I recently did a class with a few people interested in films and the study of "world views," and this books was part of our study, so I had to read it. The class was a very good way to get me to watch some movies... because I generally have not made time for doing that, especially of late... and I also got to interact with a group of Christian thinking people, four youths and two adults, one of the adults being myself. We would watched the same movies separately at home, read two chapters in the book and then meet together and discuss them both.
One of the young people in the group was the leader of our meet ups. He is a senior, and as part of his senior project he taught the "class." He gave us tests on the materials and selected the films for viewing as well as lead the discussions about them. I got an A + as a grade.. for which I am very pleased. I am also please to have had the opportunity to sit under the instruction of this young man. I would give him an A+ also.
Okay, so back to the book... The Universe Next Door; A Basic Worldview Catalog by James Sire:
From the beginning of my reading the book, I thought something was amiss. It wasn't just me who felt this way, it was the agreement of several members of our group that he said a lot we could not just give blanket agreement to as we read through it. In my opinion, this is not how one should feel about a text book that is TEACHING you something, and yet often when we would meet it would be part of our discussion that something was amiss in the text. We decided from the start we would read it anyhow... work through and discuss the book, and that is what we did.
I will say that the book is informative and challenging. We learned about naturalism, deism, theism, annihilism, Eastern pantheistic monism, postmodernism and existentialism, and I am better at understanding these differing points of viewand suppositions of first cause, purpose of life... ect. It was ism... after ism... after ism, but it was not Catholicism, Mormonism, Buddhism, Hedonism, Atheism, Shamanism, Pantheism, and Judaism. No, this is a book about "philosophy", not "religion." Some philosophies just happen to believe in God.
It was interesting to delve into understanding some of these terms... and to consider the influence of films on people's beliefs as we read through te book or identified chacteristics of the beliefs in characters we saw on film. And to his credit, Sire challenges his readers to consider their own beliefs, or rather, "worldviews.". Used most frequently by Christians to help them understand the world and how other people view the world, .
The concept of a "worldview" seems to be a relatively new idea, one that Sire credits to a man named David Naguel in the forward to this book. As a new concept, Sire himself has revised his own thinking on the subject as well as his definitions in explaining and understanding what a world view is... as well as revised this book, several times as his own understanding of the word evolved into this forth edition.
Over the years I have found myself encountering this concept of having a Christian "worldview," many times. It always makes me uncomfortable as I believe is it a Jesus view, (not a worldview) that we Christians are tohave and to hold. (See: Hebrews 12:2) Colossians 2:8 also comes tomy mind, which says, "Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ." (KJV) The whole notion of a worldview as well as the selling of the concepts to Christians... seems rather bogus to me.
There are several more specific things that I disliked about the book. One is the Reformed Theology (monergism) of Sire himself, evident in the book; evident also in the fellowship he keeps and from where his worldview teaching originates as well. Another is the lofty thinking one must adopt, or even convince themselves they have, in order to understand such an intelligent spectrum of philosophical ideas. (In other word, you almost have to be a "braniac by worldly standards.) The thing I dislike is religious beliefs being coopted into "worldviews," the end result of which is to make every denomination in Christianity, just one of many valid ways (or worldviews) .. the "Christian worldview"... a way in which to view the world.
Christianity however, is a lot like Jesus' kingdom.... John 18:36..." not of this world".
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