When we say the term a Biblical worldview, do we truly mean a view of the entire world? In other words, does our ‘worldview’ stand up to the test of being more universal than cultural; more global than local?

While in Nicaragua a few years ago, I recall giving a presentation to some Christian leaders and the word ‘worldview’ didn’t translate directly. Instead, my Latin American brothers rendered it, ‘cosmo view’ and in a very real way, that made more sense than what I was trying to convey. Our worldview and in particular a Biblical one, should consist not simply of truths from our own local contexts, but truths that make sense universally. Michael Horton, in his book the Gospel-Driven Life, makes the following comment that is relevant to this discussion:

The gospel is unintelligible to most people today, especially in the West, because their own particular stories are remote from the story of creation, fall, redemption, and consummation that is narrated in the Bible. Our focus is introspective and narrow, confided to our own immediate knowledge, experience, and intuition…

 In cross cultural situations, the stories related to creation, fall, redemption, and restoration (consummation) have much more universal appeal and comprise a more robust worldview than we’d often trust or like to admit. Often our ‘worldview’ discussions remain ‘introspective and narrow’ lacking in the compelling discussions that redemption and restoration offer. A worldview isn’t simply to teach from a certain conservative or acceptably Christian perspective, rather it’s an understanding of reality that transcends cultural norms and in this sense gives us some ground on which to appreciate the international diversity of the church.

In an interconnected, globalizing world, it’s important to keep ‘worldview’ discussions in their proper, more robust place and leave behind some of the discussions that are dependent upon “our own immediate knowledge,” as Horton aptly reminds us. Think of it this way. In a couple months, many of us living in the United States will watch something called the ‘World Series,’ which consists of North American (primarily U.S.) teams playing each other. No other team in the world is invited to participate. Yet, it’s called a ‘world series’. Contrast that with the recent World Cup in South Africa. The comparison is virtually laughable. The World Cup truly gave us a glimpse of the world in which we live in, the context of South Africa provided a backdrop that dripped with themes of reconciliation and our universal hunger for restoration. World leaders paid attention and wealthy countries were on level ground with some poor nations. At some points during the World Cup, we may even have had our stereotypes challenged. At the end of the day, we knew that we were not the only game in town and even more clearly, we understood that we were not always the best team either. In other words, we participated in something bigger than ourselves and that’s important to cherish of any worldview.

-bo