Review of Finding Truth

 

It's 373 pages, consisting of 277 pages of text, 46  pages of footnotes, 4 pages of appendix, 4 pages of acknowledgements, 42 pages of study guide, and several pages of index.  I would say it's aimed at the level of a college-bound high school graduate.

The main foundation of the book is Romans 1, from which the author derives 5 principals:

1. Identify the idol

The evidence of God's existence and nature is all around (and within) us.

"... that which is known about God is evident within them; for God made it evident to them. For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse."

Wanting to go our own way, we have rejected God, and have replaced him with idols.

"Professing to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for an image in the form of corruptible man and of birds and four-footed animals and crawling creatures."

The first commandment is unsurprisingly the foundation for all the others.

2. Identify the idol's reductionism

When we replace the source of ultimate truth with an idol we create a worldview, which is like a box into which we try to fit the world.  However, no finite box is able to hold all truth.  Therefore we suppress the truth.

" For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness ..."

We eliminate the part of the truth which doesn't fit in our box.  This is called "reductionism".  Materialists deny the existence of soul, spirit, love, purpose, meaning, etc.

3. Test the idol: Does it contradict what we know about the world?

But we are constantly surrounded by evidence that our reductionism is false.  Materialists love their children, find a reason to get out of bed in the morning, etc.

4. Test the idol: Does it contradict itself?

The finite box cannot contain itself.  There is no place in the materialist box for reason itself, thus making the arguments of materialists self-refuting.

5. Replace the idol: Make the case for Christianity

Our calling consists of more than simply tearing down false worldviews.  We must lead people to the source of ultimate truth and help them apply it to their lives.

Pearcey goes through history describing the sources of the many false worldviews which populate our culture.  While I find that part of the book fascinating, it's not going to be everyone's cup of tea.

Here are the kind of people I think would benefit from this book:

• Teachers

• Students - particularly those about to enter the challenging environment (i.e. cesspool) of our higher education system

• Parents of those students - who have a responsibility to help their children choose a school wisely, and who will be contributing vast sums of money to the "challenging environment"

• Church leaders and staff - who will be advising all the above

This book is more about apologetics than evangelism.  It is more vaccine than cure.  But one of the most pressing issues of today is that the Church is losing its children to the spirit of our age.  These arguments will not automatically stop a young person who is determined to commit sin from embracing one of our culture's idols, but it may make it just enough more difficult for him or her to ignore the truth.

 

(reviewed by Rick C)

 

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