The Dawn Treader

Chuck Colson's The Faith Blog Tour

Zondervan is sponsoring a blog tour for Chuck Colson's latest book The Faith.

I have been pre-reading Chuck's book in anticipation of hosting today's stop on the blog tour.

I sent some questions to Chuck Colson.  If all goes according to plan, he will send me a response and then stop by to see if any commenters have responded to his answer.

Now, my question for Chuck Colson.

Mr. Colson, you make the point in several places that Christianity is a worldview.  The term worldview is becoming common in the Christian vernacular.  Many associate worldview with learning "isms".  How do you recommend we keep "worldview" from becoming just another cerebral exercise?  How do we connect it to the heart?  Also, in the chapter on becoming holy, you discuss social holiness.  "We are to bring God's holiness to bear in every area of life.  This understanding of holiness has moved Christians throughout history to some of the greatest advances in human dignity and freedom." How do you recommend we protect against losing the focus on God's holiness as our motivation for engaging culture?  In other words, it can become easy to slide into pursuing political or social causes for reasons having nothing to do with God's holiness.  What are good ways to guard against that?

Once I receive Chuck's answer, I will post it here.  In the meantime, feel free to comment on the thread.

UPDATE :

Chuck Colson's response :

I argue that Christianity is a worldview because a worldview is a way of explaining reality, understanding the moral order and the physical order of the world in which we live.  It may be becoming common in Christian vernacular today, but it wasn’t for much of the 20th century.  The concept of seeing Christianity as the explanation of all reality in life was largely lost during the Separatist/Fundamentalist era.

Worldview should never be just a cerebral exercise.  It isn’t simply studying different systems of thought and how they interact and how Christianity interacts with culture and politics; it is understanding the totality of our faith, which is useless knowledge unless it is carried to the human heart.  That’s why in the Centurions Program we teach that people have to be transformed in the process of studying of Christianity, both our doctrines and how our doctrines affect all of life.

Yes, indeed, there is a risk that you lose the focus on God’s holiness when you get so involved in the issues of culture.  That’s why we need to be constantly checking one another as brothers and sisters in Christ.   It’s a very good caution that you have raised, and is one that over the years has thrown a lot of solid believers off course.  Always remember that politics is simply an expression of culture, and that engaging culture is only successful if we do it in the name of, under the authority of, and with the leading of our Sovereign God.

Chuck Colson

Attention Dawn Treader readers.  Chuck Colson, author and founder of Prison Fellowship Ministries and Breakpoint radio and worldview ministry, will be paying a visit to Dawn Treader this Wednesday, March 5th.

What brings Chuck Colson to this little corner of the blogosphere?

I asked Mr. Colson a question related to his new Zondervan book, The Faith.  He will respond to my question and engage with you and me in the comments of that post.

Look for Wednesday's post!  Let's get a good discussion going.

"Holiness doesn't stop with our own condition but carries over into actions that affect the world around us. ... This is why the Church's mission is to make visible God's invisible Kingdom in the world.  Since God lives in the midst of His people, we in turn are called to share in and reveal His loving character to our neighbors.  We are to bring God's holiness to bear in every area of life.  This understanding of holiness has moved Christians through out history to some of the greatest advances in human dignity and freedom"

~ Colson and Fickett, The Faith

I have been thinking about the role of causes lately.  Canadian rockers Nickelback sing about causes in their hit If Everyone Cared.  This song is now being used as background music for causes such as ending .  Then there is the recent African aid trip of George W. Bush and rocker activist Bob Geldof.  Did you read the fascinating exchange between the world's most powerful man and the world's most famous activist in Time magazine?

As I blogged about on the Point, I believe what gives causes traction is a search for meaning.

"I was greeted by the magnificent sight of the Blue Ridge Mountains rising out of the mist, the sun throwing the shadows of the lower peaks against the higher summits, the foliage glistening with dew.  The scene took my breath away.  I was seeing God's magnificent creation as if it were newborn.  There was no explanation for what I was seeing - the intricate details of nature, genuine beauty - apart from a creator God."

~ Charles Colson, pg. 32,

Everyone has a dark night of the soul.  Last year we heard about Mother Teresa's dark night of the soul.  Charles Colson elaborates on his dark night of the soul.  It took place in 2005, my second year as a Centurion.

"Christians must see that the faith is more than a religion or even a relationship with Jesus : the faith is a complete view of the world and humankind's place in it.  Christianity is a worldview that speaks to every area of life and its foundational doctrines define its content.  If we don't know what we believe -- even what Christianity is -- how can we live it and defend it?  Our ignorance is crippling us."

~ Charles  Colson, , p.28

What is Christianity?