Back in 2003, when I took a job at a small Christian high school in Arkansas, I was introduced to the concept of “teaching Biblical Worldview.” Now, I was hired at that time mostly to teach English, but I was also asked to teach a class of Senior Worldview, which essentially sort of a Western Civilization course in which we read and analyzed the likes of Sigmund Freud and Karl Marx and looked at the concepts of Modernism and Postmodernism. The stated goal was to teach students how to critically analyze many of the current cultural and philosophical trends in today’s Western world through a “biblical worldview.”
When I told my dad about the idea behind the course, I remember him saying that if it were done right, the concept of teaching Biblical Worldview could be very interesting, challenging thing that was sorely needed in today’s world. I ended up teaching one Worldview class every year during my time at that school and then ended up putting together an entire Worldview Curriculum for grades 9-12 when I moved to Alabama to teach at another small Christian school. Of course, the entire curriculum consisted of Old Testament (9th grade), New Testament (10th grade), Church History/Theology (11th grade), and Western Culture and Worldviews (12th grade). The content of each grade level was obviously different, but the overarching idea was to help students develop a Christian/Biblical worldview so that they can better interact with and navigate through current cultural issues and controversies.
Over the past few decades, teaching Biblical Worldview has become quite an industry (I’m not saying that in any pejorative sense) in a lot of Evangelical Christian schools. And again, if done correctly, it can be a very good thing. Unfortunately, that doesn’t always happen. I’ve seen plenty of Worldview curricula out there that put forth either conservative or liberal political views as the “Biblical/Christian worldview.” And some simply claim that Young Earth Creationism is the “foundation to a Biblical worldview.”
That has always bothered me. Too often, even though what is stated is something like, “We want to teach students how to think critically about certain issues,” in practice it ends up being, “Yes, we want to them to think critically, but here are the right answers. If you question them, you’re suspect.”
Now, I don’t know why I was thinking about this today. Perhaps it is because I find myself becoming more discouraged and uneasy about so much of the current dialogue in our culture regarding so many political, social, and cultural issues. Don’t get me wrong, I engage in discussion and conversations about these things all the time. Sometimes I think I make good arguments, sometimes I wonder if I was too mean or snarky in my comments.
Anyway…one of the main images that is often used when discussing the concept of Worldview is a pair of glasses. Your “worldview” essentially is a pair of glasses through which you look in order to try to see the world more clearly. Hence, the better “prescription,” the more clearly will you see the world and any pressing issue. I’ve used that metaphor many times, and I think it is a fairly good one. Still, this morning, for some reason, I was thinking about this and found myself thinking that, when it comes to a Christian worldview, this metaphor might be ultimately inadequate.
Allow me to use a little bit of creativity and metaphor in what I’m about to say.
What I was thinking today was that the only reason one needs glasses is because one’s eyes are bad. You can be near-sighted or far-sighted, whatever. But the point is that if there is something wrong with your vision, you need glasses. And, as anyone who wears glasses knows, from time to time, when your eyes change, you need to get a newer prescription, or else the glasses you have been wearing will be less and less helpful.
When it comes to “worldview glasses,” it is therefore easy to see that if you are a conservative or Republican, your “view” of the world is going to be different from someone who is a liberal or a Democrat. If you grow up in an upper-class, middle-class, or lower-class environment, those will effectively be different “lenses” through which you see and interpret the world around you. The same holds true for a variety of other circumstances—whether you are black, white, Asian, native-American…the list can go on. All of those things affect the “prescription” for the lens through which you see the world.
One of the criticisms I’ve seen about “teaching Biblical Worldview” is that it often what is put forth as a “Biblical Worldview” really is simply the political/cultural views of conservative white, middle-class Evangelicals. To an extent, I think there is some truth to that. Of course, what I’ve found is that those who make that criticism often turn around and try to say that the real Biblical Worldview is…political liberalism, multi-culturalism, etc.—basically, just the other end of the political and cultural spectrum. I’ve seen this dynamic at work over the last seven years, particularly in the whole creation/evolution debate. “Science” and the Bible and “worldview” and politics often get mixed up in the same argumentative mixing bowl, and the end result is that everyone leave with a bad taste in his/her mouth.
But let’s leave the kitchen metaphor and get back to the eyeglasses metaphor. Let me finally get to what I was thinking this morning.
When Jesus came, he didn’t go around giving blind people new glasses. He wasn’t interested in giving people artificial lenses through which they could see the world a bit more clearly. He was interested in restoring blind eyes to full sight so that they wouldn’t need glasses (not that people in first century Judea had eyeglasses…but you get the point!). He came to give sight to the blind, not worldview glasses. A truly Christian and Biblical worldview isn’t one that is shaped by one’s political or cultural views, or one’s class or race. And yet, too often we try to artificially construct a Christian worldview with those various “lenses,” and then we tack on a few decontextualized Bible verses to justify it.
This semester, I’m teaching an Early Church Theologians class. And one of the things that is constantly striking me as I read the works of Clement of Rome, Ignatius, Polycarp, Origen, Cyprian of Carthage (the list can go on) is that what they were emphasizes simply isn’t what is often emphasized today when we talk about Christian worldview. On the surface, reading these early Church Fathers seems simplistic—too simplistic:
Maintain church unity, shun heretical teachings, keep a firm grasp on the apostolic teaching, be generous to everyone, extend grace and mercy to those who’ve wronged you, come together often to celebrate the Eucharist because the Eucharist is the celebration of Christ’s sacrifice for others—and a reminder that that is what you need to pattern your life after, a true imitation of Christ. When a fellow Christian screws up and sins, don’t be too harsh with him, but show him understanding and mercy so that the entire Church body can be healed.
And that’s when it hit me this morning—That is what the Biblical/Christian worldview is. If we commit to those things, our eyes will see clearly what is truly important in God’s eyes, because we will be seeing through the eyes of Christ. If we keep these things front and center, then they will not only give us a truly Christian worldview, but they will also change our hearts and minds and attitudes toward others. And then, when we do engage in discussion and debates over philosophy, or cultural and political values and stances, we will be able to live out that true Biblical/Christian worldview by the way we act and by the things we say.
Ultimately, what I realized today was this: A truly Biblical/Christian worldview is not the right pair of glasses. It is restored sight in Christ and the washing of those eyes in the healing waters of the Church. To paraphrase Cyprian of Carthage. There is no salvation outside of the Church–it’s all just faulty prescriptions.
This is such an important post Joel – thank you very much for sharing – I appreciate it
You know, I just re-read it. That really is a genius post!!! haha