Everyone has a worldview. A worldview is “the conceptual lens through which we see, understand, and interpret the world and our place within it.”
Your worldview shapes how you look at everything in life – from your views on marriage and how to raise a family, to politics and cultural issues.
A worldview answers the big questions:
What is our nature? What is our world? What is our problem? What is our end?
An Introduction to Christian Worldview delves into answering questions such as:
- Why do worldviews matter?
- How can we analyze and describe a worldview?
- What are the most common secular and religious worldviews?
- What does it mean to have a Christian worldview?
As authors Tawa Anderson, W. Michael Clark, and David Naugle point out, our worldview cannot simply be reduced to a set of rational beliefs. It also involves our passions and affections. It involves what we love and long for.
More than just a set of assumptions about reality, our worldview can be expressed in a story. Humans are creatures of story, and the kinds of stories that we tell reveal important things about our worldview.
An Introduction to Christian Worldview is not written like a typical textbook. It actually reads more like a story, with plenty of quotes and Bible verses woven into the text. It also contains lots of real world examples from popular culture, entertainment and movies. The references are current and timely, too, since the book was just published on October 10, 2017. It’s not an illustrated book, though, so there are no pictures.
Part one of the book begins with a consideration of the history and concept of worldview, articulates the four core worldview questions, and evaluates the universality and diversity of worldviews.
Part two of the book provides an analysis of the Christian worldview as compared to alternative worldviews such as dualism, naturalism, postmodernism, Hinduism, and Islam.
The final chapter touches on the potential influence of other worldviews on you. For example, do you consciously or subconsciously embrace scientism, technicism, hedonism, individualism, consumerism, blameism, or conformism?
This book is academic enough for a class, yet accessible enough for the general reader. The book is well organized, clearly written, and features “Reflection Questions” at the end of each chapter as an aid for learning. It’s up to you whether you want to use them as class discussion questions or essay prompts.
An Introduction to Christian Worldview is an excellent resource for worldview studies for Christians of all ages. However, the book was written specifically for late-high school and early college-age students. As such, it is an essential text for either the classroom or for self-study, and it provides an easy means to add an elective credit in worldviews to your homeschool transcript.
We would actually recommend studying this book before starting college, to give you a strong foundation in the Christian worldview and prepare you for all the competing worldviews that you will be exposed to in your college classes.
In summary, a Christian worldview is grounded in God’s authoritative revelation as recorded in the Scriptures. Part of being a thoughtful Christian means being able to understand and express the Christian worldview as well as developing an awareness of a variety of other worldviews.
About the Authors:
Michael Clark, Ph.D., J.D., serves as Legislative Counsel at the Center for Arizona Policy. Prior to entering the legal profession, he was Director of the School of Christian Studies and Assistant Professor of Cross-cultural Ministry at OBU.
David K. Naugle, Th.D., Ph.D., is the Department of Philosophy chair at Dallas Baptist University.
Please note that the above product was NOT provided for free or at a discount in exchange for a review. This item was purchased by a homeschooling family at their own expense.
What types of activities and courses have you used as electives? Leave a comment and we may include yours in a future column!