With over 800 full or partial book reviews on this website, I obviously think books are important, and I think it is vital to alert folks to some of the better new volumes that have come out. But sometimes older books – either recently ‘old’ or really old – are worth reviewing or bringing to the attention of my readers.
One slightly older series of books that you should know about is the “Turning Point Christian Worldview Series” edited by Marvin Olasky. Published by Crossway Books, this is an important, albeit somewhat earlier collection of volumes that seek to affirm the biblical worldview as it applies to various areas of life, be it politics, economics, science, philosophy, culture and the arts, and so on.
All up 16 volumes appeared between 1987 and 1994. Authors include Marvin Olasky, Doug Bandow, Herbert Schlossberg, Nancy Pearcey, and Douglas Wilson. Most of the volumes are between 200 and 300 pages in length. And most are still available at various outlets.
I was eager to get these books when they first appeared. I own 12 of the 16 volumes, and I am still tempted to get hold of the remaining 4! The full set, listed alphabetically, is this:
All God’s Children and Blue Suede Shoes: Christians and Popular Culture – Ken Myers, 1989
Beyond Good Intentions: A Biblical View of Politics – Doug Bandow, 1988
A Fragrance of Oppression: The Church and Its Persecutors – Herbert Schlossberg, 1991
Freedom, Justice and Hope: Toward a Strategy for the Poor and the Oppressed – Marvin Olasky, et al, 1988
More than Kindness: A Compassionate Approach to Crisis Childbearing – Susan Olasky and Marvin Olasky, 1991
Postmodern Times: A Christian Guide to Contemporary Thought and Culture – Gene Edward Veith Jr., 1994
Prodigal Press: The Anti-Christian Bias of American News Media – Marvin Olasky, 1988
Prospects for Growth: A Biblical View of Population, Resources, and the Future – E. Calvin Beisner, 1990
Prosperity and Poverty: The Compassionate Use of Resources in a World of Scarcity – E. Calvin Beisner, 1988
Reading Between the Lines: A Christian Guide to Literature – Gene Edward Veith Jr., 1990
Recovering the Lost Tools of Learning: An Approach to Distinctively Christian Education – Douglas Wilson, 1991
The Seductive Image: A Christian Critique of the World of Film – K. L. Billingsley, 1989
The Soul of Science: Christian Faith and Natural Philosophy – Nancy R. Pearcey and Charles Thaxton, 1994
State of the Arts: From Bezalel to Mapplethorpe – Gene Edward Veith, 1991
Turning Point: A Christian Worldview Declaration – Herbert Schlossberg and Marvin Olasky, 1987
A World without Tyranny: Christian Faith and International Politics – Dean C. Curry, 1990
State of the Arts: From Bezalel to Mapplethorpe (Volume 13)by Gene Edward Veith (Author)
The very first volume, Turning Point: A Christian Worldview Declaration, lays out the rationale for the series. As we read in Chapter 1:
American Christianity is at a turning point. We face perhaps the greatest challenge – and the greatest opportunity – since the founding of our country. The challenge we face is the tidal wave of militant anti-Christian belief engulfing society and the chaos let in its wake: the AIDS epidemic, the dissolution of the family, the abortion holocaust, growing economic weakness, the crisis of judge-made law, teen pregnancy, widespread financial fraud. These difficult problems and many others are largely the by-product of the humanist idea that man is the measure of all things and that all ethical standards are relative. Frequently proposed “solutions” (for example, “safe sex” and school based clinics) and ideological fixes (liberal statism, atheistic libertarianism, radical feminism…) are proven failures or disasters waiting to happen.
It is becoming painfully apparent that anti-Christian humanism, the guiding force of our society for the last three decades, does not work. The world is in crisis and people want answers. Christianity – which is not an ideology but the truth about God, man, and the world – provides the answers people want and need. The opportunity for Christians to proclaim the truth, to provide answers, is great. Will we seize opportunity? Will we share the only real hope there is? But more than this, will we live out our faith in every area of life by showing that Christ is not only Lord of our lives personally but just as much lord over all of life and culture?
Because of both current crises and Biblical imperatives, we do not have a long time to spend pondering these questions. As the epistle of James notes, “faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead” (2:17). James was not suggesting that we earn our salvation, but he was noting that true faith shows itself in action. The author of Hebrews linked faith and action when he wrote of those who “through faith conquered kingdoms, administered justice, and gained what was promised” (Heb. 11:33). We have to get moving if we are to emulate heroes such as Abraham, Moses, and David, builders of nations. To get moving, we need instruction.
Instruction, though, does not always have to be in the form of a theoretical sermon. The Bible alternates history and formal doctrine, story-telling and message-explaining. The biblical teaching style is our model…
The chapter closes with these words:
We’re not saying that we learn everything about biology, psychology, and chemistry from the Bible. We are saying that everyone, including the most adamantly “secular” scientist, is ruled by what can legitimately be called a theology – a view of what the world is like and what is ultimate in it. We’re saying that bad theology leads to defective science. The secular professor may be able to disguise this, even from himself, by publishing studies that deal only with the narrow, technical side of his discipline. But as he wanders further from the narrow specialty and tries to derive broader meanings from the data, his conclusions increasingly reflect his theology.
Christians who have good theological understanding should be able to arrive at conclusions different from those arising out of ungodly beliefs. Yet, millions of Americans who claim to be born again show no signs of having a different moral and intellectual perspective than Americans in general. Unthoughtful attitudes involving such matters as government, education, culture, sexual morality, abortion, and so on suggest that Christians have not learned to make the right connections between piety and reason, between acknowledging the Lordship of Christ and working out the implications of God’s word for all of life.
The purpose of this book – and indeed of the whole series of books that this volume introduces – is to help us see what a fully realised Christian worldview looks like. In other words, these books intend to show us what it means to say that Jesus Christ is Lord and to apply this to every area of life. This short volume seeks to lay the foundation for the task. Chapters 2 and 3 will examine the growth of pietism and the effects of that ideology. Chapters 4 and 5 will similarly assess rationalism and its impact. Chapter 6 and seven describe Biblical standards of reason and give examples of twentieth-century combinations of piety and reason. Chapter 8 concludes with the Christian worldview challenge.
If such matters were urgent some 40 years ago, then how much more so today? As mentioned, these volumes can still be found, so why not grab a few? They still repay close reading and study.
