How Worldviews Shape Education Certificate of Christian Education Chris Parker
How Worldviews Shape EducationCertificate of Christian Education
Chris Parker
rabbit or duckwhat do you see in the next picture?
half full
half empty
1. Worldview Definitions
(world-and-life view)
“weltanschauung”
life perspectiveset of principles and ideals
system of values
“The comprehensive framework of one’s basic beliefs about
things.”
everybody hasa worldview ofsome kind
articulate
rawdifficult
confronting
metaphors
other factorscharacter disposition
emotionsperception issues
They exert influence via our worldview
worldviewphilosophy | theology
2. Worldview Questions
“There are times when all the world's asleep, the questions run too
deep for such a simple man.
Won't you please, please tell me what we've learned? I know it
sounds absurd but please tell me who I am.”
Supertramp, Logical Song
Who am I?
Where am I?
What is wrong?
How is it fixed?
James Sire
1. What is primary reality?2. What is the nature of the
world around us?3. What is a human being?4. What happens to a person at death?5. Why is it possible to know anything at
all?6. How do we know what is right and
wrong?7. What is the meaning of history?
Peter Singer
1. Rejects the notion of God
2. Therefore rejects humans’
unique place in creation
3. Therefore “we are animals”
4. Therefore “sex across the species
barrier ceases to be an offence to our
status and dignity as human beings”
3. Origins of Western Worldviews
Judaic Hellenistic
early life of the gospel
Plato | Aristotle300BC
Plato reality is ideas and ideals
Aristotle reality is experience
Plato
Aristotledualism
intellectual melting pot
Augustine400AD
legitimises and institutionalises
eternal (spiritual)
temporal (material)
legitimises and institutionalises
Middle Agesthe gospel doesn't impact
everyday life issues
The Enlightenment“If God and Christianity were already basically irrelevant
to most of life, why not make their irrelevance complete.”
(Walsh and Middleton, 1984)
The Enlightenmentscientific revolutionhuman conquest
age of exploration
Francis Bacon1600AD
inventor of scientific methodscientism
Descartes1600AD
mindmatter
ISM’s18th, 19th, 20th Century
scientismtechnocismeconomism
consumerism
consumerismInstead of our core values influencing consumption,
our consumption influences our core values
early churchintegrated Greek dualistic thinking
modern churchstill integrates dualistic thinking
discussion
4. THE BIBLICAL WORLDVIEW:Creating and Cultivating
biblical story
gospel
IsraelCreation Church New CreationJe
sus
lifedeath
resurrectionascension
enthronementHoly Spirit
Fall
birthprophecy and expectation
expected return
1. original good creation
2. perversion of creation through sin
3. restoration of the creation in Christ
frameworkcreation + cultivation
disobedience + distortionredemption + recreation
Directly: planets in motion | animals reproduce | gravity pulls
Indirectly: entrusts humans to innovate | do justice | produce art | learn
culture creatorsit’s a reflection of our
stewardship/rule over the earth
God’s creational decree
1. Laws of naturegravity | heredity | thermodynamics
2. “Laws” of cultureless clear
God’s creationalnorms or ideals
explore and navigate towards
broad scope of creationstructure of the atom
movement of the stars
life cycle of a plant
instincts of a platypus
beauty of creation
structure of society
art and music
economics and business
politics and government
education
and
“Everything that humans are and do is
thoroughly creational.”(Wolters, 2005)
hopeprofound
meaningfulness
educationlaws of nature
andlaws of culture
units of labourculture creators
5. THE BIBLICAL WORLDVIEW:Disobedience and Distortion
disobedienceGenesis 3:17 (NIV)To Adam he said, "Because you listened to your wife and ate from the tree about which I commanded you, 'You must not eat of it,'
"Cursed is the ground because of you; through painful toil you will eat of it all the days of your life.
disobedienceRomans 8:22 (NIV)We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time.
disobediencewhole creation is catastrophically
affected
disobedience
distortion
creational goodness still remains
creation is not defined by the distortion
Sin is Adam’s “my bad”, not God’s.
prostitution |sex
totalitarian |anarchy
current or flowfor God | against God
changing the current
humans repentance
natural world restore
culture redeem
6. THE BIBLICAL WORLDVIEW:Redemption and Restoration
redemptionthe gospel of Christ is cosmic
notions from scripture:salvation
restorationreconciliation
renewal
implicationsmarriage sanctified | not avoided
emotions purified | not repressed
sexuality redeemed | not shunned
politics reformed | not decreed off limits
art claimed for Christ | not proclaimed “worldly”
scope of redemption
“...to reconcile to
himself all things...”(Col 1:20)
all creation fallenhumans pivotal
all creation redeemablehumans pivotal
Adamic human raceperverted the cosmos
Christ-ian human racerenews it
2 Corinthians 5:18 (NIV)“All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave
us the ministry of reconciliation...”
kingdom of Godrestoration of creation = the coming kingdom of God
Jesus’ ministry1. preaching the coming
kingdom
2. demonstrating the coming kingdom
now but not yet
garden | city
graduates1. intellectual schizophrenia
2. swept up into secular humanism
creation | fall | redemption
not
biblical worldview
Who are we?
Where are we?
What is wrong?
What is the remedy?
What time is it?
creationWho? | Where?
fallWhat’s wrong?
redemptionHow to fix it?
7. Changing Your Worldview?
Worldview
Bible
biblical worldview
Bible
disorientation | reorientation
8. Worldviews and Education
education is shaped by a worldview
The Bookseller of KabulWar was the central theme in math books too.
School boys—because the Taliban printed books solely for boys—did not calculate in apples and
cakes, but in bullets and Kalashnikovs, something like this: little Omar has a Kalashnikov with three
magazines. There are twenty bullets in each magazine. He uses two-thirds of the bullets and kills
sixty infidels. How many infidels does he kill with each bullet?
(Seierstad)
Bible to curriculumbiblical theology
biblical worldview
subject philosophy
lesson content
botanist | artist | chemist | grocer | child
Chris [email protected]
Plato | Aristotle300BC
Augustine
Aquinas
CHRIST
THE ENLIGHTENMENT
BaconDescartes
ISM’s
300BC
300BC
300BC
300BC