1. Recent thinking on worldview discourse
Beyond worldview
Recent thinking on worldview discourse
Ken Dickens

2. Has “worldview” lost its usefulness?

3. Constructed
Revealed

4. Authentic Christian education

5. Authentic Christian education

6. Theology
Education

7. Theology
Worldview
Education

8. Worldview
Bible

9. Biblical
Worldview
Bible

10. Biblical worldview
Redemption
Fall
Creation

11. Evangelical preaching
Biblical worldview
Evangelical preaching
Redemption
Fall

12. Biblical worldview
Christian education
Redemption
Creation

13. Biblical worldview
Christian education
Progress
Creation

14. 19th Century 20th Century 21st Century Development of the concept
German philosophy
Orr & Kuyper
Reformed evangelicals
Reformational philosophers
Evangelicals
Reformed critique

15. Social science disciplines Evangelicals Reformed critique
German philosophy
Orr & Kuyper
Reformed evangelicals
Reformational philosophers
Evangelicals
Reformed critique
German philosophy
Marxism
Social science disciplines
Evangelicals
Reformed critique

16. Worldview critique Goheen & Bartholomew (2008) Bonzo & Stevens (2009)
James Smith (2009)

17. Goheen & Bartholomew (2008)
Living at the crossroads: An introduction to Christian worldview
Intellectualism
Relativism
Biblical replacement
Activism

18. After worldview: Christian Higher Education in postmodern worlds
Bonzo & Stevens
After worldview: Christian Higher Education in postmodern worlds
Tainted with humanism
Holy jugglers
Way of life
World & Life vision
Evangelical use
Pierson
Seerveld
Wolters
Olthuis
Walsh (2000)

19. Kuyperian roots – two meanings
Evangelical use
Pierson
Evangelicals and worldview confusion
Kuyperian roots – two meanings
Religious nature of life
Structure & direction
Moral & normative

20. James K A Smith (2009)
Desiring the kingdom: Worship, worldview and cultural formation
I think. Therefore I am. (Descartes)
I worship. Therefore I am. (Christian telos)

21. Social imaginaries rather than worldview
We learn to love and worship through liturgies
Education is more about formation than information

22. Social imaginaries rather than worldview
We learn to love and worship through liturgies
Education is more about formation than information

23. Response to Smith
Kuperian/Naugle worldview appreciated heart commitment
Love and worship involves the cognitive
Pedagogical liturgies are planned out of our beliefs
Special case of teacher education

24. What will fire his Christian imagination?

25. An encounter with Christ

26. But he is already a Christian!
Formation through habitual, communal practices?
A vision for life in the Kingdom
Disclosure of other kingdoms

27. Disclosure of other kingdoms?
Colossians remixed – Walsh & Keesmaat
Everyday theology - Vanhoozer
Knowing Christ today - Willard
The naturalist or Nirvana stories

28. But he is already a Christian!
Biblical philosophy – Three philosophies of life (Kreeft)
Theology of creation – Creation regained (Wolters)
Ethics – The joined up life (Cameron)

29. Recognise that we are narrative formed people

30. Worldview questions rather than a system
How can I live and die happily? (Olthuis)
How do I know what is right and wrong? (Sire)
What’s gone wrong? (Walsh & Middleton)
Who is a good person? (Willard)

31. Worldview is symbolic for the Lordship of Christ over all things (Col

32. The final word from Naugle
As a result, a philosophically sophisticated, God centred conception of a Christian worldview spares believers from naïve fideism, scandalous ant-intellectualism and cultural obscurantism. In turn it imparts to then a cognitive confidence, an apologetic strategy, a cultural relevance, and a sound, spiritual basis for life in the coherent picture of God’s larger story (Naugle, 2002, p. 341).

33. Ken Dickens ken@cen.edu.au