Naming the Elephant: Worldview as a Concept (30 page)

12
There is one form of Buddhism that takes this notion so seriously that it conceives of the world as a string of pearls, each pearl created from nothing at each point along the string.

13
These haiku, all by Bashō, are given in the translation used by Keene,
Japanese Literature
, p. 40.

14
With the influx of new literary theories predicated on sociology, psychology and linguistics, literary theory has absorbed a host of presuppositions that undermine every traditional literary theory, not just theories congenial to the Christian worldview. It must be the task of Christians to expose these presuppositions to critical analysis. Then when the various hermeneutics are turned back on themselves, they often can be shown to be self-referentially incoherent. For example, if, in accord with Michel Foucault, all uses of language are plays for power, so is the language used to say so. If power is not a criterion of truth (which it isn’t), there is no reason to believe that all use of language is a play for power.

15
Terry Eagleton,
Literary Theory: An Introduction
(Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1983), p. 11.

16
Ibid.

17
See a survey of this work in Harold K. Bush Jr., “The Outrageous Idea of a Christian Literary Studies: Prospects for the Future and a Meditation on Hope,”
Christianity and Literature
, Autumn 2001, pp. 79-103.

18
I am thinking of such scholars as Alvin Plantinga, Nicholas Wolterstorff, George Mavrodes, C. Stephen Evans, Keith Yandell, William Lane Craig and J. P. Moreland (there are many others); some of their students now hold doctorates in philosophy and are making further contributions.

19
The president of Union University in Jackson, Tennessee, has assembled essays from seventeen scholars on the faculty, each of which relates the Christian worldview to her or his own academic discipline. See David S. Dockery and Gregory Alan Thornbury, eds.,
Shaping a Christian Worldview
(Nashville: Broadman & Holman, 2002). In
The Scandal of the Evangelical Mind
(Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1994) Mark Noll gave a heavily critical analysis of evangelical contribution to the academic realm; in
Jesus Christ and the Life of the Mind
(Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2011) he takes a more optimistic stance and, more importantly, presents a firm theological foundation for academic work from a Christian worldview.

20
Rodney Stark says, “Science was not the work of Western secularists or even deists; it was entirely the work of devout believers in an active, conscious, creator God” (
For the Glory of God: How Monotheism Led to Reformations, Science, Witch-Hunts and the End of Slavery
[Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2003], p. 376; see pp. 121-99).

21
Carl Sagan,
Cosmos
(New York: Random House, 1980), p. 4.

22
Among the scientists, physicists seem the most open to a nonnaturalistic understanding of the cosmos. Paul Davies, in fact, was awarded the Templeton Prize for Progress in Religion for his contribution to the dialogue between religion and science. Davies holds a panentheistic worldview; that is, he believes the universe itself displays an intentional mind. See his “Physics and the Mind of God: The Templeton Prize Address,”
First Things
, August/September 1995, pp. 31-35.

23
See the preface to the “Worldviews in Science” section in the bibliography.

24
John Henry Newman,
The Idea of a University
, ed. Frank M. Turner (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1996), p. 37.

25
George Marsden,
The Outrageous Idea of Christian Scholarship
(New York: Oxford University Press, 1997).

26
See James Davison Hunter and Os Guinness, eds.,
Articles of Faith, Articles of Peace: The Religious Liberty Clauses and the American Public Philosophy
(Washington, DC: Brookings Institution, 1990) and the papers in
The Journal of Law and Religion
9, nos. 1 and 2 (1990). Both publications contain “The Williamsburg Charter,” an important attempt to help us learn to live with our deepest differences.

Bibliography

I. Worldviews and Worldview Analysis

The following books are a small selection of works that focus directly on worldviews as such. For a more extensive bibliography, see “A Worldview Bibliography” (January 2001) compiled by David K. Naugle, ThD, PhD, chairman of the philosophy department at Dallas Baptist University,
www3.dbu.edu/naugle/pdf/worldview_bibliography.pdf
.

Anderson, James N.
What’s Your Worldview? An Interactive Approach to Life’s Big Questions.
Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2014.

Beckwith, Francis, William Lane Craig and J. P. Moreland, eds.
To Everyone an Answer: A Case for the Christian Worldview
. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2004.

Bertrand, J. Mark.
(Re)thinking Worldview: Learning to Think, Live, and Speak in This World
. Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2007.

Bonzo, Matthew, and Michael Stevens, eds.
After Worldview
. Sioux Center, IA: Dordt College Press, 2009.

Burnett, David.
Clash of Worlds: What Christians Can Do in a World of Cultures in Conflict
. London: Monarch Books, 2002.

Dockery, David, and Gregory Alan Thornbury, eds.
Shaping a Christian Worldview: The Foundations of a Christian Higher Education
. Nashville: Broadman & Holman, 2002.

Hart, David Bentley.
The Experience of God: Being, Consciousness, Bliss
. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2013.

Heslam, Peter.
Creating a Christian Worldview: Abraham Kuyper’s Lectures on Calvinism
. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1998.

Hiebert, Paul G.
Transforming Worldviews: An Anthropological Understanding of How People Change
. Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2008.

Holmes, Arthur F.
Contours of a Worldview
. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1983.

Kraft, Charles H.
World Views for Christian Witness
. Pasadena, CA: William Carey Library, 2008.

Kuyper, Abraham.
Lectures on Calvinism
. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1931.

Middleton, J. Richard, and Brian Walsh.
The Transforming Vision: Shaping a Christian Worldview
. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1984.

Nash, Ronald.
Worldviews in Conflict
. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1992.

Naugle, David.
Worldview: History of a Concept
. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2002.

Orr, James.
The Christian View of God and the World
. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1954.

Philips, Gary, and William E. Brown.
Making Sense of Your World
. Chicago: Moody Press, 1991.

Poplin, Mary.
Is Reality Secular? Testing the Truth Claims of Four Global Worldviews
. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2013.

Redfield, Robert.
The Primitive Worldview and Its Transformation
. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1953.

Samford, Mark, and Steve Wilkins.
Hidden Worldviews: Eight Cultural Stories
. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2009.

Samples, Kenneth R.
A World of Difference: Putting Christian Truth-Claims to the Worldview Test
. Grand Rapids: Baker Books, 2007.

Sire, James W.
The Universe Next Door: A Basic Worldview Catalog
. 5th ed. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2009.

Smart, Ninian.
Worldviews: Crosscultural Explorations of Human Beliefs
. 3rd ed. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 2000.

Smith, James K. A.
Desiring the Kingdom: Worship, Worldview, and Cultural Transformation
. Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2009.

———.
Imagining the Kingdom
. Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2013.

Taylor, Charles.
A Secular Age
. Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2007.

Wolters, Albert.
Creation Regained: Biblical Basics for a Reformational Worldview
. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1985.

Wright, N. T.
The New Testament and the People of God
. Christian Origins and the Question of God, vol. 1. Minneapolis: Fortress, 1992.

II. Worldviews in Science

Most thoughtful Christians who examine the implications of their worldview in science agree that God is creator and that it is a world we can understand. We have been made in order to do so. Christians have no difficulty rejecting naturalism, the notion that there is no God.

But since Darwin there has been a pervasive disagreement on how God relates to the world. Does nature work in such a way that God’s superintendence is always mediated though the orderly laws of nature, or does he sometimes or always directly engage as a primary cause? Does anything happen that is so special that the hand of God can be detected? How is the beginning of life to be understood? Is this a conundrum beyond the methods of naturalistic science to detect? How do we understand the biblical accounts of the origin of the universe and of life? This contentious relationship is internal within the various specific formulations of Christian worldviews.

There is no need for me to weigh in on this issue. But I do take this position: I believe that most Christians do not know either (1) enough Christian theology or philosophy or (2) enough science or philosophy of science to do more than reach a tentative position. Let this not discourage us from deeply studying these difficult issues. Ignorance is not bliss, but it does characterize all of us to some extent. So does stupidity. What our condition demands of all of us—the intelligent and informed and the stupid and ignorant—is this: humility.

So, I humbly offer the following short list of publications that may be helpful for anyone who wants to dig deeper. Actually, the relationship between science and faith offers an excellent example of how specific pre-theoretical worldview commitments affect rational arguments. Just how and why Christians disagree on how science and faith relate may depend more on commitments that lie below the surface than those directly contended.

In attempting to make this bibliography more useful, I tried to categorize it in relation to content and approach, but every book has something to do with everything. So I only say this: books by the following authors are more historical: Christopher, Pearcey and Thaxton, and Woodward; those attempting to explain several positions: Carlson and Rau; books based on naturalism: Dawkins, Krauss and Sagan; books based on panentheism: Davies.

Carlson, Richard F., ed.
Science and Christianity: Four Views
. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2000.

Collins, Francis.
The Language of God: A Scientist Presents Evidence for Belief
. New York: Free Press, 2006.

Davies, Paul.
God and the New Physics
. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1983.

———.
The Mind of God: The Scientific Basis for a Rational World
. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1992.

———. “Physics and the Mind of God: The Templeton Prize for Progress in Religion,”
First Things
(August/September, 1995): 31-35.

Dawkins, Richard.
The Blind Watchmaker
. New York: W. W. Norton, 1994.

Dembski, William.
The Design Inference.
New York: Cambridge University Press, 1998.

———, ed.
Mere Creation: Science, Faith & Intelligent Design.
Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1998.

Gingrich, Owen.
God’s Universe.
Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2006.

Haarsma, Deborah, and Loren Haarsma.
Origins: A Reformed Look at Creation, Design, and Evolution.
Grand Rapids: Faith Alive, 2007.

Jeeves, Malcolm.
From Cells to Souls and Beyond
. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2004.

Johnson, Phillip E.
Darwin on Trial
, 2nd ed. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1993.

Krauss, Lawrence M.
A Universe from Nothing: Why There Is Something Rather Than Nothing.
New York: Free Press, 2012.

Moreland, J. P., ed.
The Creation Hypothesis: Scientific Evidence for an Intelligent Designer.
Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1994.

Padgett, Alan.
Science and the Study of God
. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2003.

Rau, Gerald.
Mapping the Origins Debate: Six Models of the Beginning of Everything.
Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2012.

Ruse, Michael.
Can a Darwinian Be a Christian? The Relationship Between Science and Religion
. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2000.

Sagan, Carl.
Cosmos
. New York: Random House, 1980.

Schönborn, Christopher Cardinal.
Chance or Purpose? Creation, Evolution and a Rational Faith,
translated by Henry Taylor. San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 2007.

Stewart, W. Christopher. “Religion and Science.” In
Reason for the Hope Within
, edited by Michael J. Murray. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1999.

Thaxton, Charles, and Nancy Pearcey.
The Soul of Science: Christian Faith and Natural Philosophy
. Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 1994.

Woodward, Thomas.
Doubts About Darwin: A History of Intelligent Design
. Grand Rapids: Baker Books, 2003.

———.
Darwin Strikes Back
. Grand Rapids: Baker Books, 2006.

III. Worldview Background

In writing and revising
Naming the Elephant
, I have consulted a wide spectrum of works on theology, philosophy, sociology, history, literary criticism, biographies and cultural analysis. The following lists those background sources I have specifically mentioned in the text above.

Aquinas, Thomas.
Summa Theologica
, 2nd and rev. ed. Translated by Fathers of the English Dominican Province (online ed., 2003),
www.newadvent.org/summa/1002.htm
.

Auerbach, Erich.
Mimesis: The Representation of Reality in Western Literature
. Garden City, NJ: Doubleday/Anchor, 1953.

St. Augustine.
The Enchiridion of Faith, Hope, and Love
. Edited by Henry Paolucci. Washington, DC: Regnery Gateway, 1961.