Uncommon sense : God’s wisdom for our complex and changing world
by John Peck and Charles Strohmer SPCK, 2001 £5 362 pages ISBN 978 0 281 054 282
The basic aim of the authors in this book is to discern the wisdom of God as revealed in the Bible and how to apply this wisdom to the present culture of the western world in the 21st century.
Fundamental to their argument is that, for the Christian, there is really no division at all between sacred and secular. Such a distinction, they maintain, is unthinkable. In other words, the whole of life is under divine governance and jurisdiction from washing up to worship.
Having established this foundation, the authors proceed to analyse some aspects of human activity – the arts, business, economics, politics, the family, education, language, law, religion – using the technique of modal theory and analysis which comes from a tradition of Dutch Christian philosophy developed by Abraham Kuyper and Herman Dooyeweerd.
When the authors start to examine and explore these areas of human behaviour, the book comes to life, at least for me. However, working through the book is quite hard work. The style is laboured and easily becomes tedious. There is a good deal of repetition as if the message needs to be hammered home. Nevertheless, the book helps us ‘discover how God’s original wisdom for the world has transformative power even for today’s fast-paced, pluralist culture’.
Although recommended by several significant Christian leaders, one wonders how much of an impact the book has had since its publication.