I use the term “worldview” quite often in my posts, as in “that person’s religious or philosophical worldview.” To date, I haven’t used the phrase “biblical worldview.”
Nevertheless, Reader had a question: Is it too simplistic to say the definition of a biblical worldview is “the Bible is our basis for belief and actions”?
Everyone has a worldview – as do schools of thought, philosophies, religions, societies, institutions, books, collections of books, and organizations such as political parties. They all have perspectives on how they view reality.
In that sense, there is something we can call a biblical worldview – the collective worldview of the Bible taken as a whole, even with its disparate parts. But as my readers have probably figured out already, I am leery of anything too simplistic. People interpret the Bible differently, which can lead to differing biblical worldviews.
First, what is a worldview?
As I’ve written previously: “My worldview – the way I see the world – informs my value system which in turn informs my thoughts and actions.” (emphasis added). [Link here.] For example, when I got my education or wrote on racial justice or took the gospel to Asia or said hello to my neighbor, I did so in the context of my worldview.
Start with this: my worldview is the way I see the world. It means my overall perspective on life – how I interpret the news, how I take in the neighborhood gossip, how I treat people, how I buy my groceries or purchase a car. It influences every decision I make.
Everyone has a worldview – a way of understanding reality. People don’t generally think about their worldview, nor are we mindful of the way in which we develop our worldview. It happens to us like breathing air. It develops with every process of thinking and acting we take as an infant right up until the day we die.
We may be thoughtful enough to live what some have called “the examined life,” by which they mean that they really do take time to reflect on how they perceive and act on reality. But whether or not we stop and think, our worldview is baked into everything we are and do – and long before we are aware we have one. Worldviews can change over time as we are influenced by new ideas, but they tend to change slowly – at glacier pace.
A friend, Bob Fisher, once said he’d had so many life-changing experiences, he was right back where he started. What Bob was saying is that “life-changing” is too flippant an expression to use for some weekend event.
When I was a boy, there was a man we thought fondly of, quirky as he was. We loved to hear him tell stories and share his commonsensical sayings. We liked him so much, we named our cat after him, until “Tom” had kittens at which point she became “Tomasina.” But the man Tom had a mean streak his wife saw, and we never did.
One day, Tom got “converted” in church, after which he declared that everything he had believed before was wrong. He was starting over. However, his conversion did not last, and he was soon back to his old ways.
Two things Tom didn’t understand. One, not everything he had said or done in the past was wrong, even though he definitely needed a change of heart. Two, it takes a lot of work to change one’s worldview. It is something we believers call sanctification, the lifelong concerted process of becoming more like the One we serve.
Sanctification – which includes the transformation of our worldview – starts when we first believe in the good news of Jesus. But it is only just a start, no matter how dramatic the conversion experience might be.
Second, is there such a thing as a biblical worldview?
My first response is to say yes to Reader’s question, “Is it too simplistic to say the definition of a biblical worldview is ‘the Bible is our basis of belief and actions’?” People can take that simplicity and run in weird directions.
Back in the 1800s during China’s Ching Dynasty, a man named Hong Xiuquan was given some pamphlets quoting and explaining certain Bible passages. He began proclaiming that he was the brother of Jesus Christ. With his syncretistic version of Christianity – syncretism meaning “mixed worldviews or schools of thought” – he tried to convert all of China and overthrow the government with his Taiping Heavenly Kingdom.
The Taiping Rebellion that ensued ranks as one of the bloodiest wars in human history, the death toll claiming as much as 10% of China’s population. And it led to long-lasting antagonism toward Christianity in that part of the world.
So, yes, simplification has its limits.
I do believe in a biblical worldview, by which I mean that the Bible, written by human beings, has been inspired by God and reveals God’s love to us. As such it is given to help us become like Christ. And in that context, it does form the basis for our beliefs and actions.
However, proof texting – using out-of-context quotes to support an argument – does not make for a biblical worldview. What does make a biblical worldview is the understanding that the Bible in its entirety is the unfolding of God’s revelation to us, a revelation that reaches its fullest expression in the person of Jesus the Christ. That means that while God is not inconsistent in his revelation, we only get partial understandings by looking at specific passages of Scripture.
Abraham, for example, had a more limited understanding of who God is than did, say, Moses a few hundred years later. And what Moses taught was fleshed out far more deeply much later in the New Testament. What Abraham and Moses had discovered of God was consistent with what Jesus later revealed – so the New Testament declares – but the earlier understandings were incomplete.
A biblical worldview is not found in piecemeal reading, nor in forcing passages to fit what was not intended, nor even in scattershot cross-referencing. These habits some believers have can make for strange teachings and behaviors.
Likewise, whenever uninformed nonbelievers criticize the Bible, they pick obscure or out-of-context passages and point to these as examples of why we should not trust the Bible. That would be like saying the character of Hamlet is what Shakespeare believed to be the right way to live.
Jesus sums up all the law and the prophets by using two passages from the teachings of Moses; briefly, that we are to love God with all our being, and we are to love our neighbor as ourselves. Although the Ten Commandments do illustrate this two-pronged approach, Moses himself didn’t put these two commandments together. In pairing and prioritizing these two, Jesus isn’t saying we don’t need the rest of the Law and the Prophets; he is saying that we are to interpret everything else through the lens of this summation.
Third, how can we develop such a worldview?
I’ve been reading Tom Holland’s book, Dominion: How the Christian Revolution Remade the World. Briefly, Holland writes about the ongoing and indelible impact of Christian teaching and thought on the world today. Our world, even in the de-Christianizing West, is saturated with the influence of Christianity.
Now, keep in mind, Holland is an atheist. He was born and raised in Christian community, then walked away from that faith. So, I find his thoughts on the pervasive influence of Christianity all the more intriguing.
But as I learned long ago, even people who live in a Christian environment, can develop a worldview that is far from what Jesus intended. We don’t Christianize or “biblicize” our worldview merely by living among Christians or going to church or even reading our Bible. These things can help, but not necessarily. My experience living in “Christian” cultures is that Christian people can be very unchristian. History is filled with examples of Christian organizations that have espoused unbiblical worldviews.
No, developing a worldview comes from saturating ourselves in the whole counsel of God. Theologian Michael Bird writes that, although Scripture alone can speak to us of our need for salvation, there is a reason the Holy Spirit gives us pastors and teachers. Can the Holy Spirit teach us directly? Yes, “but if you do some study of things like Greek, Hebrew, Bible backgrounds, biblical theology, church history, and theology, then you give the Holy Spirit more to work with in teaching you.” [from a post on his Facebook page]
There is no way one person can gain enough knowledge and understanding to grasp the whole counsel of God. Thus, the Holy Spirit has given us the Bible in the context of the community of faith – the Church – and in that context we have the wealth of the Spirit speaking to God’s people.
The Holy Spirit has been active for 2,000 years leading the church of all tongues and nations. The Spirit has led the people of God, not only in fulfilling God’s preferred vision for eternity, but also in listening to one another and hearing what God is saying in diverse contexts. Those contexts are historical, global, and multicultural.
I find much joy and insight in listening to people of faith from various cultures, men and women, young and old alike, share what the Spirit is saying to them through God’s Word. I learn much by listening to what women have to say about theology, and not just what women have to say about women. Likewise, persons of color who have had very different life experiences than mine can shed much light on scripture.
The revelation of God does not change, but our understanding of that revelation can grow. As we Pentecostals say, God is still speaking.
Which is why, for example, many of us Pentecostals believe that women have equal standing in ministry. Equal standing for women in church and in society is baked into my Pentecostal worldview.
In my worldview, both men and woman are called alike by God to proclaim the Good News. Others, in contrast, will say that the Bible teaches that, while women are called to ministry, they have separate roles. And there are other perspectives, as well, including that women have no role in ministry.
When I read the Bible through my Pentecostal worldview lens, I see scriptures that clearly speak from this egalitarian perspective; I also see other scriptures that could lead in a different direction. So, I have to use serious discernment to understand what God is really intending through all of these passages. What of my understanding of scripture informs my discernment?
How I enjoyed a conversation between two friends on Facebook one day! John A. Koeshall, said that “scripture has within it the powerful work of the spirit to produce egalitarianism within society,” but that “long outworking of God’s intention” isn’t always “already actualized in the text.”
George P. Wood responded that while “the gospel is egalitarian…the world in which the gospel came was patriarchal.” Thus, we discover bases for conflicting views in the text. Wood draws on Gordon Fee and Douglas Stuart to say that we need both exegesis (study of the scripture text) and hermeneutics (applying that meaning to our lives today) to get at the truth. [How to Read the Bible for All Its Worth, Zondervan]
We grow our biblical worldview by reading and studying the written word, by listening to the Body of Christ through the ages, especially through gifted writers and teachers, and all this by asking the Spirit to lead us into all truth.
To Reader, I should add that while we have much to learn from the global and historical wealth in the Christian faith, it is important that we do so in the context of a local community of believers who see us the way we really are and who can speak truth into our lives. As iron sharpens iron, we grow in seeing our world as God sees it.
Readers’ questions are always welcomed – send yours here.
Public domain photo: “Lineup of outdated globes”, Jeffrey Beall.
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