Download Worldview Overview

CHRISTIANITY
Summation Statement: Christianity is a theistic worldview centered on the
person of Jesus Christ that derives its understanding of the world
through the teachings of the Bible.
The Christian Meta-Narrative:
 Creation and the Pre-Fallen World
 The Fall and Its Consequences
 The Jesus-Centered Response of God
 The Present Mission of All Disciples
 The Eternal Realm
The Big Story
CHRISTIANITY
The Sources of Knowledge about God:
General Revelation & Special Revelation
ISLAM
Summation Statement: A theistic worldview centered on the prophet Muhammed that derives its
understanding of the world through the teachings of the Quran, Hadith, and Sunnah.
Muslims vs. Islamists
 Muslims
 Culturally born into Muslim
 Identify with the Islamic culture and try to obey expectations
 Take Islam seriously … but can also get along with non-Muslims
 Islamists
 Fundamentalists who believe in the literal application of the teaching of Muhammed and the
full application of Shariah Law
Shariah and Jihad
 Shariah Law – is based on the Qur’an and the Sunnah; it is the moral and legal code that
governs the lives of Muslims. Shariah addresses a wide variety of subjects such as diet,
hygiene, prayer, contracts, business, crime, and punishment.
 Jihad – this comes from the Arabic Word “struggle.” It is both the inner spiritual battle of every
Muslim to fulfill his religious duties and the outer physical struggle against the enemies of
Islam.
ISLAM
History of Islam:

Islam – means submission

Ummah – (Arabic = nation) the collective community around the world.

Founder = Mohammed was born in AD 570 in Mecca (modern day Saudi Arabia); the city of
Mecca was characterized by polytheism. Around the age of 40, Mohammad was severely
troubled by a series of visions; initially, he thought these were demonic. One of his wives,
Khadija, persuaded him to think that they were from God.

AD 610 - Muhammad claimed to have been visited by the angel Gabriel and commissioned to
be a prophet of God. He spent the 23 years transmitting this message into the Quran.
Muhammad died in AD 632.

Early 7th Century – Mecca was a trading center and contained the Kaba (a large, boxlike
building), which contained 360 tribal deities. Muhammed had a clash with the Meccan
leaders, and he fled to Medina (Hij ra); this event begins the Muslim era and the Islamic
Calendar.

Muhammad eventually made a treaty with Meccan leaders – which allowed him to enter the
city. However, on Jan 11, 629, Muhammad and about 10,000 warrior captured Mecca and
cleansed the Kaba. Today, Mecca is Islam’s most holy place.

Teddy Roosevelt (1916) – “Wherever the Mohammedans have had a complete sway, wherever
the Christians have been unable to resist them by the sword, Christianity has ultimately
disappeared.”

Muhammad died in AD 632 – Eventually his son-in-law took power and was murdered. This is
the root between the Sunni Muslims (80%) and the Shiite Muslims. Sunnis believer that
successors (Caliphs) should be selected by popular vote. Shiite Muslims believe the successor
should be from the bloodline of Muhammad, a family member, or a descendent.
ISLAM
Islamic Message:

“Allah” is the generic word for God, not the name of God. Arab-speaking Christians also use
the word Allah to refer to God.

God is transcendent, all-powerful, and sovereign. God does not share his attributes; therefore,
humans are not made in the Imago Dei.

Islam denies the Trinity, and deems it to be shirk (the sin of polytheism).
 “They do blaspheme who say ‘God is one of three in a Trinity,’ for there is no god except One
God. If they desist not from their word (blasphemy), verily a grievous penalty will befall the
blasphemers among them” (Quran 5:75-76).

God communicated his will to humanity via 25 prophets (including Adam, Moses, Jesus, etc.).
Islam is the fulfillment of Judaism and Christianity. The OT and the NT have been corrupted.

Jesus was a prophet; however, he was not divine, and he did not die on a cross.

According to the Quran, a person’s good deeds will be weighed to determine whether or not he
makes it to heaven. There is not assurance of salvation in Islam, except for playing the role of
a martyr – jihad.

Five Pillars of Islam: Confession (“There is no God but Allah, and Muhammad is his prophet),
prayer (5X a day facing Mecca), fasting (Ramadan), 2.5% giving, and Pilgrimage (to Mecca).
Sources for Islam
 Quran
 Hadith - The oral history of Muhammad’s teachings, rulings, and actions.
SECULAR HUMANISM
Summation Statement: An atheistic and materialistic worldview that advocates for a
public society free from the influence of religion.
The Secular Narrative:
-
Secularism comes from the word Saeculum. This Latin phrase means “span of
time.” Secularists are concerned with the present, not the eternal.
-
All public spheres should be based upon materialism – the idea that only the
material world exists.
The History of Secularism:
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Enlightenment – Epistemological Switch
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Early Deists in American History – Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin
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Secular Humanism – God does not exist; Mankind is the ultimate norm by which truth
and values are to be determined.
SECULAR HUMANISM
The Rise of Secularism:
- In the 1930’s a group of atheist and agnostic professors, including University of Michigan
professors Roy Wood Sellars and John Dewey, widely considered to be the father of the American
public education, wrote and signed a document called the Humanist Manifesto.
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1973 – Humanist Manifest II
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2000 – Planetary Humanism
The Claims of Secularism:
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Mankind = the standard by which truth and values are to be determined.
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Embraces macro-evolution, naturalism, human reason, and secular theories of ethics.
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Empiricism is true; Supernatural theories should be rejected.
- “It is not that God is being relegated to a remote region. It is not that God has become a
bodiless abstraction (a sexless It). It is the realization that there is no God left to which to
relate. Without God, what is left? Man and the Universe. That should be enough. That has
to be enough because that is all there is.” - Peter Angeles
The Humanist Ethic
SECULAR HUMANISM
Influence:
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Pew Research
- 18-29: 1/3 claim no religious affiliation (“nones”).
- David Niose, President of the American Humanist Association, believes that 12-18%
of “nones” are secularists.
-
University and College Campuses
- Secularism is a very prominent worldview among college professors in non-religious
colleges and universities.
- Miles Kimball – “Science drives out the Superstition Hypothesis” which says, “If
religion reflects primarily ignorance, irrational fear, and superstition, then increased
education could reduce religiosity by reducing ignorance and inculcating science.”
MARXISM
Summative Statement: An atheistic and materialistic worldview based upon the ideas of Karl Marx that
promotes the abolition of private property, public ownership of the means of production (socialism),
and the utopian dream of a future communistic state.
Facts about Karl Marx:
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He did most of his work in the British Museum in London
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Marx was infamous for his rudeness and for his unwillingness to bathe or get a haircut
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Although Marx claimed to represent the working class, he never stepped foot into a factory or made a
living with physical labor.
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On February 20, 1848, Marx published the Communist Manifesto; he was assisted by Frederick
Engels in this project. Engels subsidized Marx’s pursuit with money earned, ironically, by his father’s
factory. After reciting the evilness of factory owners, the Manifesto states:
- The Communists disdain to conceal their views and aims. They openly declare that their ends can
be attained only be the forcible overthrow of all existing social conditions. Let the ruling classes
tremble at a communist revolution. The proletarians (working class) have nothing to lose but their
chains. They have a world to win. Proletarians of all countries, unite!
MARXISM
Influence Today:
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The world’s five communist countries (China, Vietnam, Laos, North Korea, and Cuba) account
for approximately 20% of the population.
-
Socialism is also prevalent in many countries (Bangladesh, India, Sri Lanka, Portugal, Tanzania,
and Guyana).
-
There are also many countries with powerful socialistic parties (France, Greece, Venezuela,
Sweden, Zambia, Syria, Norway, Libya, Algeria, etc.).
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Neo-Marxism is still alive in many American Universities.
- Duke University: Fredric Jameson
- Lancaster University: Terry Eagleton – Why Marx Was Right
- University of Colorado: Martha Gimenez (sociology professor)
- The Socialist Worker newspaper
MARXISM
Beliefs:
Economic Determinism: the belief that economics determines the entire course of
history; this will inevitably lead to a communist future.
Dialectical Materialism: the belief that only the material world exists and that class
struggles are the mechanism behind social and economic progress.
Proletariat Morality: the belief that whatever advances the proletariat (working class) and
communism is morally good and whatever hinders the proletariat and communism is
morally evil.
Karl Marx – “Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world, and the
soul of soulless conditions. It is the opium of the people.”
COSMIC HUMANISM (NEW SPIRITUALITY)
Summative Statement: A pantheist worldview that teaches that everyone and everything are connected
through divine consciousness.
Beliefs:
Pantheism – The Belief that Everything (Pan) is Spiritual or Divine (Theism).
Matrix Clip
Spiritual Existentialism – The Belief that Humans create their own destinies.
The Secret
Transcendentalism – A religious and philosophical movement that arose as a reaction against
rationalism and organized religion, it teaches that human beings are inherently good and that nature
is fundamentally divine.
Godhood: In the New Spirituality, Godhood is not personal; rather it is a force, a principle, a vibration,
light and sound.
Consciousness – the divine interconnected essence of reality.
“Religion cannot resolve the dilemma; it has had its chances already. But spirituality can … We
need to go back to the source of religion. That source isn’t God. It’s consciousness.” – Deepak
Chopra
COSMIC HUMANISM (NEW SPIRITUALITY)
Law of Attraction:
Everything is energy. Thoughts are energy. Things are energy. Positive ideas produce
positive outcomes, and negative thoughts produce poor outcomes.
“Your thoughts become the things in your life. Your transmission create your life and it created the
world.”
– Rhonda Byrne , author of the Secret.
Truth Source for Cosmic Humanism
The Inner Self (feeling):
“We can take all the scriptures, and all the teachings, and all the tablets, and all the laws, and all the
marshmallows and have a jolly good bonfire and marshmallow roast, because that is all they are
worth.” - David Spangler
Main Methods to Get in Touch with the Inner Self:
Meditation, Channeling, Astrology, Ouija boards, Crystal Therapy, etc.
POSTMODERNISM
Summative Statement: a skeptical worldview, founded as a reaction to modernism
(strong view that humanity can figure things out via reason and science), that is
suspicious of metanarratives (Big Stories) and teaches the ultimate reality is
inaccessible, knowledge is a social construct, and truth-claims are political power
plays.
Beliefs:
Universal truth cannot be known.
Reasonableness cannot be attained.
No one can assess the world without being biased.
Knowledge about God is unavailable.
There is no discoverable Truth in this world; only truths that are “socially constructed.”
POSTMODERNISM
Deconstructionism:
A method of literary analysis that questions the ability of language to represent reality
adequately and seeks to discern and expose the purported underlying ideologies of a
text.
1986 – Roland Barthes wrote – “The Death of the Author.” After deconstructing a
piece of literature, a reader is free to inject his own meaning into the text.
Bill Clinton - Is Is
Sources:
Sophists in the Ancient Greek Culture
Friedrich Nietzsche
Michel Foucault
Richard Rorty
Stanly Fish
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nlwFL3mYK18