by Allison Hyer
Allison is a gradaute of Calvary Christian School in Naperville, IL (elementary school) and Wheaton Academy in West Chicago, IL (high school). She graduated from Bryan College in Dayton, TN. In addition, Allison is the daughter of Mr. Mark Strohm, Elementary Principal at Delaware County Christian School (Newtown Square, PA).
Every person has a worldview—a basic set of beliefs through which you see and understand the world. When you wear a pair of glasses, everything you see is affected because you see it through the glasses. Your worldview is similar. Based on it—your basic assumptions about life—you evaluate and act. Everything in your life is affected, from the priorities on your to-do list to the way you process the evil you see around you.
A worldview is made up of answers to some basic questions that everyone has to answer, whether they want to or not, whether they know it or not. As they grow into adulthood, every person has to answer questions like these: “Where did I come from?” “Who am I?” “What is my purpose in life?” “What is right and wrong?” and “Where will I go when I die?” The answers to these questions, acquired on purpose or picked up from others, are the foundation of their worldview.
The answers affect the rest of their lives—how they think about morality and ethics, what they choose to do with their money, the way they conduct themselves from day to day, their interactions with other people. Let me provide a simplified example. Worldviews are not usually as consistent as in this example, but this will allow you to see the thought process through to its conclusion.
If you answer the basic questions according to the worldview that the majority of our culture has, the answers are that we evolved from animals, so we are animals, fighting for survival. Right and wrong can only come from what works best—for the society, for you individually, etc. The ultimate fate is obliteration. This affects why people with this worldview believe in “tolerance”—because no animal has a better grasp of truth than any other. All views must be equal. Whatever works better for you, whatever it takes for you to survive, that must be right for you. Truth comes from within you.
However, if you answer the questions from a biblical worldview—we were created in the image of God, we are here to glorify Him and draw others to know Him, right and wrong are defined by God’s character, and ultimately all people are destined for heaven or hell, based on what they choose about Jesus—your belief in “tolerance” is much different. You do not affirm contrary beliefs to be true, because truth is defined by God’s character. You tolerate people with contrary beliefs not because whatever they believe is true for them, but you love others and are respectful to them because they, too, are made in the image of God.
Most people come by their worldview passively, never taking the time to examine the basic beliefs they have. They accept and proceed to act on opinions they have picked up, either from their parents, their friends, the media or others in authority in their lives. This includes teachers.
Because worldview is important, it is also important that a child’s influences share his worldview. The next blog entry (check back next Wednesday) will explore how the worldview of a school’s administration and teachers is foundational in developing a child’s personal worldview.
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4 comments:
I look forward to your next post. Do you have any specific references or info about HOW a worldview is developed? Is it family/culture/linguistic? Does belief about origins really matter? At what age do these assumptions about reality become established? How much is affective and how much cognitive? What does it take to change a persons worldview as an adult?
Blessings
Ken Van Meter
Milpitas Christian School
California
From the article author, Allison Hyer:
Ken--thanks for the thoughtful questions. If you'd like to investigate worldviews further, from people much smarter than I am, try Making Sense of Your World: A Biblical Worldview, by Dr. Gary Phillips, Dr. William Brown and John Stonestreet or Total Truth, by Nancy Pearcy. Resources are also available at Summit Ministries (http://www.summit.org/resources/).
As to your questions, a worldview can be aquired in different ways--intentionally or unintentionally--and your worldview is shaped and can be changed throughout your life. A purposeful acquisition of a worldview is done by examining the beliefs you hold and comparing them to a standard. If you are purposeful about it, you can choose to believe and act on any set of beliefs you desire. But, if you never question what you believe or why, you will end up believing and acting on assumptions handed down to you. This process--how you come by your worldview, affective, cognative, or whatever combination of the two--is different for each person, depending on their personality and whether or not they are around people who encourage them to question what they believe and why. If you never question what you believe, your assumptions will probably not be consistent.
I do believe that origins matters--it is the foundation of your worldview, though as I said, if a person never questions his beliefs, he could have an inconsistent worldview, in which case his beliefs about origins could exist without as far-reaching of consequences if some other assumptions he holds contradicts what he believes about origins. But, what you believe does affect you, and so what you believe about origins will impact to some extent the rest of your beliefs--about identity, the purpose of life, and destiny, to name a few. This would be a subject dealt with in the books I recommended.
Allison
It is almost impossible to separate familial and cultural influences, and the same goes for cultural and linguistic. What is obviously true is that worldviews are cultural. We as Christians are also very obviously a product of our culture—we can see this just by looking at Christianity in the 15th century vs. the 18th century, and even compared to now. While truth does not change, every country and generation will see it from a different angle. That is why it makes so much sense to use pop culture media to give examples of worldviews—all of these views have existed, in some form, throughout the ages. Paul does the same thing in Athens when he quotes the secular poets of his day (Acts 17).
The act of developing and/or changing one’s worldview is cognitive necessitated by the fact that it is spiritual. However, drawing a sharp line between the cognitive and the affective is deceptive since they are so intertwined that they cannot in truth be thought of separately. We can separate them in concept, but not to draw any ultimate conclusions. I say that worldviews are cognitive because the Bible makes it clear that it is our minds that are transformed by Christ. However, Scripture has much to say about the heart as well. It has been shown by many studies that a person without affective response is irrational, which shows that our rational minds needs our affect to remain intact.
Additional resource:
“Worldview: The History of a Concept” by David Naugle—explores the impact of culture on Christianity and the modern development of the concept of Christianity as a worldview.
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