World-views
SourceWorld-view – making clear our own world-view
To be developed.
“Certitude divides and diversity unifies…..We have to elevate religion above politics…..”
H.R.H. Prince El-Hassan Bin Talal of Jordan BBC Newsnight 9th Feb 2006
“The world presents itself in two ways to me. The world as a thing I own, the world as a mystery I face. What I own is a trifle, what I face is sublime. I am careful not to waste what I own; I must learn not to miss what I face. We manipulate what is available on the surface of the world; we must also stand in awe before the mystery of the world. We objectify Being but we also are present at Being in wonder, in radical amazement.” A. J Heschel
In this section I intend to do two things. Firstly I will make clear my own world-view as it now is. Secondly I will make clear those questions that need to be asked and answered in consciously holding a world-view.
In this process I hope to also identify some of the excesses, and some of the inadequacies that cause so much suffering and grief.
Understanding our own (developing) world view is vital.
It is essential to self-understanding – and to avoiding self-deception.
It includes our our sense of the whole/Whole – the cosmology, and theology.
It includes what we attribute to the culture in which we have grown up and what we attribute to our essential nature – and what is meant by ‘reality’.
Our philosophy – and our behaviour in the world – rests upon, and is shaped by, our world-view.
For the time being the following chart is helpful;
Five Worldviews
A very useful discussion is to be found at SEE http://www.xenos.org/classes/papers/5wldview.htm
They say;
It sometimes seems as if there are more philosophical and religious views than any normal person could ever learn about. Indeed, there are more than six thousand distinct religions in the world today. However, some people are surprised to find that the world’s religions and philosophies tend to break down into a few major categories. These five world-views include all the dominant outlooks in the world today.
|
REALITY |
MAN |
TRUTH |
VALUES |
Chart is adapted from Christianity: The Faith That Makes Sense by Dennis McCallum (Tyndale).
