What is a Worldview? It’s About the Heart
As Christian parents we want our kids to develop a Christ-centered, biblically-faithful worldview. But what is a worldview?
Do we want them just to have good theology? Do we want them to be Christ-like in their conduct? Certainly we want all these, but having a Christ-centered, biblically faithful worldview is more than professing the right theology and having the right outward behavior.
In Introduction to Christian Worldview: Pursuing God’s Perspective in a Pluralistic World (IVP Academic, 2017), a book I co-wrote with Tawa Anderson and David Naugle, we provided a provisional definition of worldview as “the conceptual lens through which we see, understand, and interpret the world and our place within it.”
So with our kids we are not aiming for just correct theology and correct outward behavior. Our prayer for them is that God’s Word, Christ, and the gospel would be the “conceptual lens” through which they “see, understand, and interpret the world and [their] place within it.”
Components of a Worldview:
In our book, we make reference to James Sire’s classic worldview text, The Universe Next Door, where in later editions he provides a more expansive definition of worldview:
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 or entirely false) that 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. (The Universe Next Door, 5th ed., IVP Academic, p. 20).
Sire’s comprehensive definition is helpful because it highlights important components of a worldview:
1. Worldview is a matter of the heart:
- It is a commitment, the fundamental orientation of a person’s heart (the center of the person).
- It is more than just professed beliefs, but rather our greatest commitments in life.
2. Worldviews can be expressed as a story or in a set of presuppositions.
- In the Bible, God reveals reality to us at times in propositional truths, but these are always embedded in the greater biblical storyline of creation, fall, redemption, and new creation that unfolds from Genesis through Revelation.
- A worldview can also be partially expressed in a set of presuppositions or beliefs, like we find in the Apostles’ Creed or the 1689 London Baptist Confession, for example.
3. Worldviews address “the basic constitution of reality.”
- They are about Ultimate Reality, about what is “really real.”
- They answer the big questions of life.
4. Worldview assumptions about the basic constitution of reality may be true, partially true or entirely false.
- Worldview assumptions are true and match reality (what God knows to be the case) to varying degrees.
- As fallen and limited creatures, our personal worldviews are necessarily imperfect and incomplete. Our goal is to pursue God’s perspective—which he has graciously revealed in the Scriptures—because his perspective alone is entirely true and perfect.
5. Worldview presuppositions may be held consciously or subconsciously.
- A person may be fully aware of their presuppositions and beliefs or utterly unaware of them.
6. Worldview presuppositions may be held consistently or inconsistently.
- A person may hold their presuppositions/beliefs in a consistent way, meaning that they logically fit together.
- Or, their presuppositions may be inconsistent and contradict each other.
7. Worldviews are life directing:
- They provide the foundation for how “we live and move and have our being.”
- Worldviews set the course and direction of our lives.
Worldview is About the Heart:
So when we help our kids develop a Christ-centered, biblically-faithful worldview our ultimate aim is their heart. Our prayer is that by God’s grace their ultimate commitment, the fundamental orientation of their heart (as Sire describes it) will be shaped by God’s Word, Christ, and the gospel.
In You Are What You Love: The Spiritual Power of Habit (Brazos Press, 2016), James K.A. Smith argues the goal of following Jesus is more about “hungering and thirsting than of knowing and believing” (p. 2). He explains, “Jesus’s command to follow him is a command to align our loves and longings with his—to want what God wants, to desire what God desires, to hunger and thirst after God and crave a world where he is all in all—a vision encapsulated by the shorthand ‘the kingdom of God.’” (p. 2).
I agree with Smith. Having a Christ-centered and biblically-faithful worldview includes not only knowing and believing, but also loving and longing. We want our kids to know the Scriptures. We want them to personally know God the Father and Jesus Christ. We want them to believe that Jesus is the Christ who died for their sins and rose again on the third day (1 Cor 15:1-4).
However, we also want their knowledge and belief to result in loving and longing for God and his glory. We want them not only to know and believe in Jesus, but also to love and treasure him above all else. Their worldview is ultimately about their heart.
Soli Deo Gloria
W. Michael Clark, Ph.D., J.D.
Founder, Golden Oak Society
