Friday, August 8, 2008

Naming the Elephant

'Naming the Elephant' by James Sire focuses on the concept of worldview. Sire has done lots of work on this previously and is author of 'The Universe Next Door'. In this book he reviews and modifies his previous definition and understanding of what a worldview is.

Some helpful insights...

  • The way you conceive of a worldview is in itself influenced by your own worldview

  • It is necessary to start with ontology (the nature of being) rather than epistemology (how we know things) in formulating our worldview - the triune God is the proper starting point for all thought.

  • Worldviews can be expressed in propositional statements but also in stories.

  • To understand someone's worldview you look at how they live, not simply what they say they believe. All of us live inconsistently with what we say we believe. Every time we fail to trust God or sin in any way, we are living in consistently with our professed Christian worldview.

His final, revised definition of a worldview is as follows...

A worldview is a commitment, a fundamental orientation of the heart, that can be expressed as a story or in a set of presuppositions (assumptions which may be true, partially true of entirely false) which we hold (consciously or subconsciously, consistently or inconsistently) about the basic constitution of reality, and that provides the foundation on which we live and move and have our being.” James Sire, Naming the Elephant, p122

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