WORlOVlfWS OVfR AT WH EN CHR IS TIA NS SEE A ROOK ahout world views, they automat ically assume it is about apologetics-a defense of the ChriHian faith. That assumption is correct for thi s book as weB, b ut thi s is apologetics wi th an im porta nt twist . Like: ot h er w orld vi ew books, w e: atte m pt to demon - strate the: of non-Christ ian thought systems or life orien- Tations, and to convince readers that Christian offen something bet- ter. But that is not o ur only goal, and perhaps it is not even our primary purpose . The twist is that thi s apologetics book also aims to provoke Christians to adopt a Christ ian world view. Too often, we assume that non-Ch ri stian worldviews stay safely on the other side of the chu rch door. As you will see below, we believe that th is is far from the ease. I n fact, mu ch of this book grows out of ou r own self-reflection to isolate areas where hidden worldvi ews, alien to Christianity, have crept into our thoughts a nd lifestyles. T he theory that Christians arc largely immune to the influence of non- Christian thought s tru ctures is often unconsciously perpetuated c ightod
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WORlOVlfWS OVfR ~Offff AT STARBU~KS
WH EN CHR ISTIANS SEE A ROOK ahout world views, they automatically
assume it is about apologetics-a defense of the ChriHian faith. That
assumption is correct for this book as weB, but this is apologetics with
an important twist . Like: oth er w orldview books, w e: attem pt to demon
strate the: inadequacie~ of non-Christ ian thought systems or life orien
Tations, and to convince readers that Christian it ~· offen something bet
ter. But that is not our only goal, and perhaps it is not even our primary
purpose . The twist is that this apologetics book also aims to provoke
Christians to adopt a Christian world view. Too often, we assume that
non-Christian worldviews stay safely on the other side of the chu rch
door. A s you will see below, we believe that th is is far from the ease. In
fact, much of this book grows out of ou r own self-reflection to isolate
areas where hidden worldviews, alien to Christianity, have crept into
our thoughts and lifestyles.
T he theory that Christians arc largely immune to the influe nce of
non-Christian thought structures is often unconsciously perpetuated
c ~ ightod m3~
12
by worldview book. that identify "theistic existentialism . postffiodern
deconstrllcrionism, M arxism or similar ph ilosophical systems as C h ris
tianity's main comper;rorj. These worldviews are, to be sure, .onlr.>ry
10 " Christian "iew of the world in fundamemal ways, and it ;s com
ple tely proper to frame an imellecrual response to them. Howevu,
stopping here has Iwo important limitat ions. First, somewhere along
the line, Chris t ians howe bought into t he idea Ihat philo,ophie~ born
and perpetuated in " niv.roilin topn:,em the greatc>! challenge to a
Chri,t ian worldvie",. \V. bdi.". that i . wrong-headed. How many
people do you know who are locked in deep conflict ovcr whethu to
become an mheist ic existentialist o r a Chri,tian? H ow man\' commit
ted 1I-hrxi51s do you run into on a daily basis? T he reality is that we
don't r<'ally encounte r mass ive hcrd~ of people entked by the thought
'ystems found in a typical ",orldview hook.
T he second limitation of mo", world,·ie", book. i. t hm they let
Christian readers off the hook too ea.ily. After reading such books ,
they fre<I'lently will conchlde ,hatth. author is correct "bout the defi
ciencies of competing idea~ and the sufficiency ofChr ist i;m idea,. Be
cause of thi. agr.ement, Chri.tian. often further conclude thnt their
faith remain. lm{>~inted by contrary worldvicw,. Thi, create, a danger
ous situation if the real compet ition for the heart< and mind. ofChri.
tian. and non-Ch ri. tians alike doc. nOt spring from the academy, where
the world,·iew. arc dearly formubted and expressed. \Vh", if the real
competit ion come ' from worldvicw. We do nM Se C al all, eVen if they
su rround us?
W e believe Ihi. i.the ,itllation. 11 i. not Ih~ world view. that begin a,
theories or intellectual systems that mold the live. and beliefs of 100",
peopic. Instead, the most powerful infllenee. cOme from worldv;ew!
that emerge fro m culture. They arc "II around us, but are s(> dee ply em
bedded in culture thaI we don't sec them. In olher word" these world
views ,lfe hidden in piain . ight. \.y~ wi ll o<;casionally call1h~m "lived
world,·iew.w
because we "r. mOre l ikcl,· to "hsorb Ihem thro ugh cu h ur~1
CO ll1ad than adopt them through ~ rational c\·" lualion of compcling
the"rie ~ . These lind w"rld\";ew! arc l'opllhir philos<>phits of life Ih"l
h~\"e few inlclkctual proponents bot ,",,$t nUlTl be ," of 1'1'~~(il;one rs .
,
13
The eight belief systems we identify as hidden wo rldv iews-individ
ualism, consumerism, nat ional ism, moral relat ivism, naturalism, the
ew A ge , pos rmodern rribj,l ism and s:.livat ion by therapy-fit this
model. This is certainly not an exhaust ive list,1 bur they arc among th e
m ost pervasive life-shaping perspectives in North American cu lture. Tf
YOll obse rve ca refully, yo u hear and see them everywhere-in offices ,
dorm ito ries, Internet chat rooms and ovcr-coffce-at-Starbucks convcr
satiol1S. l\1o rcovcr. they arc not limited to secular venues. Bcc:'lU SC of
their stealthy nature, these world views find their way behind the church
doors, m ixed in with Christ ian ideas and sometimes identified as
Christian positions.
This accounts fo r the "apologetic rwist" mentioned at the beginning
of the book. Many C hri stians have imported chunks of these world
views w ithout being aware of it. This is difficult to avoid because they
arc embedded throughout North American culture. M oreover, because
we do not encounter them as intellectual system s, they usually fly under
the radar of consc ious thought. Thus, their power oVer liS is increased
s ince we are often unaware of how they shape our life and ideas. In
short, no one is immune from the influence of these pe rspect ives . They
a re very real competitors with Christian ity, and they stake their claim
on the lives of C hri stians and nonbelieve rs alike.
Because we wiJi exam ine world views that are absorbed through cu l
t ure rather than adopted through rational appraisa l, the structure and
approach of th is book w ill differ from many oth ers in the "worldview"
category. M ost world view books proceed by invest igating the writ ings
of those who propose intcllectu ::d thought systems, and then they un
dertttkc a tho rough evaluation o f the coherence of these ideas. This
m akes perfect sense when examining worldviews that o riginate as the
o retical systems. H owever, the ove r-coffee-at- Starbucks worldviews
we examine do not have this sort of starting point. They m ay indeed
h ave philosophical and academic con nections or origins, but by the
'You mighl note. for el:ample, that we do nO! address the major world religions, which certa inly fir the e ~l egory ofli l'ed worldviews. \Ve h:we nm examined Ihese for two reasons. Fits!, we wanl lO foc us On Ihe North AmericB tI cu ll ur:,l cOluext. a rid eve n Ihough the influence of other religion. is growing here, we do nOt believc their imp;lcl is ns direct as those wc have selected. Second, ;Idd~,sing this arc:1 in an :.tdeq uatc m;lnncr would double rhc lengTh of this book.
14 HID DEN \VO IU.DV TEW S
time these ideas trickle down to popular American culture, they man
ifest themselves in different 'ways. For example, what we call posrmod
ern tribalism has roots in pos tmodern phi losophy, as the name implies,
but it is not the same as post modern philosophy. Capitalist econom ic
theory has influenced both consumerism and individu alism, two
worldviews examined later in this book. h is a mistake, however, to
equate either with capital ism o r, for that m:l.tter, to assume that capi
talism is the only influcI1cC on these systems. Thus, we will examine
worldvicws in their everyd ay express ion, no t their more purified theo
ret ical forms, because that is how most people experience them and are
drawn under their influence. (This also, by the: way, cms down sig
nificantly on the number of footnotes.)
Our second departure from the traditional model is to approach
worldviews as more than just intellectual sys tems. Some reade rs wi1i
take us to task for this because they define worldview as an intentional
attempt to frame answe rs to the deepest quest ions in life. Such attempts
consc iously begin with the aim of di rectly addressing questions about
G od, real ity, knowledge, goodness, human n ature and other founda
tional questions. M ost of the li\'ed worldviews we will examine do not
start here . Never theless, as we will see, they imply answers to all of the
questions that theoret ical worldviews attempt to address. Jo.10reover,
the effect of our lived worldviews is the same sought by their theoretical
cousins. They ttll us what we should love or despise , what is valuable or
unimportant, and what is good or evil. All worldviews offer definitions
of the fundamental human problem and how we might fix it. \,yhen
you ge t right down to it, every worldview attempts to answer the ques
tion "What mu st we do to be saved?" Regardless of whether it comes to
us as a theoretical construct or is soaked tip by osmosis from culture,
our worldview will have a deep imp:lct on how we view our universe,
ourselves and OlLr act ions.
Because these hidden world views do what theoretical worldviews do
(propose answers to fundamental guesrions and shape our lives) , we do
not hesitate to use the term worldview to describe the systems in this
book. VVhile we do not reject the validity of the intentiona l, rationa l
exam ination of these questions, we think it stops too soon. The real ity
15
oflife is that, while humans are rational beings, we are not just rat ional
beings. The vast majority of liS do not commit to a worldview by initiat
ing a purely intellectual compari son of compet ing ph ilosoph ies and
choosing what appea rs to be the most coherent one. W e don't just think
our way into worldviews, we experienu them.
For most of us, our worldviews come to li S more like a story or faith
commitment rather than a system of ideas we select among a buffet of
intel lectual options. h is certainly the case that we arc able to ext ract
ideas that characterize each w orldview, and this will occupy a signifi
cant amou nt of O Uf attention in each chapter. Nevertheless, we want to
be aware that, for most of li S, wo rldviews are not primarily systems of
interl inked ideas and beliefs, but they are experienced, :tbso rbed and
expressed in the midst o f life .
REAl-L IFE. WHOL E- LIFE WORLOVIEWS
If what we have sa id so far m akes sense, it means that the entire
wo rldview ente rprise is a lot messier than is often implied by many
books on the top ic. ) :tmes Si re's underst:tnding of wo rldview helps il
lumin::ne some re:tsons behind thi s messiness. As he defines it, "A
worldview is 3. commitment, ::1 fundamental or ientation of the heart,
that can be expressed as a story or in a set of presuppos itions (assump
tions which may be true, partially tfue or entirely false) which we
ho ld (consc io usly o r subco nsc iously, consistently or incon sistently)
:tbou t the b:ts ic constitution of re ality, and that provides the founda
tion o n which we live and move and have o ur being."2 We will break
Sire's definition down into pieces slowly, hut it is important fro m the
beginning to cl arify what he means by hearl. Our culture tends to
speak of the heart in reference to feelings o r emotions. Sire reminds
us, however, th at the biblical concept o f heart is much richer than
this. It includes the emotions, but also encompasses wisdom, desire
and will, sp irituality and intellect. In sho rt, the heart is, "the central
defining element of the human person."l
IJam~5 Sire, No1millg Ihr E/tpho/ll: lI'()rld'fJi~ :1J us iI C()/lup! (Do .... ners Gral· ... IlL: ImerV:trsity Preu, 2004), p. 122.
lIbid., p. 124.
16 H IDDEN \VO IU.DV TE WS
Equating heart with the entire person helps us idenrify one impor
tant factor that contributes to real-lite worldview mess iness . W orld
views arc not just cognitive const ructs in which the relative amo unts o f
truth and crror included in them determine the relative success o r
failure of our lives . Real human beings, beings with "heart," arc multi