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
I sense that the term "worldview" has become cliche, and that its use as a descriptor for Christianity has become, for many non-Christians, representative of how Christians want to force people into seeing the world through a politically conservative lens. What can Christians do to counter that trend in a way that doesn't come across as disingenuous?
Posted by: Steve Clarke | March 05, 2008 at 11:53
I'm not so sure the term worldview has been stripped of all but its political meaning. It seems to me the people I encounter who use the term are those most heavily involved in so-called liberal causes like social justice. When someone who works to end discriminatory mandatory sentencing laws or teaches refugees English or feeds foster families at Thanksgiving speaks of worldview, who would accuse them of simply pushing a conservative political agenda?
BTW, it's funny you used the word disingenuous. I used it in an e-mail to a misbehaving blogger just this morning.
Posted by: Jason Clarke | March 05, 2008 at 13:20
"How do you recommend we keep 'worldview' from becoming just another cerebral exercise?"
One way would be to recall that the term a borrowed one. The original term in the German (Weltanschauung) is properly translated fully as "world-and-life view," and that "worldview" is just shorthand for that somewhat larger and more vibrant concept.
Posted by: Jordan | March 05, 2008 at 14:40
I don't disagree with Mr. Colson's remarks but would just caution that worldview, like all methods of categorizing concepts, can be dangerous if one overgeneralizes. For instance, I wouldn't call Christianity a worldview. It's a family of related worldviews, and there may be significant differences between the worldviews of, say, a Presbyterian engineer, a Roman Catholic musician, and a Mennonite Physicist.
Posted by: Nick | March 05, 2008 at 14:47
Jason, you may be right, but I'm not sure that evidence that "worldview" is used more for politically liberal causes should give us much cheer, either. In the end, the result is that the Christian worldview gets equated with how a Christian should think politically. I'm not sure that's a good thing.
It seems that Christians like to call our faith a worldview because doing so allows us to demonstrate how our faith influences all of life, not just the hour we spend in the pew on Sunday morning or the Bible study we go to every Wednesday night. But in doing so, we may wind up emphasizing those things that are the fruits of living out our faith, rather than our faith itself. How can we emphasize that at the core of the Christian worldview is the gospel of Jesus Christ?
Posted by: Steve Clarke | March 05, 2008 at 14:50
“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.”
Amen! I am bothered a bit by those who try to hijack the term and limit it to developing pigeonholes for schools of thought. Becoming a Centurion morphed my “view of worldview” from philosophy to seeing it as part of our sanctification. Followers of Christ are to have their minds and hearts renewed by the word and the work of the Holy Spirit in the process of becoming holy (Rom 12). This is the work of worldview. This is not a passive process, either. 1 Peter 1:13 reminds us to “prepare our minds for action.” This is why Chuck's chapter on "Be Holy - Transform The World" was so spot on, in my opinion. It connected the dots nicely.
The trap I initially fell into when studying worldviews was simply focusing on the philosophical side of things. I invested too much into learning how to properly categorize views, and how to compare and contrast them. I lost sight of the idea of teaching worldview thinking as part of discipleship and growing in grace. It is learning to see things from God's perspective as revealed in Scripture. Centurions helped in that regard.
I share the concern of others here that the term worldview is in danger of being hijacked due to overuse. I am concerned more about how Christians misuse the term than non-Christians, to be honest.
Posted by: Mr. Dawntreader | March 05, 2008 at 15:22
A follow-up question for Mr. Colson if he gets a chance to read this far:
You said: "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."
Do you know of an example of how Christians have lost their focus and become over engaged in culture without connecting it to God's holiness? How were they called back?
Posted by: Mr. Dawntreader | March 05, 2008 at 15:31
Indeed, related to that, one thing I battle with is the issue of Christianity and politics. It seems that most, if not all, who attempt to engage the society through politics get trapped and sucked into a different world -- far removed from Christianity. I wonder if it is possible to engage the culture via the political machine at all -- without being destroyed by it (or at least having your Christianity destroyed).
Posted by: Ogre | March 11, 2008 at 14:36