What's In A Worldview? Star Wars and the 4 Worldview Questions

What’s In a Worldview? Part II – Star Wars and the 4 Worldview Questions

Tawa J. Anderson, W. Michael Clark, and David K. Naugle, An Introduction to Christian Worldview: Pursuing God's Perspective in a Pluralistic World. IVP Academic, 2017. Amazon link

Contemporary Cultural Worldview Meditation

 

In my last few posts, I have been talking about the nature of worldview – what is a worldview, and what all is a worldview comprised of? I have suggested that worldview is the conceptual lens through which we see, understand, and interpret the world and our place within it. Our worldview is generally formed pre-theoretically – that is, without our conscious thought and consideration. Worldview takes root based on our experiences and the influences exerted upon us by friends, family, education, and culture.

Each person’s worldview answer four fundamental sets of questions about life, the universe, and everything: What is our nature? What is our world? What is our problem? And What is our end?

It is interesting, then, to consider the worldviews displayed by people around us, including the worldviews displayed in popular culture. So today – consider a brief jaunt into the worldview of the Star Wars world …

What's In A Worldview? The Questions We All Must Face

What's In A Worldview? Part I - Questions all Worldviews Answer

Tawa J. Anderson, W. Michael Clark, and David K. Naugle, An Introduction to Christian Worldview: Pursuing God's Perspective in a Pluralistic World. IVP Academic, October 2017. 384 pp. Purchase via Amazon

Philosophers, educators, sociologists, missiologists, and anthropologists alike can agree that worldview is an important concept to understand and apply. Furthermore, scholars in each discipline agree that there is an identifiable set of common components to worldview.  Some

scholars propose categories of thought or belief as the common components to worldview. Other scholars suggest that all worldviews address a set of unavoidable common questions.

I contend that it is best to approach universal worldview components with four core questions in mind: What is our nature? What is our world? What is our problem? What is our end? On one hand, asking such questions helps to bring worldview commitments to the surface in a way that categories or classifications may not; the route of questioning embodies the still-valuable Socratic method of philosophical inquiry. Furthermore, approaching worldviews via questions is more attuned to the predominantly storied or narrative structure of worldview. Thus, we believe that our worldview—conscious or not, consistent or not—answers four fundamental questions (actually, four sets of questions) about life, the universe, and everything. Each question (or set of questions) has multiple possible answers that can be given in the form of stories or propositions; together, the answers compose a comprehensive view of reality. The questions posed for and answered by every worldview have been asked by thinking persons for millennia.

What Is Worldview? Part III - Engaging James Sire

What Is Worldview: James Sire, Dean of Worldview Thought

James Sire is arguably the most influential evangelical worldview proponent over the past two generations. Given my interest in worldview studies (as exemplified in our recently-published An Introduction to Christian Worldview, with IVP Academic), I think it is healthy and important to understand what Sire has written on worldview over the past 40 years, and to build upon his wisdom. His classic text, The Universe Next Door: A Basic Worldview Catalog, first published in 1976, is currently in its fifth edition. The first three editions focused on worldview as primarily a set of basic concepts or intellectual presuppositions. After rethinking his approach, Sire thoroughly revised his understanding and explanation of worldview. Sire no longer understands or explains worldview in terms of philosophical propositions alone. Instead, he provides a comprehensive and holistic definition:

A worldview is 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 constitution of reality, and that provides the foundation on which we live and move and have our being. [James W. Sire, Naming the Elephant: Worldview as a Concept, 2nd ed. (Downers Grove, IL: IVP Academic, 2015), 13.]

Sire’s definition is helpful on several levels and deserves to be unpacked.

Worldview, Empathy, and Expectations

I don't normally do this, but I'm going to share some off-the-cuff remarks on the impact that worldview exerts on our expectations, particularly with regards to our assessment of empathy.  My thoughts are sparked by a great gathering that we hosted here at Oklahoma Baptist University over the weekend - the regional meeting of Phi Theta Kappa, the Arkansas-Oklahoma Honors society for 2-year colleges.  There were about 100 students and various sponsors and faculty members in attendance, and I had the privilege of eating dinner with some of them, and then serving as the moderator for a panel discussion on Friday evening.

The topic of our panel discussion was "The University: Unity in Diversity - Cultivating Global Scholars."  The aim was to talk about how cultural and disciplinary diversity among faculty members and students contributes to a healthy campus environment, but need not prevent a university's strong unity in purpose and direction.  As a college builds unity amid diversity, we are then better able to cultivate global scholars, graduates who are confident and competent to engage a diverse world and (in our OBU context) integrate their faith with all areas of knowledge while living a life worthy of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.

In the Q&A after the panel discussion, a couple of interesting things transpired. 

Today's the Day!!!

Anderson, Tawa J., W. Michael Clark, and David K. Naugle, An Introduction to Christian Worldview: Pursuing God's Perspective in a Pluralistic World. Downers Grove, IL: IVP Academic, 2017.

After five long years of collaboration, writing, revising, re-writing, editing, and indexing, our co-authored Worldview textbook is officially released today (October 10) by IVP Academic.  A hearty shout out to Dan Reid, our chief editor at InterVarsity Press, along with the editing and artistic team, for a truly beautiful product (inside and out!).  The book is casebound, hard-cover, 384 pages, with beautiful cover art; some charts, figures, and illustrations in the main text; well laid-out (and interesting) sidebars and scenic byways engaging worldview in pop culture; with a helpful (and painstakingly-produced) index.  I'm biased, of course, but it's a fantastic product both in its content and its presentation.

The promotional blurb from IVP (also on Amazon): Everyone has a worldview. A worldview is the lens through which we interpret the cosmos and our lives in it. A worldview answers the big questions of life: What is our nature? What is our world? What is our problem? What is our End? As Anderson, Clark, and Naugle point out, our worldview cannot simply be reduced to a series of rational beliefs. We are creatures of story, and the kinds of stories we tell reveal important things about our worldview. Part of being a thoughtful Christian means being able to understand and express the Christian worldview as well as developing an awareness of the variety of worldviews. An Introduction to Christian Worldview takes you further into answering questions such as

• Why do worldviews matter?
• What characterizes a Christian worldview?
• How can we analyze and describe a worldview?
• What are the most common secular and religious worldviews?

Well organized, clearly written, and featuring aids for learning, An Introduction to Christian Worldview is the essential text for either the classroom or for self-study.

How can you get a copy?  ...

What Is A Worldview? Part 2

What Is A Worldview? Origins & Definitions

Excerpted from Anderson, Clark, and Naugle, An Introduction to Christian Worldview (IVP Academic, 2017), 9-13. (To be released October 12, 2017.)

The English term worldview is derived from the German Weltanschauung, a compound word (Welt = world + Anschauung = view or outlook) first used by Immanuel Kant to describe an individual’s sensory perception of the world. The term spread quickly in German idealist philosophy “to refer to an intellectual conception of the universe from the perspective of a human knower.” In the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, German philosophers used Weltanschauung increasingly for the concept of answering pivotal questions regarding life,

the universe, and everything.

A worldview can be helpfully defined as “the conceptual lens through which we see, understand, and interpret the world and our place within it.” There is, however, a multitude of ways to define and explain worldview.

What Is a Worldview? Part 1

What Is a Worldview? Stories & A Definition

Excerpted from Anderson, Clark, and Naugle, An Introduction to Christian Worldview (IVP Academic, 2017), 8-9. (To be released October 12, 2017.)

Three friends once went to a nature preserve in the African Serengeti and experienced the majestic beauty and diversity of native African wildlife—zebra, elephant, gazelle, lion, and rhinoceros. Each was awestruck by the diversity of creatures observed.

The first friend, John Luther, commented boldly: “The Lord God has definitely created an amazing array of creatures that sing his praises and declare his glory to the ends of the earth, has he not?”

The second friend, Charles Dawkins, immediately responded: “An amazing array of creatures, to be sure. But you err, my good man, in ascribing their existence to a Creator. No, these incredible animals are the result of the unguided, purposeless combination of random mutation and natural selection. We too are the product of a natural evolutionary process. Indeed, we are no different from the creatures that we see.”

The third friend, Shirley Chopra, serenely replied: “I pray you both would be enlightened to the full reality disclosed by our brothers and sisters on the nature preserve. For they too bear the same spark of divinity that lies within you and me. Do you not sense them calling to you, seeking to communicate with your spirit? We are all potential gods and goddesses; we just need to awaken to our heightened state and take hold of the possibilities that lie before us.”

The three friends see the same animals within the same nature preserve. Thus, they experience the same objective truth. Nevertheless, due to their vastly different perspectives, the three friends see different things.