A Totally Biased Review of Nancy Pearcey's book, Total Truth

10/30/14***I'm going to have to revisit this book now that I've read Saving Leonardo. There were times, particularly in chapter two when Pearcey again discussed the fact/value divide, that I yet again felt frustration with Pearcey, verging on anger, but I stuck with Saving Leonardo. There were times when I thought she was saying some particular form of art that I had enjoyed in the past was valueless, only to find out later that she wasn't saying that at all. Pearcey urges us to be discerning cultural consumers, and to combat a decaying culture, not with boycotts and protests, but with the creation and dissemination of good cultural products. At least that's what Saving Leonardo was about. I continually struggle with the fact that my own raising was such that there was no fact/value divide, I struggle with it because it makes it hard for me to relate to the culture I've been planted in, even within the Christian Community. I wouldn't trade it for anything, but it does make practical and relational life rather tricky.

4/27/13

Total Truth by Nancy Pearcey
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

I'm trying to establish a bookshelf entitled "highly recommended books that have infuriated me." This book would go on it.

I know that I cannot give this book a fair review because Nancy Pearcey pushed all the wrong buttons as far as I'm concerned. I try to read, even books I don't like, on their own merits, but it was impossible for me to do so with this one. I kept getting the feeling that the author's alternative vision, which she had only hinted at up to that point, was one I would eventually be unable to sign onto, and by the time I reached Part II I had to give up, because my husband was tired of hearing me complain about it.

Even thinking back on it now I have that hot, uncomfortable feeling in the pit of my stomach, all of which is to say that my review should certainly not be trusted.

Let me tell you who I think does the philosophical part of this thing better. I am unable to review the scientific apologetic, because I couldn't muster up enough interest to read it, and therefore know nothing about it. Eugene Peterson's book, Christ Plays in Ten Thousand Places, is great on how faith permeates our lives. I haven't been able to finish it either, only because it is too rich, and I haven't recently been able to give it the attention it deserves. I also think that James K.A. Smith's book, Introduction to Radical Orthodoxy, while technical, offers a much better understanding of what has actually been going on philosophically throughout modernity and post-modernity. When it comes to those things I think Pearcey is far too unsympathetic to address them properly.

Man, I hate to be so mad at a book, and I really do hope to be able to give it another chance at some moment in the future when I can evaluate it more calmly.

I hear her Saving Leonardo is terrific, but I admit that based on this first experience I am too suspicious to be willing to give it a chance yet.

Additional note: I read this book about a year ago, and thought I might finally be ready to revisit it, but I was wrong.

View all my reviews

If I were a habitual drinker, I would have given it up immediately.

I started a fire in my kitchen last night while trying to make the kids popcorn. Wanna know how I did it?

I forgot that you never want to leave your oil on the stovetop on high. This is a lesson I should have learned long ago, but I usually remember, while making popcorn, that you're only supposed to set your eye to medium. It had been a while, I guess.

And I couldn't find the baking soda to put the durn thing out. I had to throw the lid on there instead.

Thankfully, no popcorn was lost in the conflagration, no flesh was burnt, and no kitchen surfaces destroyed. I remembered to deprive the flame of oxygen long enough to set it on the steps outside and find the many, many boxes of baking soda I had stashed away. I didn't need the baking soda by then, but poured it on in quantity anyway.

I made a smaller batch of popcorn later and learned a new trick, thanks to Elise Bauer, of my favorite cooking blog, SimplyRecipes.com. After the popcorn has popped, you pour it out into a bowl, then you put your butter in the pan the popcorn popped in to melt it. It worked beautifully, the butter melted into a lovely froth, plus it saved me one more dish to wash. Thank you very much.

No more kitchen fires, please.