… a Christian worldview must be used as an essential tool in evangelism, to answer the questions and objections of the unbeliever. However, it must be clearly understood that, in the final analysis, it is the gospel that has the power to bring an individual to salvation (Romans 1:16–17).
jmEssentialDoctrine – Grace Gems!
Finally, a Christian worldview is foundational in the realm of discipleship, to inform and mature a true believer in Christ with regard to the implications and ramifications of one’s Christian faith. It provides a framework by which one (1) can understand the world and all of its reality from God’s perspective and (2) can order one’s life according to God’s will.
What should be the ultimate goal of embracing the Christian worldview? Why is the Christian worldview worth recovering? Jeremiah passes along God’s direct answer:
Thus says the Lord: “Let not the wise man boast in his wisdom, let not the mighty man boast in his might, let not the rich man boast in his riches, but let him who boasts boast in this, that he understands and knows me, that I am the Lord who practices steadfast love, justice, and righteousness in the earth. For in these things I delight, declares the Lord.” (Jeremiah 9:23–24)
Man’s chief end is to know and glorify God. Yet the knowledge of God is impossible apart from a Christian worldview.
DEFINITIONS
TRAGEDY Although the term ‘tragedy’ often refers to some grave misfortune, this usage is derivative from its more fundamental sense that refers to a literary genre. The derivation arises because it is commonly thought that tragedies end in disaster, but this is actually not right—in fact, only about half of the extant Greek tragedies end badly for the protagonist.
The genre originated in Athens in the sixth century bc, with the plays part of an annual festival honouring the god Dionysius. The Greek tragic theatre continued into the Hellenistic period, but lost most of its vitality after Athens’s defeat by Sparta in the Peloponnesian War. Extant Greek plays include those written by Aeschylus, Sophocles and Euripides; Roman examples include two by an unknown author and nine by Seneca. After this, we have no more extant plays (or writings on tragedy) until the Renaissance and later, with Racine being the most prominent neo-classical example. Shakespeare, of course, is a dominating figure here, and almost deserves his own category. The style continues in the works of Samuel Beckett, Arthur Miller and others.
The ancient tragic poets, more than simply entertainers, were significant contributors to political and philosophical debates, including the effects of military expeditions. Along with the sophists, they are *Plato’s principal foils, and it is the tragedians on whom *Aristotle focuses in his Poetics. After the Renaissance, philosophers such as *Hegel, Schopenhauer, and *Nietzsche rediscovered Greek tragedy, and, abetted by conversations between philosophy and literary theory, this engagement continued in the twentieth century.
Theologians have been less enthusiastic about the value of tragedy for their craft—think of *Niebuhr’s famous argument that Christianity moved humanity ‘beyond tragedy’. Biblical scholars have been more receptive, with some analysis of the story of King Saul and the Gospel of Mark as tragedy. More recently, however, theologians have begun to re-engage with tragedy, especially with the rise of the field of religion and literature.
Given its engagement with social issues in rapidly changing times and with nations at war, Greek tragedy has much to offer contemporary theological *anthropology. The ancient heroes were tragic because they structured their identity according to older Homeric virtues in a world in which these roles and identifications no longer made sense. They are no longer Homeric heroes, but are not yet citizens of the polis. Repeatedly, the heroes become bewildered at the unexpected effects of their choices, and become alienated from both their society and themselves. They are beset by contradictions (able to control nature but not themselves, both guilty and innocent, able to understand social and political realities but not their own motivations) in a world in which justice, and even truth, seems to constantly shift. In this context, the tragic poets ask what it means to be a human being—a creature they can describe sometimes as noble, sometimes as a deinos, an incomprehensible and baffling monster. For those theologians who think we are in a postfoundationalist, *postmodern world (both contested claims), the Greek tragedies deserve serious study.
J. A. Knight, “Tragedy,” in New Dictionary of Theology: Historical and Systematic, ed. Martin Davie et al. (London; Downers Grove, IL: Inter-Varsity Press; InterVarsity Press, 2016), 918.
Worldview. A worldview is how one views or interprets reality. The German word is Weltanschauung, meaning a “world and life view,” or “a paradigm.” It is the framework through which or by which one makes sense of the data of life. A worldview makes a world of difference in one’s view of God, origins, evil, human nature, values, and destiny.
There are seven major worldviews. Each is unique. With one exception, pantheism/polytheism, no one can consistently believe in more than one worldview, because the central premises are mutually exclusive (see TRUTH, NATURE OF; PLURALISM, RELIGIOUS; WORLD RELIGIONS, CHRISTIANITY AND). Logically, only one worldview can be true. The seven major worldviews are theism, deism, atheism, pantheism, panentheism, finite godism, and polytheism.
Norman L. Geisler, “Worldview,” in Baker Encyclopedia of Christian Apologetics, Baker Reference Library (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 1999), 785–786.
STUDY
Importance of a Worldview. Worldviews influence personal meaning and values, the way people act and think. The most important question a worldview answers is “Where did we come from?” The answer to this question is crucial to how other questions are answered. Theism declares that God created us. Creation was from nothing, ex nihilo. Atheism believes we evolved by chance. Atheism holds to creation out of matter, ex materia. Pantheism holds that we emanated from God like rays from the sun or sparks from a fire. Creation is out of God himself, ex Deo (see CREATION, VIEWS OF). The others play on some form of these understandings, with nuances of difference.
That understanding would influence a person’s view of death, for example. A theist believes in personal immortality; an atheist generally does not. For the theist, death is a beginning, for the atheist an ending of existence. For the pantheist, death is the cessation of one life and the beginning of another, leading toward ultimate merging with God.
Norman L. Geisler, “Worldview,” in Baker Encyclopedia of Christian Apologetics, Baker Reference Library (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 1999), 786.
“In this world, you will have trouble.” These words, which Jesus said to His disciples, are true for everyone. At certain times, like the last few months, they seem even more apt. The ongoing war in Ukraine, a hunger crisis in Gaza, and last week’s shooting at a Target store in Austin—which took three lives including a grandfather and his granddaughter—only punctuate this summer of suffering, which began with devastating floods in Texas. We all shuddered at the reports of what those girls of Camp Mystic endured and mourned the news that 27 lost their lives…
CONTINUED @ SOURCE
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