Competing worldviews

I just finished reading a book that will surely make my top 10 list for books I've read in 2018.  Steve Wilkens and Mark Sanford wrote Hidden Worldviews: Eight Cultural Stories That Shape Our Lives back in 2009, and I've just now discovered the book. It is an incredible study of eight worldviews that competes with a Christian worldview. The authors point out the positives found in each of these worldviews and demonstrate how each of them fail to provide a comprehensive worldview for believers. They also share how each of these worldviews can infiltrate the thinking of Christians in ways in which we may not be aware.

Regular readers of this blog will know that in recent years I have read much in the area of apologetics and Christian thinking. For much of my active ministry years I focused a lot of my study in the areas of ministry practices, but now I find myself drawn more to the philosophical, apologetical, and theological works. While I still believe that ministerial leadership is a vital component of effective ministry I am also concerned about helping people develop the ability to think deeper about their faith. There is no value in complaining about the shallowness of the faith of those in our pews if we are not actively helping them go deeper.

The authors do a good job of identifying eight worldviews that shape the thinking and lives of many people today, including those sitting in the pews. The eight worldviews they cover are individualism, consumerism, nationalism, moral relativism, scientific naturalism, New Age, postmodern tribalism, and salvation by therapy. These are the worldviews often taught in the universities, promoted by the media and found throughout today's music, film, and television programming. When people are bombarded with these worldviews throughout the day, seven days a week, it's difficult to develop a Christian worldview attending a worship service one hour a week.

It's easy to discount these views without acknowledging the positive aspects of them. I appreciate the fact that the authors do point out those positive elements while also addressing the failures of each of these worldviews. As they write, every worldview provides answers to questions about ultimate realities, how we know things, and what's good and valuable. They are also correct when they assert that "One of the basic worldview questions is, who gets to be God?" Only a Christian worldview provides the right answer to those questions.

Last year I did a mini-series of sermons that looked at a couple of worldviews and pointed out their shortcomings. This year I will focus on two or three more as I try to help our congregation better understand the importance of developing a Christian worldview. This book will be an important resource for those messages.