To purchase the entire Summit Lecture Series, Vol. 1 on DVD, go to: www.summit.org
As Nancy Pearcy says in her book Total Truth, “A Worldview is not the same thing as a formal philosophy; otherwise, it would be only for professional philosophers. Even ordinary people have a set of convictions about how reality functions and how they should live…”
Some ideas are just simple, non-life affecting ideas while others are controlling ideas. For instance, if I say, “I believe in God,” this idea acts as a controlling foundation and permeates through every other belief and decision I make.
A worldview is a set of convictions about reality, about how we should live and other fundamental issues upon which we think and behave.
In other words, a worldview is the framework of basic beliefs we have (whether we know it or not) that shapes our view of the world (description) and for the world (prescription).
We base our worldview on a few fundamental questions:
Where did everything come from (origin)?
What does it mean to be human (identity)?
What is the purpose of life (meaning)?
What is right and wrong (morality)?
What happens when I die (destiny)?
How we answer these five questions gives us a sense of who we are. They act as individualized ideological glasses through which we see the world around us.
Your values are based upon your worldview and your actions stem from your values. Therefore, we need to make sure that our values are rooted in truth so that our actions do not change when our environments change.
It all boils down to four truths:
1. Everyone has a worldview.
2. Most people do not think “worldviewishly”.
3. Every cultural expression communicates worldview ideas.
4. We need to be intentional to think at the same level of worldviews.
You see, everyone has a worldview. You either intentionally hone yours, or you let the influence of others dictate it for you.