Book Review: Total Truth

This morning I overheard my five-year-old daughter searching for brown sugar and happening upon the coffee instead. She took a big sniff and profoundly declared, "That is coffee because it smells… coffee-ish." In the same Webster-ish manner, forgive me for declaring that Total Truth: Study Guide Edition is nothing less than total truth.

To parrot what's been said already in numerous publications would be a waste of your reading time. It is no doubt likely, if you are at all in tune with the goings on in recent Christian periodicals, that you have heard of the book Total Truth, by Nancy Pearcey. There have been many excellent reviews of this book, with several very good ones at Diet of Bookworms. As I do not have anything further to say about this book that has not already been said, and inasmuch as there are many more eloquent book reviewers out there who have done an excellent job representing this book, I thought instead that I might offer a service to you discerning readers out there. Therefore, I submit to you a simple guide to deciding whether or not you should read Total Truth.

The Unofficial Do-you-need-to-read-Total-Truth Pop Quiz

Rate your answers to the following ten questions from 1 to 5 with 1 being "strongly disagree" and 5 being "strongly agree":

1. Truth matters.
2. I want to integrate theology into my everyday life.
3. I like interesting and thought provoking chapter titles.
4. America and Christianity are not synonyms.
5. Thorough research is important in a book dealing with Christianity and Culture.
6. The cultural mandate motivates me in what I do every day.
7. My vocation has eternal significance.
8. Darwinism has huge ramifications for everyday life.
9. Christianity has everything to do with every area of life.
10. I am a 21st century Christian, and I am out of My Utmost for His Highest Graduation Edition copies to give to high-school graduates.

So here's how the scores shape up:

1-9 - You did something wrong because you should have a minimum of 10. Please re-read the instructions and complete the quiz again - but don't bother reading this book, you won't get it.

10-49 - You really need to read this book, especially if you scored anything significant on number 10.

50 - You're Nancy Pearcey. You wrote the book, so you don't need to read it.

In short, if you are a serious Christian alive in this century, you need to read this book.