Worldview

"Worldview" comes from the German word "Weltanschauung." Postmodernism has promoted this notion as way of discerning one's bias. A worldview is basically the way someone approaches reality or the presuppositions one has about reality. For instance, a secular worldview begins with the presupposition that there is no God or that if there is, His presence ought not to be allowed into public discourse. An ecological worldview sees all things through the question of "What is good for the earth?"

How do confessional Lutherans approach this matter? One could say that we have a Scriptural worldview. For instance, we believe there is a God, that he created all things, that the world will be destroyed one day, that meaning in life is derived from confession and absolution, etc. It is probably best that we as Christians not succumb to the use of this term however. As noted above, it grows out of the postmodern approach to the world which assumes that everyone has a different interpretation on reality. That is not true. There are no competing views of the world. People may have different views and it may affect what they think is true, but in the end there is only the world and us. Instead of speaking of a Christian worldview, we need to hold everyone accountable for properly perceiving the world and drawing true conclusions about that experience outside of a worldview. The average human being is equipped with the same sense perceptions. If someone is "viewing" the world wrongly, we determine that they have physical problems with their sensing ability or if it is due to delusions then we say they are crazy. There is no need for us as confessional Christians to succumb to the notion that we have a world view. The world is there for everyone to sense. Of course, our wills have been blinded by sin and so there can be wrong conclusions drawn about the world based on sin. That is why we do not let any of our conclusions of reason contradict what we learn from Holy Scripture. Accurate sensation guided by Scripture leads to objective truth about the world and not someone's presuppositions or "worldview."

Thanks to Pastor Tim Rossow for this definition.