Nancy Randolph Pearcey (born 1952) is an American

evangelical Evangelicalism (), also called evangelical Christianity or evangelical Protestantism, is a worldwide, interdenominational movement within Protestantism, Protestant Christianity that emphasizes evangelism, or the preaching and spreading of th ...

author known for her writings on

Intelligent design Intelligent design (ID) is a pseudoscientific argument for the existence of God, presented by its proponents as "an evidence-based scientific theory about life's origins".#Numbers 2006, Numbers 2006, p. 373; " Dcaptured headlines for it ...

and

Christian worldview Christian worldview (also called biblical worldview) refers to the framework of ideas and beliefs through which a Christian individual, group or culture interprets the world and interacts with it. Various denominations of Christianity have differi ...

theory.

Education

Pearcey earned a BA from

Iowa State University Iowa State University of Science and Technology (Iowa State University, Iowa State, or ISU) is a Public university, public land-grant university, land-grant research university in Ames, Iowa, United States. Founded in 1858 as the Iowa Agricult ...

, an MA in

Biblical Studies Biblical studies is the academic application of a set of diverse disciplines to the study of the Bible, with ''Bible'' referring to the books of the canonical Hebrew Bible in mainstream Jewish usage and the Christian Bible including the can ...

from

Covenant Theological Seminary Covenant Theological Seminary, informally called Covenant Seminary, is the denominational seminary of the Presbyterian Church in America (PCA). Located in Creve Coeur, Missouri, it trains people to work as leaders in church positions and elsewh ...

St. Louis St. Louis ( , sometimes referred to as St. Louis City, Saint Louis or STL) is an independent city in the U.S. state of Missouri. It lies near the confluence of the Mississippi and the Missouri rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a populatio ...

Missouri Missouri (''see #Etymology and pronunciation, pronunciation'') is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. Ranking List of U.S. states and territories by area, 21st in land area, it border ...

. She also completed additional non-degree study in

philosophy Philosophy ('love of wisdom' in Ancient Greek) is a systematic study of general and fundamental questions concerning topics like existence, reason, knowledge, Value (ethics and social sciences), value, mind, and language. It is a rational an ...

at the

Institute for Christian Studies The Institute for Christian Studies (ICS or ICS Toronto) is a private, graduate-level Reformed philosophical and theological school in Toronto, Ontario. At ICS, students and faculty take part in shared learning through participatory seminars, me ...

Toronto Toronto ( , locally pronounced or ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, most populous city in Canada. It is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. With a p ...

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...

and received an

honorary doctorate An honorary degree is an academic degree for which a university (or other degree-awarding institution) has waived all of the usual requirements. It is also known by the Latin phrases ''honoris causa'' ("for the sake of the honour") or '' ad hon ...

from

Cairn University Cairn University is a private Christian university in Langhorne Manor and Middletown Township, Pennsylvania, United States. Founded in 1913, the university has six schools and departments: Business, Counseling, Divinity, Education, Liberal Arts ...

in 2007.

Career

In 1991, Pearcey and

Charles Colson Charles Wendell Colson (October 16, 1931 – April 21, 2012), generally referred to as Chuck Colson, was an American attorney and political advisor who served as Special Counsel to President Richard Nixon from 1969 to 1970. Once known as ...

founded BreakPoint Radio, a radio show dedicated to bringing Christian apologetics to a popular audience. Pearcey wrote scripts for the show until November 1999. Starting in 1996, Pearcey co-authored a number of

Christianity Today ''Christianity Today'' is an evangelical Christian media magazine founded in 1956 by Billy Graham. It is published by Christianity Today International based in Carol Stream, Illinois. ''The Washington Post'' calls ''Christianity Today'' "eva ...

columns with Colson, who provided outlines that Pearcey would turn into drafts. Pearcey and Colson published their book ''How Now Shall We Live?'' in 1999. Despite maintaining her contract for the book was “for co-authorship, not for ghostwriting” Pearcey was only included in ads and cover designs for the book after extensive negotiations with Tyndale House Publishers. In the early 2000s, Pearcey was the Francis A. Schaeffer Scholar for several years at the World Journalism Institute. In September 2007, Pearcey was named Scholar for Worldview Studies at the Center for University Studies at Philadelphia Biblical University,

Langhorne, Pennsylvania Langhorne Borough, formerly known as Attleboro, is a borough in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, United States. The population was 1,643 at the time of the 2020 census. The mailing address "Langhorne" is used for Langhorne Borough but also broadly ...

. 6] In 2011-12 Pearcey was on the faculty at Rivendell Sanctuary. In 2012, she became Scholar in Residence at

Houston Christian University Houston Christian University (HCU), formerly Houston Baptist University (HBU), is a private Baptist university in Houston, Texas. It is affiliated with the Baptist General Convention of Texas. Its Cultural Arts Center houses three museums: the ...

. Pearcey is a columnist for the conservative magazine ''

Human Events ''Human Events'' is an American conservative political news and analysis website. Founded in 1944 as a print newspaper, ''Human Events'' became a digital-only publication in 2013. ''Human Events'' takes its name from the first sentence of the U ...

''.

Views

Intelligent design

Pearcey is a fellow of the

Discovery Institute The Discovery Institute (DI) is a conservatism in the United States, politically conservative think tank that advocates the pseudoscience, pseudoscientific concept Article available froUniversiteit Gent of intelligent design (ID). It was fou ...

's Center for Science and Culture. She has extensively promoted the

intelligent design movement The intelligent design movement is a neo-creationist religious campaign for broad social, academic and political change to promote and support the pseudoscientific Article available froUniversiteit Gent/ref> idea of intelligent design (ID), which ...

in her writings. Pearcey authored several chapters of the controversial pro-intelligent design textbook

Of Pandas and People ''Of Pandas and People: The Central Question of Biological Origins'' is a controversial 1989 (2nd edition 1993) school-level supplementary textbook written by Percival Davis and Dean H. Kenyon, edited by Charles Thaxton and published by the Te ...

, which featured prominently in the Kitzmiller v. Dover Area School District trial.

Christian Worldview

Pearcey is a vocal advocate of the

Christian Worldview Christian worldview (also called biblical worldview) refers to the framework of ideas and beliefs through which a Christian individual, group or culture interprets the world and interacts with it. Various denominations of Christianity have differi ...

, which emphasizes the construction of distinctly Christian intellectual frameworks rooted in Biblical inerrancy. Each worldview is defined by its answer to three questions, including natural origins, the source of suffering/the fall, and how humans will be redeemed. These views are mutually exclusive:

"The culture war is not just about abortion, homosexual rights, or the decline of public education. These are only the skirmishes. The real war is a cosmic struggle between worldviews—between the Christian worldview and the various secular and spiritual worldviews arrayed against it. This is what we must understand if we are going to be effective both in evangelizing our world today and in transforming it to reflect the wisdom of the Creator.”

Gender and Sexuality

Pearcey is an adherent to

Complementarianism Complementarianism is a theological view in some denominations of Christianity, Rabbinic Judaism, and Islam, that men and women have different but complementary roles and responsibilities in marriage, family, and religious life. Some Christians ...

and distinct gender roles for men and women. She believes the

Industrial Revolution The Industrial Revolution, sometimes divided into the First Industrial Revolution and Second Industrial Revolution, was a transitional period of the global economy toward more widespread, efficient and stable manufacturing processes, succee ...

disrupted the connection between men and their homes — for example, she argues

Women's suffrage Women's suffrage is the women's rights, right of women to Suffrage, vote in elections. Several instances occurred in recent centuries where women were selectively given, then stripped of, the right to vote. In Sweden, conditional women's suffra ...

"represented a tragic erosion of women’s trust in men to take responsibility for the common good—especially women’s good," stating this trend led to societal atomization and the decline of traditional masculinity. To combat this trend, she argues for renewed interest in the home and conscious de-secularization of Christian masculinity that emphasizes spiritual leadership. Pearcey is opposed to the

Sex–gender distinction While in ordinary speech, the terms ''sex'' and ''gender'' are often used interchangeably, in contemporary academic literature, the terms often have distinct meanings, especially when referring to people. ''Sex'' generally refers to an organis ...

, arguing

Transgender sexuality Sexuality in transgender individuals encompasses all the issues of sexuality of other groups, including establishing a sexual identity, learning to deal with one's sexual needs, and finding a partner, but may be complicated by issues of gender ...

"sets up an opposition between the body and the self, estranging people from their basic biological identities as male and female."

Criticism

The BioLogos Foundation has criticized Pearcey for conflating "the scientific theory of biological evolution and the philosophy of materialistic evolutionism" in her work on intelligent design.

Publications

* . * . * . * . * ECPA

Gold Medallion Book Award The Evangelical Christian Publishers Association (ECPA) is an international non-profit trade association whose member companies are involved in the publishing and distribution of Christian A Christian () is a person who follows or adheres ...

'Christianity and Society' category winner.. * . * . *______ (2018) ''Love Thy Body: Answering Hard Questions About Life and Sexuality'', Baker Books, . *

References

External links

(the website of Nancy Pearcey)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Pearcey, Nancy 1952 births Living people 20th-century American non-fiction writers 20th-century American women writers 20th-century evangelicals 21st-century American non-fiction writers 21st-century American women writers 21st-century evangelicals American Christian Young Earth creationists American Evangelical writers American religious writers American women non-fiction writers Biola University Cairn University Converts to Christianity from atheism or agnosticism Converts to evangelical Christianity Discovery Institute fellows and advisors Intelligent design advocates Iowa State University alumni American philosophers of religion Protestant philosophers