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Players at the Worldview Table: Ideas That Matter

There is a War On

In case you hadn't heard, there's a culture war going on. OK, you may not like the whole "war" approach, but your like or dislike of the rhetoric doesn't change the fact that at a very core level, there is a massive conflict of ideas. In some Christian circles, that falls under the heading "worldviews," which is a foreign concept to the majority of the population. In fact, when I sit next to people on planes and they ask what I do (I teach Christian Worldview Studies at the Focus on the Family Institute), my response is met with blank stares and questions like, "what is that?"

To aid understanding in this five-part series, a Christian worldview includes a belief in God as the creator and sustainer of this world/universe; that Jesus, His son, came to earth to live, teach, heal, be crucified, rise from the dead, and return to His Father in heaven; and that the Bible is the authoritative word of God.

In this series, I want to explore (1) what this worldview battle looks like, and (2) the other players at the worldview table with Christianity. This exploration will include a look at deism, naturalism, pagan mysticism and postmodernism. We'll consider each by asking several fundamental worldview questions. Specifically, what is their perspective on:

• God
• Man
• Ethics and morality
• The afterlife
• The cosmos

Why Care About Worldviews?

Charles Colson and Nancy Pearcey in their book, How Now Shall We Live, note the incredible importance of studying worldviews because it gives us wonderful ground on which to evangelize. In their words, it is pre-evangelism — understanding how people think in an effort to cultivate relationship and meaningfully engage them in discussions about truth.

Stomping on Fires

[Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow regarding The Silver Chair.]

I've been reading "The Chronicles of Narnia" books to my boys at night — most recently The Silver Chair. Upon their return to Narnia, Jill and Eustace are ordered by Aslan to find the prince who has been captured by the Green Witch. During their search, they are joined by a traveling companion named Puddleglum. He is a Marsh-Wiggle — a half man, half duck — with the most dour of attitudes about everything.

Jill, Eustace and Puddleglum find the prince in the underworld of the Green Witch's kingdom. Their escape, however, is frustrated by the Witch, who begins to put a spell on them, throwing powder on a fire and strumming her guitar. The Witch claims that the place they think they are going (the "overworld") isn't real; it's something they've made up. They are nearly convinced when Puddleglum stomps on the fire and breaks the spell. Before leading Jill and Eustace out of the underworld, Puddleglum gives a brilliant speech announcing that regardless of what the Witch says, the world she claims they made up is a whole lot better than the one she rules over.

You have to stand up and cheer for ol' Puddleglum at this point. He makes a choice to see through the "spell" and "smoke" of the Green Witch's world and stake out a claim for what is really real.

Taking Red Pills

I truly believe that most of us in the Christian community have been consumed by a secular spell and don't even know we've been had. We have begun to believe the lies of the world, while forgetting what it is to really believe in God.

Fifty years or so after C.S. Lewis wrote the "Chronicles," another set of authors penned a screenplay in which the main character is forced to make the same crucial choice. In The Matrix, Morpheus asks Neo if he wants to take the blue pill and wake up tomorrow as if nothing ever happened, or the red pill, which will enable him to see through the lies of the world and find out "how deep the rabbit hole goes." Of course, Neo takes the red pill (or else the movie would end in a pretty boring way, effectively destroying any opportunity for sequels … wait, is that a bad thing?).

A research study by the Barna Research Group¹ confirmed that the Christian community has been taking the blue pill for far too long. In their research about the relationship between people's worldviews and their actions, Barna completed a national survey of 2033 adults. Barna found that only four percent of adults use a biblical (Christian) worldview as the basis for making decisions. And that number increases to only nine percent for born again Christians in the survey — nine percent! That strongly suggests that a lot of Christians chose the blue pill.

It's as if no one has the courage of Puddleglum to stand up to the Witch. How sad!

In my humble opinion, Barna's findings are a result of Christians being unprepared to engage in the cultural discussion. We don't know what we believe, or why we believe it, and we don't have a clue about how to respond to other worldviews.

Defining the Conflict

If a worldview is simply defined as the collection of beliefs about life and the universe that drive our actions, then everyone has one. Wilhelm Dilthy (isn't that a cool name to say out loud?), a 20th century philosopher, put it this way: "… there is in mankind a persistent tendency to achieve a comprehensive interpretation, a Weltanschauung, or philosophy, in which a picture of reality is combined with a sense of its meaning and value and with principles of action …."² Everyone strives for this kind of understanding in their lives. They want a picture of reality, the meaning behind it and the reasoning behind people's actions and behaviors.

This culture war is a war over ideas. It is a battle between what is real and true and meaningful. Through these views of the world, we live and move and have our being.

The Questions

Before we dive into the actual worldviews themselves, allow me to introduce two sets of questions that I will apply to each worldview, including our own presuppositions of Christianity.

The first set of questions are the "big picture" questions I mentioned above: Who is God? Who is man? What is truth? What is right or wrong? What happens at death? And where did all this come from? Each worldview has fundamental differences in these areas.

Additionally, I want to arm you with a second set of questions to ask yourself about each worldview we encounter. These questions include:

• Is this worldview rational?
• Is it supported by evidence? (I'll define that later in this series.)
• Does it give a satisfying, comprehensive explanation of reality?
• Is there a basis for living under this worldview?

Ready to Go?

The challenge is to ask these questions about our own worldview — Christianity. What are your answers?

C O F F E E  S H O P

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What do you think of Doc's assessment that by and large Christians are unprepared to engage in the cultural discussion about worldviews?

Join the discussion!

In part two of this series, we'll begin to dive into the fundamental differences that make up this battle for truth among the other players at the worldview table, beginning with deists. When it comes down to it, I think we will find that the conflict comes down to a simple but profound choice between "God is" or "God isn't."

Let's stomp on the fire and take the red pill. You ready?