This book is a popular level introduction to what conservative evangelicals think about secularism. The tone throughout the book is "us vs them," and Pearcey believes liberals (one of her favorite labels, not mine) are out to destroy conservative values, which are synonymous with natural or traditional values. Her account of how we got here is via a subtraction story: we removed God from X, Y, and Z spheres, and now here we are.
One of the most helpful aspects of her book is the rejection of Dualism, which she shows throughout the book to be something that is now infested in every area of life. For example, the dualism between biology and gender didn't start with that, but with the fact/value split. She is also helpful in showing how the resurrection accounts for the union of heaven and earth, and Christianity that buys into that split has some issues.
She is also helpful in reminding us that the Gospel is not heard in a vacuum, and so Christians cannot ignore culture if they want to present truth.
The problems with her book start with her definitions. Truth, for example, is singular and is what the Bible teaches. Anyone who has a problem with text-as-agent theories, as I do, will not be convinced by her arguments for the second reason her book is unhelpful: she rarely argues. There are many "Obviously" statements that follow zero premises. In fact, unless you are already convinced of her hypothesis, I doubt this book will convince you (unless you are persuaded by rhetoric alone). She also has issue defining "secularism" as antithetical to Christianity. The works that combine postmodernistic features and other secular ideas with Christianity are completely ignored in her work--my assumption is that she does so because these are written by those she calls "liberals," who are diametrically opposed to "true Christian values." Lastly, her subtraction theory can only be used for rhetorical effects. The division of romanticism and enlightenment is not as clear as she makes it to be. She is wise in saying we shouldn't just bite the bullet in one side of the spectrum, but I think this issue is more yin-yang than she presents it to be.
If I were to recommend people a book on how to deal with secularism or postmodernism, I might recommend Dale Martin, Lesslie Newbigin, Andrew Root, or Luke Timothy Johnson. If I were to recommend you books on understanding how we got to secularism, I'd go with Charles Taylor for sure. If I were, however, to recommend a book on how this issue is dealt with by conservative evangelicals in the popular sphere, I'd recommend Pearcey's book. Not a bad read, but I'd invest my time elsewhere.
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