Thinking Christianity, For the Rest of Us: Worldview Sources

Last time in this series for Christians who want to develop their Christian thinking--their discipleship of mind--I recommended getting a general overview of thought, from an historical and from a topical perspective. Ideally, I suppose, one would take this in a very linear fashion. That's how you would do it in an apologetics, theology, or philosophy degree program. But this series is for those of us who aren't taking that kind of program. The main thing is for you to stay involved and interested (and of course not to forget this other main thing). Some variety along the way can't hurt. One great way to get that is to look at some of the good books on worldview.

There are several of these. For me, the classics are Francis Schaeffer's, especially his trilogy of The God Who Is There, Escape From Reason, and He Is There and He Is Not Silent. Schaeffer's historical perspective on arts and philosophy has been criticized, but he did more than anyone in our generation to bring worldview thinking to the fore. And he did it with an incredibly caring, pastoral perspective. Another good Schaeffer resource is How Should We Then Live?

More recently, Nancy Pearcey has written the excellent Total Truth; and James Sire has given his Universe Next Door an update as of 2004. For teens and college students, Bayard Taylor's surprisingly named Blah, Blah, Blah is also surprisingly clear and entertaining.

There are dozens of other books on worldview that could be included. I don't think it would help to list too many choices, though.

As we're speaking of variety in reading, though, I certainly wouldn't want to ignore the value of good fiction. Who could introduce us to worldviews better than Dostoevsky? Or Tolstoy? Or even C.S. Lewis, in his fiction? Non-Christian perspectives are valuable, too. My favorite current fiction author these days is either P.D. James (who is a Christian, though this is subtle in her novels) or Tony Hillerman, who writes with a Navaho Indian perspective at the forefront. The existentialist Albert Camus gives a very starkly atheistic view of the world in The Plague--read it and see what he does to (try to) express hope in a dying world without God.

No, it's not all about reading. I'll get off the topic of books in my next post in this series. But you can't grow as a thinking Christian without it.

(Update 10/17 on worldviews in literature: here's an excellent article, courtesy of Victor Reppert.)

Fourth in a series on Thinking Christianity, For the Rest Of Us

• Foundation

• Purpose

• Overviews and Helps

• Worldview Sources

Posted: Tue - October 16, 2007 at 04:57 PM |

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Thinking Christianity, For the Rest of Us: Worldview Sources

Thinking Christian by Tom Gilson