In this historic moment, we live caught in a worldview that no longer works and a new one that seems too bizarre to contemplate.
Margaret J. Wheatley, Leadership and the New Science: Discovering Order in a Chaotic World
A worldview is an assumption about how the world really works, a conceptual framework. Everyone has a worldview, but for most people it is unconscious. We communicate our personal view to others through cultural norms: our schools, the mass media, the church, and now with social networking through the Internet. Our personal worldview answers the big questions we have such as:
- Who Am I?
- Why Am I Here?
- How did I get here?
- What is right and what is wrong?
- Where did the world come from?
Typical worldviews include Christianity, Marxism, New-age, Postmodern, Islam, and Humanism. In reality, today many people tend to create their own worldview by borrowing a bit from various worldviews for whatever works for them. That doesn’t mean, however, that the worldview is valid – that is, reality.
There are two requirements, however, for any worldview:
- It must be consistent with “what is”.
- It must be consistent within itself.
The Postmodern worldview, for example, says there are no absolutes. You decide, personally, what is right or wrong for yourself. That statement, in itself, is an absolute for the postmodernist. They have just contradicted themselves. They say they have no absolutes, yet they have just given you an absolute. The worldview not consistent within itself. The New-Age and Humanistic worldviews profess a cosmic evolution. Unfortunately, that violates the Second Law of Thermodynamics. You can’t have matter or energy from nothing unless something is acting from outside the system. Neither of these worldviews is consistent with “what is”.
Here are some of the parameters of the Christian Worldview professed by this web site and this author
Politics: Limited Constitutional Republic
Economics: Stewardship of private property
Ethics: Moral absolutes
Law: Divine/Natural
History: Linear, purposeful
Theology: God is Holy, eternal three persons, Creator, judge, Redeemer through Christ Jesus
Anthropology: Created / Dualism (The perpetual conflict of good and evil) / Fallen
Philosophy: Supernaturalism
Sociology: High view of individual (created in image of God), limited authority of state
Binding action: Unconditional love
This Christian worldview is consistent within itself and with “what is”. It is the greatest romance story ever told, and we have the Bible to help us understand it. The story is not something that happened long ago, but describes and active God that is creating in the world today, redeeming the world to Himself.
“See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the basic principles of this world rather than on Christ.”
Colossians 2:8 NIV
The concept of worldview is really fairly recent in history. The concept is birthed form the German word Weltanschauung, which means wide word view or world perception of a people, family, or person. It encompasses philosophy, sociology, anthropology, science, economics – every area you could think of – of the person, family, or peoples. We normally think of a person as having a personal worldview; but worldviews can be held by a person, or held at a community level. The Nazis, for example, had a worldview that (from their perspective) allowed them to operate in the name of a higher ideal. Today these acts are commonly perceived as acts of aggression based on twisted facts that violate basic human rights. Today we see the same distorted view in a group of Moslems acting within a similar type of distorted worldview.
The idea that a religious belief system should be a part of a worldview is a even more recent concept in history. A leading Christian thought leader, James W, Sire, defines a world view as:
“..a commitment, a fundamental orientation of the heart, that can be expressed as a story or in a set of presuppositions (assumptions which may be true, partially true, or entirely false) which we hold (consciously or subconsciously, consistently or inconsistently) about the basic construction of reality, and that provides the foundation on which we live and move and have our being.”(1)
Sire also suggests:
“…we should all think in terms of worldviews, that is, with a consciousness not only of our own way of thought but also that of other people, so that we can first understand and then genuinely communicate with others in our pluralistic society.”(1)
Some of the best material for developing a worldview is available at http://www.worldview.org. They do a lot of ministry and various youth camps during the summer for helping young people develop a personal world view. Great Stuff!
- Sire, James W.., The Universe Next Door: A Basic World View Catalog