September 2016

Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat
        1 2 3
4 5 6 7 8 9 10
11 12 13 14 15 16 17
18 19 20 21 22 23 24
25 26 27 28 29 30  

Subscribe

« Challenge Response: When Did You Choose Your Heterosexuality? | Main | Our Worldviews Influence the Way We Live »

May 22, 2015

Comments

Did not read the book, but enjoyed reading these posts

Thanks for the feedback, bc307!

I just got the book last week (a surprise present from my wife). I'm still re-reading it. I've got a Bible study Saturday afternoons where a bunch of young people who wanted, back in when they were still teens in youth group, to wrestle with some of these questions and were unimpressed by the hour of games and who's-going-out-with-who social scene they were getting in their youth group. I'm hoping I can communicate some of the wisdom and advice in this book to them.

Actually, the end of the book was the "worst" part. It didn't feel "done" when I turned the page expecting another chapter of putting her worldview critique method into practice and found I'd hit the hundred pages of footnotes instead. I wanted there to be more.

I have a teenager and I was just trying to teach her the opposite premise from this post. I did not read the book. And my situation is probably different. My daughter is caught up in learning all about culture and certain conspiracies. She is Christian but she doesn't know her own faith well enough, she thinks it's important to learn about these things she's learning about.

I used a metaphor that federal agents who are tasked with finding counterfeit money first learn everything about authentic bills. They learn how they look, feel, tear, weigh in their hands, colors bleed, etc. Then, when they encounter a counterfeit bill, they know it or sense it immediately because they know the real thing so well.

I encouraged her to learn about the Bible, Jesus, our beliefs and worldview so well that when she faced something counterfeit in the culture, it would not "feel right." She might not know why immediately, but she could then learn why. I taught her to focus on what is true, right, noble, pure...

I, on the other hand, am working on learning these different worldviews. So perhaps it is a matter of maturity in the faith. I guess I take issue with Nancy Pearcy's assertion that "a better strategy is to learn the skills to critically evaluate" other worldviews. I think the Bible admonition is wise. I think Christians can be susceptible to other worldviews if they are not well grounded in their basic theology.

Natasha, I think being able to evaluate other worldviews (at least, using Pearcey's method) entails understanding what Christianity is and where it's different from them, so I don't think she would disagree with you.

Natasha,

I agree with you that if a Christian does not know her own worldview very well, it doesn't make much sense (and can be damaging) to dive into other worldviews. One way to help a Christian see that they need to have a deeper knowledge of their own faith would be to challenge them. Role play the skeptic or challenge a theological point. If they see that they are incapable of defending or articulating a position from their worldview this may help them realize their need. But it's not just a knowledge of apologetics that is needed, but of theology. Apologetics is, for the Christian, a defense of the faith and that faith is defined in terms of theology. So theology is the more basic need.

Maybe you could look at some introductions to Systematic Theology and see what they say about the importance of theology. For instance, Grudem addresses the issue in chapter 1 of his ST. Michael Horton has a section on "Why Theology?" in the introduction ("The Dogma is the Drama") of his ST, The Christian Faith. And I'm sure you can find others.

I do plan to read Nancy Pearcy's book. I just felt compelled to respond in light of my oh-so-recent conversation with my daughter. Thank you for your responses, Amy and The Janitor.

Oh, and I will put Michael Horton's book on my list too. Thanks for the suggestion.

Please do another book! I missed this one but would like to see how the process works. How about Kevin DeYoung's new book, What Does the Bible Really Teach About Homosexuality?

I'm almost finished with the book and loved it as well as Amy's input on the blog. Good job Amy.
In-fact, It was very thought provoking, so much so that I am looking forward to reading it again to ponder more of the ideas and to take notes.
Also, interesting comments from readers and observers.
Please do another book study soon. Thank you.

Thanks for the feedback, Meg and Richie!

I had read the book earlier and enjoyed following the discussion.

Thanks for doing this!

The comments to this entry are closed.