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Dr. Greene - Book Reviews
What are you reading?
Charles Colson and Nancy Pearcey, How Now Shall We Live? Tyndale House Publishers, 1999.
To anyone familiar with the works of Francis Schaeffer, this title rings a bell. There is a reason for that. One of Schaeffer's books was entitled, How Then Shall We Live? The book here reviewed is dedicated to Schaeffer, whose work at L'Abri in Switzerland helped in Nancy's conversion and whose writings have deeply influenced Colson's realization of the importance of a Christian worldview.
Everyone has a worldview, though we are usually unconscious of ours. This is because worldviews are held below the level of consciousness and are usually shaped by the society in which we live. A worldview is the framework within which we see the world we live in. It could be called the pair of glasses through which the world becomes recognizable to us.
The problem for Christians in America today is that the most common American worldview does not even mention God. It attempts to understand the world without reference to Him. There is a Christian worldview in which God is central, and following Christ in a Christian life calls on us to understand the Christian worldview and live by it. The Colson-Pearcey book realizes this and strongly emphasizes it.
There is an IVPress book by Walsh and Middleton entitled The Transforming Vision which defines the Christian worldview in terms of four questions: who am I, where am I, what's wrong and what's the solution? This is the approach to worldview taken by the Colson-Pearcey book. It unfolds, in a very readable language, the Christian answer to these questions, and insists that is important for Christians to hold and to understand this Christian worldview. The entire last section of the book is dedicated to answering the question of what the Christian life should be like in view of this.
Not only for Christian school parents, but also for all American Christians, this is a very important book. It is long, but easy and interesting to read. As was true in the first century, the Christian’s view of the world should be radically different from the prevailing view of the society. Our danger is that we split life into the sacred and secular parts and feel that we can go by the popular perspective in the ordinary part of life. But this is idolatrous. We are meant to acknowledge Christ in every area of life (1 Corinthians 10:31). A Christian worldview will help us do this.
The book is available from your Christian bookstore, or it can be obtained from the Alta Vista Bookroom in Seattle, by calling (206) 522-1632.
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