in the history of philosophy at the Institute for Christian Studies in Toronto (with emphases on ancient and Reformational philosophy).
Pearcey is currently a senior fellow at the Discovery Institute, where the focus of her work is on the cultural and philosophical implications of the evolution controversy. A frequent public lecturer, Pearcey has spoken to actors and screenwriters in Hollywood; students and faculty at universities such as Dartmouth, Stanford, USC, and Princeton; scientists at national labs such as Sandia and Los Alamos; staffers at Congress and the White House; and various activist and church groups around the country, including the Heritage Foundation in Washington, D.C. She has appeared on NPR, and a lecture based on Total Truth was broadcast by C-SPAN.
She began writing in 1977 for the nationally distributed Bible-Science Newsletter, where for 13 years she wrote pioneering in-depth monthly articles on issues related to science and Christian worldview. In 1991 she became the founding editor of “BreakPoint,” a national daily radio commentary program, and continued as the program’s executive editor for nearly nine years, heading up a team of writers. Under her leadership, the program grew into an influential organ for teaching a Christian worldview perspective on current events, with an estimated weekly audience of five million. She was also policy director and senior fellow of the Wilberforce Forum, and for five years coauthored a monthly column in Christianity Today.
Pearcey has served as a visiting scholar at Biola University’s Torrey Honors Institute, managing editor of the science journal Origins & Design, an editorial board member for Salem Communications Network, and a commentator on Public Square Radio. Her articles have appeared in numerous journals and magazines, including the Washington Times, Human Events, First Things, Books & Culture, World, Pro Rege, Human Life Review, American Enterprise, The World & I, Homeschool Enrichment, Christianity Today, and the Regent University Law Review.
Pearcey has authored or contributed to several works, including The Soul of Science, which treats the history of science and Christianity, and the bestselling, award-winning How Now Shall We Live? She was invited to contribute the Foreword in The Right Questions, as well as chapters in Mere Creation, Of Pandas and People, Pro-Life Feminism, Genetic Ethics, Signs of Intelligence, Reading God’s World, Uncommon Dissent, and a Phillip Johnson Festschrift titled Darwin’s Nemesis.
Pearcey resides in Northern Virginia, where she and her husband are homeschooling the second of their two sons.
Total Truth: Liberating Christianity from Its Cultural Captivity pdf by Nancy Pearcey
Is God a public figure? Does Christianity have a legitimate role to play in the public realm of politics, business, law, and education? Or are secularists right? When they relegate religion to the strictly private realm of faith and feelings? In Total Truth, Nancy Pearcey offers a razor-sharp analysis of the split between public and private, fact and feelings. She reveals the strategies of secularist gatekeepers who use this division to banish biblical principles from the cultural mainstream, stripping Christianity of its power to challenge and redeem the whole of culture. How can we overcome this divide? Unify our fragmented lives? Recover authentic spirituality? With compelling examples from the struggles of real people, Pearcey shows how to liberate Christianity from its cultural captivity. She walks readers through practical, hands-on steps for developing a full-orbed Christian worldview. Finally, she makes a passionate case that Christianity is not just religious truth but truth about total reality. It is total truth. This new Study Guide Edition of Total Truth is filled with fresh stories, examples, and illustrations. Based on questions and comments raised by readers of the book, it is ideal for individual or group study. Total Truth received the Award of Merit in the Christianity & Culture category in Christianity Today’s 2005 book awards, and it won the 2005 ECPA Gold Medallion Award for best book in the Christianity & Society category. "COMPELLING" EXCEPTIONAL… the rare long book that leaves one wanting to read more." —Publishers Weekly "A book of UNUSUAL IMPORTANCE by an author of UNUSUAL ABILITY." —Phillip Johnson, UC Berkeley, from the Foreword "SPLENDID, COMPREHENSIVE, PERSONAL MAGNUM OPUS… Every page is loaded with trenchant insights." —Ralph Winter, U.S. Center for World Mission "UNIQUE COMBINATION of apologetics, worldview analysis, social commentary, and instruction manual. Pearcey’s knowledge, insight, and faith place her among the TOP HANDFUL OF RELEVANT CHRISTIAN THINKERS of our time." —David Limbaugh, Columnist, Author, Persecution "BRILLIANT… Pearcey has a mind like a jewel." —Lael Arrington, Author, Worldproofing Your Kids "PROFOUND… Pearcey makes complex issues clear as no one else has." —Ted Baehr, Founder, Movieguide "MARVELOUS CLARITY… Pearcey explains how modern science reinforces Christianity—and why more Christians should be aware of it." —Michael Behe, Author, Darwin’s Black Box "AMAZING in the depth of its worldview analysis" SUPERBLY CRAFTED" BEST WORK of cultural analysis from a Christian standpoint available today." —James Sire, Author, The Universe Next Door "BOLD MANIFESTO… May well be one of the most important Christian books of our times." —Al Mohler, President, Southern Baptist Theological Seminary "Pearcey is FIRING ON ALL PISTONS… I love her stubborn and intelligent insistence on the gospel’s truth and relevance to all of life." —Kelly Monroe Kullberg, Coauthor & Editor, Finding God at Harvard "BREAKS NEW GROUND in worldview analysis" the most insightful applications since Francis Schaeffer." —Gene Edward Veith, Culture Editor, World "ALL WILL PROFIT MIGHTILY from what is written here." Pearcey takes us into truer and worthier witness in our increasingly secularized world." —J. I. Packer, Professor of Theology, Regent College "ASTUTE CULTURAL CRITIC and one of the few female intellectuals in evangelicalism." —The Evangelical Outpost "If you feel lost in the fog of today’s cultural confusions, READ THIS BOOK." —James Skillen, President, Center for Public Justice