Nancy Pearcey (* 1952) gilt als “America’s preeminent evangelical Protestant female intellectual” (The Economist). Pearcey lebte in ihrer Jugend eine Zeit in der Nähe von Heidelberg und studierte dort Violine. Über ihren Grossvater schreibt sie:
One of the most inspiring models I’ve encountered was my own grand-father, Oswald Overn. With five rambunctious children close in age, he was determined to prepare them all to defend their faith by the time they left home. And so he turned the evening dinner table into a classroom—a place for serious teaching and discussion. “My father would bring books and articles to the dinner table, to read and discuss with us,” recalls my uncle Bill Overn. “He taught us Latin, physics, math. He also had us memorize the creeds, the Lutheran catechism, and passages from the Bible.” In fact, that’s how all five children learned how to read: “We would read a passage by going around the table, and everyone from the oldest to the youngest had their verses to read. (Total Truth, 224)
In "Total Truth" erzählt sie auch über ihren Weggang und die Rückkehr zum christlichen Glauben (S. 53-55).
When I graduated from high school, I wrote a senior paper on the topic of “Why I Am Not a Christian.” Later I would discover that Bertrand Russell had written a famous essay by that title (which I had not read yet)—but this was my own manifesto of unbelief. Like a Swiss Farmer It was a few years later, when I was attending school in Germany and studying violin at the Heidelberg Conservatory, that I stumbled across L’Abri in Switzerland, the residential ministry of Francis Schaeffer. I was stunned by this place. It was the first time I had ever encountered Christians who actually answered my questions—who gave reasons and arguments for the truth of Christianity instead of simply urging me to have faith. When I arrived, the most obvious thing that struck me was that most of the guests were not even Christian. The place was crowded with hippies sporting long hair, beards, and bell-bottom jeans. At the time, it was extremely rare to discover Christian ministries capable of crossing the countercultural divide to reach alienated young people, and my curiosity was sparked. Who were these Christians?
… Seeing Christians who engaged with the intellectual and cultural world was a complete novelty. In fact, it was such a novelty that I was afraid that I might make a decision for Christianity based on emotion instead of genuine conviction, and so, after only one month, I returned to the States. (To be honest, I fled back home.) And I thought, “I’m going to test these ideas in my college philosophy classes, and see how well they stand up in a secular university setting.”
… Fired up with the hope that maybe God would do something equally spectacular in my own life, that night I begged Him, if He was real, to perform some supernatural sign for me—promising that if He did, I would believe in Him. Thinking that maybe this sort of thing worked better with an aggressive approach, I vowed to stay up all night until He gave me a sign. Midnight passed, then one o’clock, two o’clock, four o’clock . . . my eyes were closing in spite of myself, and still no spectacular sign had appeared. Finally, rather chagrined about engaging in such theatrics, I abandoned the vigil. And as I did, suddenly I found myself speaking to God simply and directly from the depths of my spirit, with a profound sense of His presence. I acknowledged that I did not really need external signs and wonders because, in my heart of hearts, I had to admit (rather ruefully) that I was already convinced that Christianity was true. Through the discussions at L’Abri and my readings in apologetics, I had come to realize there were good and sufficient arguments against moral relativism, physical determinism, epistemological subjectivism, and a host of other isms I had been carrying around in my head. As my South African friend had put it, all my own ideas had been shot down.36 The only step that remained was to acknowledge that I had been persuaded—and then give my life to the Lord of Truth.
Zentral für das gesamte Werk Pearceys ist das Zwei-Bereiche-Modell der Wahrheit (zitiert in diesem Beitrag).
Aufgrund ihrer Werke "Total Truth" und "Saving Leonardo" verfasste ich den Aufsatz "Das säkulare Wahrheitsverständnis: Die Trennung zwischen Fakten und Werten überwinden". Den Longseller "Total Truth" haben mein Freund Jonas Erne und ich besprochen (hier und hier). Jonas zitiert:
„Wir müssen sichergehen, dass, wenn unsere Kinder das Haus verlassen, dieselbe Überzeugung tief in ihr Gedächtnis eingebrannt ist – dass das Christentum fähig ist, wenn es auf dem Marktplatz der Ideen herausgefordert ist, in sich zu verhalten. Es reicht nicht, junge Gläubige einfach zu lehren, wie man eine persönliche „Stille Zeit“ hält, wie man ein Bibellernprogramm befolgt und wie man mit einer christlichen Gruppe auf dem Campus Verbindung aufnimmt. Wir müssen sie auch darin anleiten, wie man auf intellektuelle Herausforderungen antwortet, die ihnen im Schulzimmer begegnen werden. Bevor die das Haus verlassen, sollten sie mit all den „-ismen“ wohlbekannt sein, vom Marxismus zum Darwinismus bis zum Postmodernismus. Es ist am besten für junge Gläubige, wenn sie von diesen Ideen zuerst von den vertrauten Eltern, Pastoren oder Jugendleitern hören, welche sie in den Strategien trainieren können, um die konkurrierenden Ideologien analysieren zu können.“ (S. 125)
Ich habe weitere Werke von Pearcey rezensiert:
- Saving Leonardo (Rezension): Säkularismus erkennen und überwinden
- Finding Truth (Rezension): Zum Kern einer Weltsicht vordringen – eine fünfteilige Strategie
- The Soul of Science: Christian Faith and Natural Philosophy (Rezension): Eine christliche Weltsicht auf die Wissenschaftsgeschichte
- Love Thy Body (Rezension): Regiert der Geist als wahres Selbst den Körper? Eine Demaskierung der PoMo-Sexualität
