The exhilarating feeling of being asked to teach Worldviews at my alma mater has been replaced by more of a sinking feeling. So, I’ve gone from Professor to Gilligan before teaching even one class.
I think it will go just fine…but getting from here to there with 3 days preparation time will be reminiscent of crunch time during final exams.
Will you please pray for me? Seriously.
Over the course of the next few weeks, I’ll share some of what my class will be learning. (Okay, I admit, I like how the words “my class” sound.)
First a definition: What is worldview?
A worldview is a working theory of reality, used for living in the world. It is a framework of ideas, beliefs, attitudes about the world, others, God (whether you believe in him or don’t) ourselves, and life. It includes a comprehensive system of beliefs — with answers for a wide range of questions.
We all have a worldview, but many of us have never really examined it, or thought about it, all by itself, and in contrast to worldviews of other generations, cultures, and religions. Our worldviews collide. Watching one segment of bickering at Fox News will tell you that. By our worldview we come to understand our values, on a quest for truth.
It is said that the worldview of modernity could be (generally) comprised of the years 1789 (Storming of Bastille) to the Fall of the Berlin Wall 1989. We now live in a time of transition which some term postmodernity or hypermodernity. The predominant hallmark of the era being the underlying assumption that “Truth is ‘…a mobile army of metaphors, metonyms, and anthropomorphisms…’ “. A.k.a Truth is different for you than it is for me (relative truth). Or, Truth is what you think truth is.
In our times, Science is questioned or discarded as the supplier and authority of truth with the common conviction that objective truth may or may not exist. Therefore, truth is inaccessible due to the nature of one’s personal standpoint of all knowledge claims.
CASE IN POINT:
Witness the decades long “4 out of 5 Dentists recommend Trident gum” advertising campaign? (This one below is from 1971.) What seems strange about it (Besides the weird hairdos and peculiar music)?
NOW-Here’s how the same company sells gum to people with a postmodern worldview (2008).
Which commercial makes you want to buy their gum?
For those of you who’d like to follow a bit more closely, read Part I of Nancy Pearcey’s book Total Truth.