Christian Worldview

Definition and Meaning

The Christian worldview is a framework of thought for understanding, in the light of Scripture, how the world began, why it has gone wrong, and how it is restored. The term "worldview" means a perspective from which one views the world and translates the German Weltanschauung. The Christian worldview is commonly summarized in three stages: creation, the fall, and redemption (deliverance from sin through the payment of a price). It emphasizes not confining faith to matters within the church but connecting it to the whole of life, including scholarship, vocation, politics, and the arts.

Biblical and Historical Background

Proponents of the concept cite a number of passages in support. Representative examples are Colossians 1:16–17, which states that all things were created by Christ; Romans 12:2, which calls believers to be transformed by the renewing of their minds; and 2 Corinthians 10:5, which speaks of bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ. Genesis 1:28, in which God commands humanity to have dominion over the earth, is known as the cultural mandate and is frequently cited.

The idea was formulated as a distinct concept in the late nineteenth century. The Scottish theologian James Orr presented Christianity as a coherent worldview in the 1890s. The Dutch thinker Abraham Kuyper, in lectures delivered at Princeton in 1898, set forth Calvinism as a system encompassing the whole of life. Kuyper's idea of sphere sovereignty was carried forward in the Reformed philosophy of Herman Dooyeweerd and others, and in the late twentieth century it spread widely within Anglo-American evangelicalism through figures such as Francis Schaeffer.

Practice in the Korean Church

In Korea, worldview study is reported to have spread from around the 1980s, chiefly through Christian faculty and university student fellowships and parachurch mission organizations. Today it is frequently addressed in general education courses at Christian universities, in young adult Bible studies, and in discipleship training materials. It is also invoked as a standard of judgment in discussions of social issues such as creation and evolution and homosexuality and the church.

Emphases differ by denomination and tradition.

• Reformed traditions, including the Presbyterian churches, generally follow Kuyper's framework, which stresses the sovereignty of God, common grace, and cultural transformation.
• Traditions shaped by Wesleyan theology, such as the Methodist and Holiness churches, tend to emphasize personal sanctification as it issues in the practice of social holiness.
• Pentecostal and Full Gospel churches sometimes address the work of the Holy Spirit and spiritual realities as part of worldview discussions.

At the same time, some theologians criticize worldview education for leaning too heavily on intellectual reasoning while neglecting the formation of faith through worship and habit.