Torch, Spring 2004

The crucial questions are, which worldview do you have, and is it true? “Worldview” actually comes from the German word weltanschauung . It was first used by Immanuel Kant in 1790. Here are some definitions of worldviews. Charles Kraft defines worldview as the “conceptions of reality to which the members of the culture assent (largely unconsciously) and from which stems their value system.” 8 Nicholas Wolterstorff from Yale said, “A people’s worldview is their way of thinking about life in the world, coupled with the values they set for themselves in the context of that way of thinking.” 9 Richard Wright stated that a worldview is “a comprehensive framework of beliefs that helps us to interpret what we see and experience and also gives us direction in the choices that we make as we live out our days.” 10 Let me boil all that down for you into this: a worldview is first of all an explanation and interpretation of the world and then an application of this view to life. Notice those key three words: explanation, interpretation, and application. Being a human means we have a worldview. Once you realize that we all have worldviews, the obvious question then has to be, “Does my worldview match up with reality?” Think of your worldview as a puzzle. You dump all of the pieces onto the table. What shows you how all those pieces fit together? The picture on top of the box does, of course. Sometimes life seems fragmented — in pieces, but it does fit together. The picture on almost impossible task — reaching out in a way to engage the hearts and minds of these people who desperately need the truth. The World of Worldviews Where are we going as a nation; where are we going as a church? Remember Lewis Carroll’s Cheshire Cat in Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland ? Alice, trying to make her way back through the Looking Glass, asked the Cheshire Cat rather timidly, “Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?” “That depends a good deal on where you want to get to,” said the Cat. “I don’t care much where,” said Alice. “Then it doesn’t matter which way you go,” said the Cat. 7 Where are you going? Where are we going? It’s time that we as Christians begin to think deeply and broadly about life in the world. That’s why we consider the world of worldviews. Everybody has a worldview. You don’t wake up one day and say, “Oooh, I need to get me a worldview.” You’ve got one. It’s part of being human. Everybody in one way or another is trying to make sense of the world, trying to understand why we are here and where we are going. By decision or default you have a worldview. The person across the counter from you in Wal-Mart has a worldview. The person who’s living in the farthest-flung gulag of the former Soviet Union has a worldview. We all have a worldview. young girls today than a year of Sunday school will. Those of us who want to minister and make a difference in the world must realize this and engage this fact with the heart and the mind of Jesus Christ. Jean Paul Sartre, a well- known atheistic existentialist (who is now dead and knows better), said, “It is meaningless that we are born; it is meaningless that we die.” 3 Albert Einstein didn’t agree and said, “The man who regards his own life and that of his fellow creatures as meaningless is not merely unhappy but hardly fit for life.” 4 I use the preceding to lead us into thinking deeply and broadly about our culture. Cultural icons are telling us, our friends, and our neighbors how to live. Most of that advice is not very good. For example, this question was asked in the 1994 Miss USA Pageant: “If you could live forever, would you and why?” Miss Alabama responded this way: “I would not live forever because we should not live forever, because if were supposed to live forever then we would live forever, but we cannot live forever, which is why I would not live forever.” 5 She did not win. Another well-known entertainer said, “Whenever I watch TV and see those poor starving kids all over the world, I can’t help but cry. I mean I’d love to be skinny like that, but not with all those flies and death and stuff.” 6 The reason I bring those statements up is that these people really shape American popular thought. Often, we are in such a Christian bubble that we don’t even recognize what’s occurring around us. That leaves us with an 6 TORCH / Spring 2004 Thinking Worldviewishly