#2: Worldview overview

Intro:

In the simplest terms a worldview is the foundation from which each person engages and acts on life’s most important questions and decisions. And once you understand worldview - you see it everywhere.  

Key points:

• Everyone has a worldview - but what are the core components?
• Where do we begin to understand, define, and articulate the Christian worldview?

Quoted Scripture:

• Acts 17:22-23

More sources / notes:

• James Sire, Naming the Elephant: Worldview as a Concept
• James Sire, The Universe Next Door
• CS Lewis, The Screwtape Letters
• The Apostles’ Creed
• Scripture quotations are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. ESV Text Edition: 2025. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

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Transcript

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 [00:00:00] In the simplest terms, a worldview is the foundation from which each person engages and acts on life's most important questions and decisions. And once you understand worldview, you see it everywhere.

Welcome to 3onefive, where we're talking apologetics, biblical studies, worldview. Just one point, 15 minutes or less, I'm Jones Oliver.

So what's your view on abortion, euthanasia, pornography, same-sex marriage, embryonic research, corporate culture, politics, the Seattle Mariners, cookies or donuts, evolution, the environment, education, economics?

Do you prefer the East Coast or the West Coast, mountains or oceans, jeep, Prius, or classic cars?

Now, this is mostly an arbitrary list, but as we consider our answers to these questions or maybe how those around us may answer these questions, and though it's only one tool, I'm persuaded that we can [00:01:00] use the idea of worldviews to better understand, engage, and evangelize the world around us.

So the first question is: What is a worldview? In the simplest terms, a worldview is the foundation from which each person engages and acts on life's most important questions and decisions.

As it turns out, all of us have a worldview. Some people understand their worldview, but most people have never thought about it. But all of us have them because all of us have a set of beliefs through which we view this world and make important decisions. As it turns out, no two people have exactly the same worldview.

For example, let's take a quick look at an apple sitting on a table. Maybe a silly example, but let's walk through it. Maybe this apple is a Granny Smith, a Fuji, a King, or if your worldview prefers, it's a Red Delicious. A botanist looking at the apple might consider their research on fruit trees.

A photographer may find just the right light and try to photograph it. The produce person at a grocery store puts it on the apple shelf to sell it to a customer, or maybe a cashier at the same store thinks about the four-digit produce code used at the checkout.

A child sees lunch and eats it. And in case you're wondering, I see apple [00:02:00] cobbler. Okay, I warned you it was silly, but hopefully you can see a very simplified example of how worldview differences could work.

For the Christian, there are two really big buckets of worldview, the Christian worldview and everything else. So we defined worldview as the foundation from which each person engages and acts on life's most important questions and decisions.

But how do we describe it? Today in our short episode, we certainly won't be comprehensive on this, but hopefully an introduction will be helpful. I use nine questions to provide a framework for a basic worldview. Most I borrowed are modified from James Sire from his book, Naming the Elephant.

They include, what is reality? What is the nature of the world around us? What is a human being? What happens to us when we die? Why is it possible to know anything at all? How do we know what is right and what is wrong? What is the meaning of human history? What is beauty or what is beautiful?

And what commitments are consistent with each worldview

If we look at each of [00:03:00] these questions, It's easy to see that each question is simply the top-level question to a whole list of more questions. For example, question number one: What is reality?

This is the most foundational question on the list as it sets the boundaries for the rest of the answers. Bottom line, a person starts with either a belief in God or a disbelief in God.

 Let's start with God If God is the answer, then we might need to ask follow-up questions such as, what is the basic character of God? Is he personal or is he impersonal?

Is God a he? Maybe God is a she, or is he just a force? Is there just one God or is there a pantheon of gods? Omnipotent or limited? Good or indifferent? Does he still rule today? Is God a perfect being? Or is this God once a man who sinned? Is Jesus part of the story?

If so, who is this Jesus? Is the Holy Spirit part of the story? If there's a God, is Satan real? What about evil?

Okay, that's just question one. And there are many other questions we could ask.

Of course, the rest of the questions have their own list of questions.

But if we step back and take the thirty-thousand-foot view on [00:04:00] worldview, there are also three tests that a worldview should pass. It should be first logically consistent.

Its framework should not include contradictory points. Second, it should correspond with reality. In other words, does it match what we see and experience in the world around us? And third, it's much more helpful if it works.

 way of asking that, how does this speak directly to the way we actually live our lives?

C.S. Lewis, in his book The Screwtape Letters, has a senior demon, Screwtape, writing to Wormwood, a junior demon, on how to steer this Christian away from the enemy.

Of course, the enemy of a demon is none other than God. And in the very first letter, Screwtape uses the idea of promoting a jumbled worldview, one that is inconsistent to keep the patient from looking deeper into his lived reality, into what is really true. That letter goes something like this:

Dear Wormwood, Your man has become accustomed, ever since he was a boy, to have a dozen incompatible philosophies dancing about together inside his head. [00:05:00] He doesn't think of doctrine as primarily true or false, but as academic or practical, outworn or contemporary. Jargon, not argument, is your best ally in keeping him from the Church.

Don't waste time trying to make him think materialism is true. Make him think that it's the philosophy of the future. The trouble with argument is that it moves the whole struggle onto the enemy's ground. By the very act of arguing, you awake the patient's reason.

Do remember, dear Wormwood, you are there to fuddle him

What I find so fascinating about C.S. Lewis, outside of his immense creativity Though this particular letter was published in May 1941, it sounds like it could have been written yesterday. In other words, as we study and learn and grow, are we always keeping reality front and center? Or are we allowing ourselves to be fuddled by holding inconsistent beliefs?

That begs the question. Earlier we said that from a Christian perspective, there are essentially two big worldview buckets, the Christian worldview and everything else.

So we ask the question, what is a [00:06:00] Christian worldview? How do we stay on track? How do we avoid being fuddled? I really like what James Sire does here. He suggests that the Apostles' Creed was used by the early church to not only summarize the Christian faith, But to also define the Christian worldview. And I agree, I think it's a great place to start as a framework that corresponds to reality. The Apostles' Creed is a personal confession that started taking shape around one hundred and fifty AD and continued to form over the next five, six hundred years.

It's a very compact statement of faith. It wasn't written by the apostles, but it's called such as it captures the core teachings of the Christian faith as expressed in the writings of the New Testament. In other words, the Apostles' Creed is a narrative. It talks about creation, the fall, redemption, and restoration.

Let's take a super quick walk through the Apostles' Creed with just a few thoughts on how it points to a Christian worldview.

The creed, it opens with God. I believe in God, the Father Almighty. Right there, we're looking at question number one: What is the prime reality? Is it God or materialism or something else? Here we clearly see the Christian worldview points to God, maker of heaven [00:07:00] and earth.

And here we have the Christian summary on creation.

Now, the middle section, the second stanza, if you will, is all on Jesus. I believe in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord, who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried.

He descended in the realm of the dead, and on the third day he rose again. Here we have historical placement for Jesus and his humiliation and work of salvation.

He ascended into heaven. He is seated at the right hand of God the Father. From there, he will come to judge the living and the dead.

Now, the last section covers the Holy Spirit, the Church, and eschatology or end times. I believe in the Holy Spirit. Immediately we see that the Christian worldview recognizes a triune God. The Holy Catholic Church, to those not familiar with it, when the Apostles' Creed refers to the Holy Catholic Church, it's Catholic with a little C, which simply means the greater or wider church.

The communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life [00:08:00] everlasting. Here we see who we are, what we do with our sin, and what happens when we die

As we close, I think it's reasonable to ask, how is all this useful? While everyone has a worldview, relatively few of us are aware we have one. Hopefully, now you all know you have a worldview.

Most have never considered or examined many of the questions we discussed today. Sometimes people just don't want to think about these questions. You also find many people don't have a consistent belief system, much like the point C.S.

Lewis was making earlier. Nonetheless, if someone were asked those nine worldview questions, they would be inclined towards certain answers over others. I would suggest that in addition to knowing this, if we stop and listen and really care about what the other person is saying, this can be a tool to help us better understand how and maybe why others see the world as they do.

That helps us communicate better, and it helps us evangelize better Paul the Apostle of the Gentiles abandoned a one-size-fits-all approach with a single goal of sharing the gospel of Christ.

While Paul's in Athens, we see him putting this technique into [00:09:00] action, and we hear him say, "Men of Athens, I perceive that in every way you are very religious. For as I passed along and observed the objects of your worship, I found also an altar with the inscription, 'To the unknown God.'"

And from this springboard, Paul presents God, maker of heaven and earth.

Hey, thanks for listening. Till next time.