By Bob Stewart, Director of Institute for Christian Apologetics at NOBTS
In my previous article I discussed briefly what worldviews are and how they function as life-guides for us. Now I wish to say more about how they work in our lives and how they guide us in ministry.
When we speak to non-Christians, it is crucial that they understand what we mean. Far too often we speak a foreign language to those we are trying to reach. What language you ask? Christianese. We ask questions like:
Christian: “Have you been saved?”
Friend: “Well, yes, at summer camp I fell out of a canoe but my scoutmaster saved me . . .”
Christian: “That’s not what I mean, I mean have you been born again?”
Friend: “Uh, not lately.”
Christian: “No, I mean have you been washed in the blood?”
Friend: “Ugh, no, and I don’t want to be. Gross!”
Christian: “You don’t get it, I’m trying to share the good news with you.”
Friend: “All right, great! So what is the good news?”
Christian: “You’re going to Hell!”
Friend: “So . . . what’s the bad news?”
Clearly our non-Christian friends must know what we mean if our efforts at ministry are ever going to be successful. We need to be on the same page, so to speak. Worldviews are thus crucial to any evangelistic effort.
But still this is not enough. We must also speak relevantly to their concerns. We can speak clearly, even rationally and articulately, but if we don’t speak to matters that they care deeply about, our clear, rational speech will be ineffective.
Understanding another’s worldview enables us to speak to their heart concerns in such a way as to motivate them to change.
Simply put, we might convince them that something we believe is true, but if that topic is not a major concern in their worldview, then they will regard what we have said as being trivially true.
As an example, I talk a fair amount with Jehovah’s Witnesses, who have several theological problems.
They don’t understand who God is, they misunderstand who Jesus is, and they are confused about salvation.
Those are three pretty big problems. But when I start talking to a Witness, I begin with eschatology, particularly with Armageddon.
Why? Because I know two things about Jehovah’s Witnesses: (1) they are concerned about eschatology – it is the Watchtower Society, Watchtower magazine, Awake magazine, etc. and (2) if I start by talking about God, Jesus, or salvation, then I end up playing Bible ping-pong – they have a verse, I have a verse, and back and forth.
Simply put, Jehovah’s Witnesses are not as concerned with what the Bible says as they are with what the Watchtower Society tells them the Bible means through their publications. So I begin by questioning them about the society’s numerous failed prophecies.
I talk about what they care about (eschatology) and then plant a seed of doubt as to the Society’s reliability, so that they will put the Watchtower magazine aside and look to the Bible alone for answers.
So, how does one analyze a worldview?
Worldviews are expressed in four primary ways: Stories, Ultimate Questions, Symbols, and Praxis.
Stories express a worldview in narrative form – the most basic way we think. Mark Turner states it well in his Oxford University Press book, The Literary Mind, “Story is a basic principle of mind. Most of our experience, our knowledge, and our thinking is organized as stories.”
This is why, when we go to church, we remember the illustrations from a sermon, rather than the points – even when the sermon is brought to us by the letter P.
This is why history’s greatest thinkers have told stories to make their points. Indeed, history’s greatest thinker, Jesus of Nazareth, was a storyteller, teaching in parables.
Stories do several important things. First, they express new ideas in a subtle and non-threatening way. One doesn’t have to make a case, or argue a point.
Simply include it in a story.
Second, stories can make the unusual the norm.
Third, when an idea is expressed enough (not argued for or proven) it becomes embedded in one’s thought. For instance, if I said, “I drove here at warp speed,” would you think that I obeyed the speed limit on my trip?
Or if I said, “George has the manners of a Klingon,” would you think I was complimenting him? Of course not.
We’ve all been influenced by the story of Star Trek – even though (spoiler alert!) Klingons don’t exist and traveling at warp speed isn’t possible. It makes no difference. Stories have worldview-shaping power.
This is why Hollywood has so much power to influence how we think and act. Hollywood tells us our stories and in many ways shapes the worldview of contemporary America.
Worldviews are also expressed in the answers to certain ultimate questions that everyone asks, questions such as “Who am I?” “Where am I?” “What’s wrong?” “What’s the solution?”
One must note, however, that these questions are inherently related to the story that a worldview tells.
Consider the fact that the question of Who am I is a matter of characterization. Where am I is a question as to setting. What’s wrong is a question about plot conflict. (All stories require plot conflict. Even a simple story like Little Red Riding Hood is boring without a wolf.)
And what’s the solution is a question of plot resolution. (One way or another, the conflict must be resolved. This is why cliffhanger endings always bring the audience back!)
There is one more important worldview question: “What time is it?”
What time is it in the worldview story that is embraced? The answer to this question points to the expectations of the person or group with whom you are dealing. It is crucial to know what time it is in order to know what they are looking for, and thus how to speak relevantly to them.
Symbols are to stories as snapshots are to a vacation. They encapsulate the worldview. They highlight what is truly significant. A good picture is worth a lot more than a thousand words.
As a student in anthropology I was taught always to seek to discern a culture’s symbol of the transcendent – because every culture has one.
Jesus gave us some symbols that tell a story. The first is the Lord’s Supper. The Lord’s Supper pictures the substitutionary, atoning death of the Lord.
This is my body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of Me. . . This cup is the new covenant in my blood; do this as often as you drink it in remembrance of Me (1 Cor. 11:24-25).
Even the words we use to speak of the Supper have symbolic meaning. Communion stresses that we are the body of Christ. Eucharist stresses that we are to be thankful for what God has done on our behalf.
Similarly, Baptism pictures his resurrection, which ensures that of the believer (Romans 8:10; 10:9-10; 1 Cor. 15:19-49).
I remember well a Presbyterian friend of mine telling me that he had decided to become a Baptist after “seeing” baptism.
I asked what he meant by stressing that he saw baptism. He told me of going to a Baptist worship service in which a baptism was performed and seeing a man buried with Christ and seeing that same man raised to walk in the newness of life. It was a picture of resurrection.
Anytime we take the Lord’s Supper or a person is baptized, the Gospel is preached – but in visual and symbolic words, not in audible words.
Finally, a worldview is expressed in Praxis. Praxis is simply how a person actually lives.
At this point there is the potential for conflict between one’s profession and one’s practice. All worldviews tell us how to be in this world, that is, they prescribe a particular mode of life.
Unfortunately nobody does as well as he or she knows to do. We are much better at knowing what to do than we are at doing what we know. For this reason I often tell my students that Praxis is the truth serum of worldview analysis.
Praxis reveals what a person truly believes. As the late Vance Havner said, “What I do today is what I really believe. Everything else is just religious talk.”
Analyzing the story, answers to ultimate questions, symbols, and praxis of a worldview will help us understand a worldview more fully and see it for what it is. (Remember: there is one single worldview, not four worldviews, but these four indicators express a worldview.) This in turn will help us to minister effectively to people who hold different worldviews than we do.
We still need to know how best to share our worldview with them and to help them see that Jesus is God’s Son and the answer to the human predicament (what wrong with the world).
That’s the question that we’ll consider in the next article.
Robert (Bob) Stewart is a professor of Philosophy and Theology at New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary where he serves as Greer-Heard Chair of Faith and Culture and directs the Institute for Christian Apologetics. He has an online apologetics e-magazine called www.defendmag.com.