Nancy Pearcy is a scholar and writer who has authored several books on science, culture and faith, and has recently come out with yet another volume on the topic of how worldview influences culture. The book is titled Saving Leonardo: A Call to Resist the Secular Assault on Mind, Morals, and Meaning, and in it Pearcy outlines how the historical shift in worldview in the West from Christian theism to modern materialism and post-modern nihilism expresses itself in our culture, particularly philosophy, literature, film, and art.
Her overarching theme is the corrosive effect materialism has had on the way artists and thinkers view life and the world. To paraphrase Daniel Dennett this modern view of life is a universal acid that eats away at and destroys everything it touches. The loss of transcendence in Western civilization has been accompanied by a loss of beauty, coherence, and hope in music, painting, and film. When people no longer have anything to believe in the fruits of their imagination reflect only emptiness and despair. Pearcy traces this descent into hopelessness with impressive scholarship.
There are parts of Saving Leonardo that plod a little, but it's beautifully produced with color prints of the paintings she discusses and is so packed with information and insight that the serious reader will be well-rewarded, even if he or she doesn't agree with everything Pearcy says. It would make an excellent gift for anyone, particularly students, interested in the close relationship between the religious assumptions of those who create culture and the art and thought they produce.