Worldview Thinking and Profession of Faith

Fifty years ago, a California gangster named Mickey Cohen shocked people on both sides of the law when he went forward in a Billy Gra- ham crusade and made a profession of faith. After several months, how- ever, people began to notice that Cohen’s life showed no sign of the changes that should have been apparent in the life of a genuine convert. During an interview, Cohen made it clear that he had no interest in aban- doning his career as a gangster. He explained his position in a novel way. Since we have Christian movie stars and Christian politicians, Cohen noted, he wanted to be known as the first Christian gangster. Worldview Thinking and Profession of Faith

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Until recently, most Americans, regardless of their competence in reli- gious matters, would have expressed their dismay at Cohen’s behavior. Religious converts, people used to say, are supposed to live better lives than they did before their conversion. I suspect that many Americans today would find nothing unusual in Cohen’s attempt at self-justification.

One purpose of this chapter is to explain these odd happenings. Cohen displayed a defective understanding of the cognitive and moral demands of what this chapter will call the Christian worldview. If some- one considers himself a Christian, he is supposed to think and act like a Christian. The fact that so many Americans no longer think that way is indication of a major shift in their worldview.

O ne thing students can learn from philosophy is the nature, impor-tance, and influence of worldviews. If one is serious about getting somewhere in the study of philosophy, it is helpful to examine the big- ger picture, namely, the worldviews of the thinkers whose theories have become a large part of what philosophers study.

A worldview contains a person’s answers to the major questions in life, almost all of which contain significant philosophical content. It is a con- ceptual framework, pattern, or arrangement of a person’s beliefs. The best worldviews are comprehensive, systematic, and supposedly true views of life and of the world. The philosophical systems of great thinkers such as Plato, Aristotle, Plotinus, Augustine, and Thomas Aquinas delineate their worldviews . Of course, many worldviews suffer from incompleteness, Worldview Thinking and Profession of Faith.

The Importance of Worldview Thinking

Five Central World view

Beliefs

INTRODUCTION

inconsistencies, and other failings. Few of the pieces of such worldviews fit together.

Most people have no idea what a worldview is, or even that they have one. People like this are unlikely to know much about the specific con- tent of their own worldview. Nonetheless, achieving a greater awareness of our own worldview is one of the most impmtant things we can do; insight into the worldviews of others is essential to understanding what makes them tick. One thing we can do for others is to help them achieve a better understanding of their worldview. We can also help them to improve it, which means eliminating inconsistencies and providing new information that will fill gaps and remove errors in their conceptual sys- tem. A worldview, then, is a conceptual scheme that contains our funda- mental beliefs; it is also the means by which we interpret and judge reality. Worldview Thinking and Profession of Faith

Worldviews function much like eyeglasses. The right eyeglasses can put the world into clearer focus, and the correct worldview can do some- thing similar. When people look at the world through the wrong world- view, reality doesn’t make sense to them. Putting on the right conceptual scheme, that is, viewing the world through the correct worldview, can have consequences for the rest of a person’s thinking and acting. The Confessions of Augustine provides ample support for this claim. Worldview Thinking and Profession of Faith

Most of us know people who seem incapable of seeing certain points that are obvious to us; perhaps those people view us as equally thick- headed or stubborn. They often seem to have a built-in grid that filters out information and arguments and that leads them to place a peculiar twist on what seems obvious to us. Such obstinacy is often a consequence of their worldview.

The study of philosophy can help us realize what a worldview is, assist us in achieving a better understanding of our worldview, and aid us in improving it. Another thing the study of philosophy can teach us is that some worldviews are better than others. Even though Plato and Aris- totle got some things, perhaps many things wrong, chances are their worldviews will generally get higher marks than will those of students reading this book. The fact that some worldviews are better than others suggests the need for tests or criteria by which worldviews can be eval- uated. This chapter will identify some of these criteria.

W orldviews contain. at least five clusters of beliefs, namely, beliefs about God, metaphysics (ultimate reality), epistemology (knowl- edge), ethics, and human nature. 1 While worldviews may include other

1. One important area of human knowledge that could be added to our list is history. I have devoted a book to representative theories about history. See Ronald H. Nash, Tbe Meaning of History (Nashville: Broadman and Holman, 1998).

WORLDVIEW THINKING

beliefs that need not be mentioned at this point, these five usually define the most important differences among competing conceptual systems.

God

The crucial element of any worldview is what it says or does not say about God. Worldviews differ greatly over basic questions: Does God exist? What is God’s nature? Is there but one God? Is God a personal being, that is, is he the kind of being who can know, love, and act? Or is God an impersonal force or power? Because of conflicting views about the nature of God, such systems as Buddhism, Hinduism, and Shintoism are not only different religions but also different worldviews. Because Christianity and Judaism are examples of theism, conservative adherents of these religions hold to worldviews that have more in common with each other than they do with dualistic religions (two deities), polytheis- tic faiths (more than two deities), and pantheistic systems that view the world as divine in some sense. One essential component, then, of any worldview is its view of God.

Metaphysics A worldview also includes answers to such questions as these: What is the relationship between God and the universe? Is the existence of the uni- verse a brute fact? Is the universe eternal? Did an eternal, personal, and all-powerful God create the world? Are God and the world co-eternal and interdependent beings?2 Is the world best understood in a mechanistic (that is, a nonpurposeful) way? Or is there purpose in the universe? What is the ultimate nature of the universe? Is the cosmos material, spiritual, or something else? Is the universe a self-enclosed system in the sense that everything that happens is caused by and thus explained by other events within the system? Or can a supernatural reality (a being beyond nature) act causally within nature? Are miracles possible? Though some of these questions never occur to some people, it is likely that anyone reading this book has thought about most of these questions and holds beliefs about some of them.

Epistemology A third component of any worldview is a theoty of knowledge. Even people not given to philosophical pursuits hold some epistemological beliefs. The easiest way to see this is to ask them if they believe that knowledge about the world is possible. Whether they answer yes or no

2. Advocates of what is known as process theology answer this question in the affir- mative. For a detailed analysis of this increasingly influential position, see Ronald H. Nash, Tbe Concept of God (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1983).

INTRODUCTION

to this question, their reply will identify one element of their epistemol- ogy. Other epistemological questions include the following: Can we trust our senses? What are the proper roles of reason and sense experience in knowledge? Do we apprehend our own states of consciousness in some way other than reason and sense experience? Are our intuitions of our own states of consciousness more dependable than our perceptions of the world outside of us? Is truth relative, or must truth be the same for all rational beings? What is the relationship between religious faith and rea- son? Is the scientific method the only or perhaps the best method of knowledge? Is knowledge about God possible? If so, how can we know God? Can God reveal himself to human beings? Can God reveal infor- mation to human beings? What is the relationship between the mind of God and the human mind?3 Even though few human beings think about such questions while watching a baseball game on television (or during any normal daily activities) , all that is usually required to elicit an opin- ion is to ask the question. All of us hold beliefs on epistemological issues; we need only to have our attention directed to the questions.

Ethics Most people are more aware of the ethical component of their worldview than of their metaphysical and epistemological beliefs. We make moral judgments about the conduct of individuals (ourselves and others) and nations. The kinds of ethical beliefs that are important in this context, however, are more basic than moral judgments about single actions. It is one thing to say that some action of a human being like Adolf Hitler or of a nation like Iran is morally wrong. Ethics is more concerned with the question of why that action is wrong. Are there moral laws that govern human conduct? What are they? Are these moral laws the same for all human beings? Is morality subjective, like some people’s taste for squid, or is there an objective dimension to moral laws that means their truth is independent of our preferences and desires? Are the moral laws discov- ered in a way more or less similar to the way we discover that seven times seven equals forty-nine , or are they constructed by human beings in a way more or less similar to what we call human customs?4 Is moral- ity relative to individuals, cultures, or historical periods? Does it make sense to say that the same action may be right for people in one culture or historical epoch and wrong for others? Or does morality transcend cul- tural , historical, and individual boundaries?

3. My answers to many of these questions can be found in Ronald H. Nash, Tbe Word of God and the Mind of Man (Phillipsburg, N.J.: Presbyterian and Reformed, 1992).

4. Examples would include the ways men in our society used to open doors for women or walk on the street side of their female companion.

WORLDVIEW THINKING

Anthropology Every worldview includes a number of beliefs about the nature of human beings. Examples of relevant questions include the following: Are human beings free, or are they merely pawns of deterministic forces? Are human beings only bodies or material beings? Or were all the reli- gious and philosophical thinkers correct who talked about the human soul or who distinguished the mind from the body? If they were right in some sense, what is the human soul or mind, and how is it related to the body? Does physical death end the existence of the human person? Or is there conscious, personal survival after death? Are there rewards and pun- ishment after death? Are humans good or evil?

An Important Qualification I do not want to suggest that adherents of the same general worldview will agree on every issue. Even Christians who share beliefs on all essen- tial issues may disagree on other major points. They may understand the relationship between human freedom and the sovereignty of God in dif- ferent ways . They may disagree over how some revealed law of God applies to a current situation. They may squabble publicly over complex issues like national defense, capital punishment, and the welfare state, to say nothing about the issues that divide Christendom into different denominations.

Do these many disagreements undercut the case I’ve been making about the nature of a worldview? Not at all. A careful study of these dis- agreements will reveal that they are differences within a broader family of beliefs. When two or more Christians, let us say, argue over some issue, one of the steps they take (or should take) to justify their position and to persuade the other is to show that their view is more consistent with basic tenets of their worldview.

However, it is also necessa1y to recognize that disagreement on some issues should result in the disputants’ being regarded as people who have left that family of beliefs, however much they desire to continue to use the Christian name. For example, many theological liberals within Chris- tendom continue to use the label of Christian for views that are clearly inconsistent with the beliefs of historic Christianity. Whether they deny the Trinity, the personality of God, the doctrine of creation, the fact of human depravity, or the doctrine of salvation by grace, they make clear that the religious system they espouse is a different worldview from what has tra- ditionally been called Christianity. Much confusion could be eliminated if some way could be found to get people to use labels like Christianity in a way that is faithful to their historic meaning. Worldview Thinking and Profession of Faith

Worldview Thinking and

Religion

INTRODUCTION

Conclusion Whether we know it or not-whether we like it or not-each of us has a worldview. These worldviews function as interpretive conceptual schemes to explain why we see the world as we do, why we think and act as we do. Competing worldviews often come into conflict. These clashes may be as innocuous as a simple argument between people or as serious as a war between two nations. It is important, therefore, that we understand the extent to which significant disagreements reflect clashes between com- peting worldviews.

Worldviews are double-edged swords. An inadequate conceptual scheme can hinder our efforts to understand God, the world, and our- selves. The right conceptual scheme can suddenly bring evetything into proper focus.

W orldview thinking has important links to religious belief. Take the Christian faith as an example. Instead of viewing Christianity as a collection of theological bits and pieces to be believed or debated, indi- viduals should approach it as a conceptual system, as a total world-and- life view. Once people understand that both Christianity and its competitors are worldviews, they will be in a better position to judge the relative merits of competing systems. The case for or against Christian the- ism should be made and evaluated in terms of total systems. The reason why many people reject Christianity is not due to their problems with one or two isolated issues; their dissent results rather from the fact that the anti-Christian conceptual scheme of such people leads them to reject infor- mation and arguments that for believers provide support for their world- view. One illustration of this claim lies in people’s differing approaches to the central place that miracles occupy in the Christian faith. Religious believers who affirm the reality of such miracles as the resurrection of Jesus Christ need to understand how one’s general perspective on the world (that is , one’s worldview) controls one’s attitude toward miracle claims. People who disagree about the reality of miracles often find them- selves talking past each other because they do not appreciate the under- lying convictions that make their respective attitudes about miracles seem reasonable to them. Worldview Thinking and Profession of Faith

Christianity then is not merely a religion that tells human beings how they may be forgiven. It is a world-and-life view. The Christian world- view has important things to say about the whole of human life. Once we understand in a systematic way how challenges to Christianity are also worldviews, we will be in a better position to rationally justify our choice of the Christian worldview.

WORLDVIEW THINKING

Religious faith is not one isolated compartment of a person’s life-a compartment that we can take or leave as we wish. It is rather a dimension of life that colors or influences everything we do and believe. John Calvin taught that all human beings are “incurably religious. ” Reli- gion is an inescapable given in life. All humans have something that con- cerns them ultimately, and whatever it is, that object of ultimate concern is that person’s God. Whatever a person’s ultimate concern may be, it will have an enormous influence on everything else the person does or believes; that is one of the things ultimate concerns are like .

This view was shared by the late Henry Zylstra, who wrote:

To be human is to be scientific, yes, and practical, and rational, and moral, and social, and artistic, but to be human further is to be religious also. And this religious in man is not just another facet of himself, just another side to his nature, just another part of the whole. It is the con- dition of all the rest and the justification of all the rest. This is inevitably and inescapably so for all men. No man is religiously neutral in his knowledge of and his appropriation of reality.s

No human is religiously neutral, Zylstra states. Whether the person in question is an atheistic philosopher offering arguments against the existence of God, or a psychologist attributing belief in God to cognitive malfunction, or an American Civil Liberties Union lawyer attempting another tactic to remove religion from the public square, no human is religiously neutral. The world is not composed of religious and nonreli- gious people. It is composed rather of religious people who have dif- fering ultimate concerns and different gods and who respond to the living God in different ways. Each human life manifests different ways of expressing a person’s allegiances and answers to the ultimate ques- tions of life . All humans are incurably religious; we manifest different religious allegiances.

This point obliterates much of the usual distinction between sacred and secular. A teacher or a politician who pretends to be religiously neu- tral is not thinking very deeply. Secular humanism is a religious world- view as certainly as are Christianity and Judaism. It expresses the ultimate commitments and concerns of its proponents. Worldview Thinking and Profession of Faith

The Role of Presuppositions

The philosopher Augustine (354-430) noted that before humans can know anything, they must believe something. Whenever we think, we take some things for granted. All human beliefs rest upon other beliefs

5. Henry Zylstra, Testament of Vision (Grand Rapids: Eerclmans, 1958), 145.

The Unavoidability of Religious Concerns

Other Considerations