we often speak of “worldviews” in many contexts of our teaching.  It may be that your student has come home and talked about discussing “this or that worldview” in class.  As much as we talk about it, there are still many that don’t quite understand what a worldview is, or may have great difficulty identifying what worldview they hold, or even if they hold a worldview.

To put it simply, a worldview is the guide that each of us uses to categorize knowledge and thoughts in order for them to make sense.  Just like the architectural drawings for a building guide the craftsmen where to put each block, piece of wood, and fixture, our worldview gives boundaries and specifications for how we handle thoughts that we encounter day in and day out.  Every time we come in contact with new information, our minds automatically filter it through what we already hold to be true (our worldview) to see if it fits all the criteria to be true and useful.  If it is, we add it to our “truth” structure to be later used to help us determine the status of other information we encounter.  If, as it runs through the filter, it is deemed false, it is discarded or at least disregarded for further consideration or influence in our thinking.

This is the way we have functioned from our beginning.  For example, at some point, someone, most likely a parent, told us a color we were looking at was blue.  This was a simple statement that we accepted at face value essentially because we trusted the person who was giving us this information.  From that point on, every time we encountered something that was the same color, we declared it to be blue as well and added it to our base of true knowledge.   We didn’t need someone to tell us what blue was again, because we had already accepted the truth about that color.

Some of our knowledge is much more complex and important than what colors are, so we need to have some basic guide to analyze, classify, and validate it.  Such complex knowledge requires a complex worldview that oversees how we manage and use the information.  Usually these worldviews involve some sort of metanarrative, or “big story” that defines much of the way we approach things.  All worldviews deal with some big and important questions like, Who am I?, Why am I here?, What is wrong?, and What can be done about it?  As such, everyone operates within the scope of some worldview, whether they are aware of it or not.  None of us can function without one.

The more important question is: “What is our worldview?”  Thinking deeply and examining what guides the way we process thought and how we live helps to uncover the worldview that we are operating with.  Many don’t realize the important place worldview has on everything in their lives.

As believers, it is our goal and desire that the Bible become the guide that affects all we think and do.  We want our “building” to be designed by the One who made us, understands us better than we do ourselves, and knows everything that is true and right.  We accept what He says is true, just as we accepted what someone told us about the color blue.  Thus we work to develop a Biblical Worldview.  The Bible’s metanarrative is that God created everything out of nothing for His glory, that Man fell into a sinful state so that all are affected by sin, but that God in His infinite grace has provided the solution for Man’s sin through the sacrifice of Jesus upon the cross.  All other knowledge is filtered through this story and the other truths that are taught in God’s Word.  The more we know and comprehend the Word of God, the more it will bring our other thoughts and actions in line with the way God views the world.  He is the Master Architect and His design is good.  It is our desire to bring everything into submission to that Divine plan.