A Class on Western Worldview
For the 2nd semester at Good News Seminary and Bible College, I will be teaching a class on Western Worldview. We have selected the textbook by Glenn S. Sunshine titled “Why You Think the Way You Do: The story of Western Worldviews from Rome to Home”. I would like to pass on to those students taking this class some insights to what you will receive in this course.
American Culture is at a Crossroads
Our author starts by informing us that our American culture is at a crossroads. The Judeo-Christian foundations of the society are facing an unprecedented assault from within, both through the crisis of truth in postmodernism and the assault on religion of the “new atheists”, and from without, with the rise of Islamofasism and the growing demographic power of Muslim immigrant communities in Europe. Each of these is a clash of worldviews, a conflict over the fundamental ideas we have about the world and how we fit in it, and all of them are aimed squarely at the biblical worldview that helped frame Western culture. The author offers the church a sorely needed corrective to much of the pop theology that characterizes American Christianity. He also demonstrates that biblical ideas left their stamp on economics, politics, science, education, and in fact, on the entire course of Western civilization for the past 1700 years.
An Unabashed Defense
Students will learn this course is an unabashed defense of the power of biblical ideas to shape culture and of a Christianity that unites heart and mind to bring the gospel of the Kingdom boldly into all areas of human life. Students will become aware that this course is not a formal history of religion, though since worldviews deal with foundational questions about existence, morality, and purpose, religion naturally enters the discussion. As a result, religion is essential to understanding worldviews. I highly recommend this course, which will be well taught and delivered in a style accessible to the laity. It is a powerful and winsome apologetic for the Christian faith.
“God be the Glory”,
Dr. Eddie Hare, Jr.
Academic Dean
