Essay On Christian Worldview
According to the definition, worldview refers to the comprehensive understanding of the world from a particular point of view. The Christian worldview appears to be the comprehensive understanding of the world from a Christian point of view, which is reflected in its name. Our worldview is the big picture, the harmony that encompasses all of the world’s notions and concepts, as represented by the image above. A worldview is a way of gaining an understanding of reality. Furthermore, it appears to be extremely important because it serves as the foundation for daily decisions.
In this way, a worldview can be defined as a philosophical system that aims to explain the interconnection and interplay of the facts that permeate the surrounding world and their interactions with one another. In fact, a worldview is similar to a puzzle, with the pieces of which should fit together to form a complete picture of the world. A worldview, in the same way, can be described as a magnifying glass through which we perceive the world. As a result, it is critical for us to understand which of the worldviews that have been imposed on us is correct, because our worldview determines our life concepts, which in turn determine the extent to which we value life.
Similar to how an apple lying on a table can be seen by several people and classified by a biologist, so too can an artist see the beauty of life in an apple and depict that beauty in his or her paintings. A gardener inspects a property and makes an inventory of it. A child will simply look at it and eat it. The way we consider any particular situation is dependent on the way we consider the world as a whole, to put it another way. Every worldview, including the Christian worldview, makes an attempt to provide answers to the following questions: where did we come from and why are we here now.
What is it about this world that is so wrong?
What can people do to make a difference?
Naturalism currently holds the position of dominant worldview, and it responds to these questions in the following ways: we are the result of nature’s random actions, which are devoid of any specific goal; we do not appreciate nature as much as we should; and we have the ability to save this world through environmental protection and safety. The naturalistic worldview gives rise to a slew of philosophical schools that are closely related to one another, including moral relativism, existentialism, pragmatism, and utopianism.
Christian worldview, on the other hand, gives us the answers to these questions based on the Bible: we are God’s creatures, created to rule the world and communicate with him (Genesis 1:27-28; 2:15), we have sinned against God and exposed this world to the curse (Genesis 3), God himself redeemed the world through the death and resurrection of his son Jesus Christ (Genesis 3:15; Luke 19:10), and God will once again restore his creation (Isaiah 65:17-25). We can believe in moral absolutes, wonders, human merit, and the possibility of being redeemed because of our Christian worldview.
When considering this, it is critical to remember that the Christian worldview is all-encompassing. It has an impact on every aspect of one’s life, including finance, morale, politics, and art. True Christianity is more than just a collection of ideas to be used in church services. Christianity as it is depicted in the Bible is a worldview in and of itself. The Bible never makes a distinction between religious life and secular life; there is only one life, and that is the Christian life. Jesus declared himself to be “the way, the truth, and the life,” and as a result, he became the basis of our worldview (John 14:6).
In the Gospels, the teachings of Jesus Christ are reflected for people in the form of descriptions of his actions and wonder-working, as well as in the written scriptures of his adherents, which depict information they received from Jesus himself, prophecies from Heavenly Father, and their own beliefs. In total, these scriptures are more than sufficient, despite the fact that not all of them were included in the Bible’s New Testament.
The Christian religion, in contrast to ancient philosophy, lacks a certain amount of variety. Although it is difficult to say that all Christian adherents share the same world view, Christianity has introduced a single world picture throughout its history. Nonetheless, this cannot be characterised as a negative aspect of the Christian worldview. Christian doctrine is distinct from Christian philosophy, and it would be absurd if Christianity were to alter its long-established foundations.
Indeed, the Christian worldview is the culmination of a long and arduous historical process. However, even if we agree that it had already been included in the Christian holy books, it cannot be denied that it took a significant amount of time and effort to introduce the Christian worldview to the general public and endow it with universal character. Furthermore, the diversity of Christian heresies demonstrates that the Holy Bible allows for the existence of a wide range of interpretations, many of which are contentious, and that, as a result, it cannot be claimed that the Christian worldview derives from its original sources in the same way.
The Old and New Testaments are comprised of the books that make up the Holy Bible. Old Testament books were passed down to Christians through Jewish tradition, while New Testament books were written independently of the Old Testament. The foundational content of the Old Testament depicts the creation of the world as well as the history of the Jewish people and their descendants. The life and teachings of Jesus Christ are the primary topics covered in the New Testament’s content. The Gospel is the most complete depiction of the life and teachings of Jesus Christ available. This was followed by the construction of the New Testament’s structural elements, which took a long and meticulous selection process that was completed only by the end of the 2nd century. Following its formation, the Christian worldview made its presence known through the Symbol of Faith. This is a collection of Christian doctrines that have been declared to be unassailably true and therefore binding on all believers. The Symbol of Faith is comprised of 12 doctrines that were affirmed by the First and Second Ecumenical Councils, as well as by the Council of Trent.
Furthermore, the Christian worldview describes God as not only the creator, but also as the source of all good and blessing in the world. According to Christians, Providence is defined as God’s actions in the world, as well as his interference with those actions. Preserving, controlling, and Helping are the three ways in which God’s providence is manifested to us. God saves his creations to ensure their continued existence in the first case, he directs us toward specific goals in the second case, and he Helps us in doing good in the third case. The first two cases are unique to every living creature, whereas the last case is prescribed to intelligent beings, but not to everyone, and only to those who choose good out of their own free will (see below). The Christian worldview demonstrates that God aids those who choose good and carry it out, while conniving with those who advocate for evil ends. On the whole, without God’s actions, the world would simply be unable to exist, let alone maintain its current state of harmony and balance. Therefore, God appears not only as the starting point of genesis, but also as the starting point of harmony in this world. He is the beginning of everything.
Additionally, the principle of monotheism is introduced by Christian philosophy. Despite having escaped Judaism, Christianity has retained the concept of God’s uniqueness; however, Christian monotheism differs significantly from Jewish monotheism in many ways. God, according to Judaism, is unique and devoid of any limitations. Christianity, on the other hand, depicts God as a triune essence with three faces: the Heavenly Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit (or the Trinity). The Holy Trinity, which is proclaimed to be coessential and inseparable, is formed by the faces of our God when they are joined together. All three faces of God are coessential, which means that they all possess the same divine essence and differ only in their modes of existence: the Heavenly Father is unborn, the Son is born, and the Holy Spirit is emanating. To put it another way, each of the Trinity’s faces has its own existence, but none of them has their own essence, as the phrase goes. The three faces are identical in their essence, and each of them is therefore our God, according to the Bible.
The Trinity’s inseparability signifies that any action taken by God is a unified action involving all three faces of the Godhead. The Father is the source of all actions, which are carried out through the Son, and which are illuminated by the Holy Spirit. Because of this, it is impossible to consider Christian God as if the world’s creator were simply the Father, as some have done. The Son and the Spirit, on the other hand, both contribute to the creation and are constantly inventing something new. The fact that the Trinity’s faces have a personal existence does not imply that they have a separate and independent existence from one another. Contrarily, while people are united in that they share the same human nature, they differ in a great number of other ways: every person has a private and an independent life, as well as a social life. That is why God is one and people are many, whereas God is one and many.
The Gospel demonstrates how Jesus instructs his disciples from a different point of view. Jesus made it clear to them that the Kingdom he had announced was far greater than they could have imagined, and he also demonstrated how their own beliefs were at odds with his own. In the Acts of the Apostles, it appears that when they preached the good news of the resurrected King, they were not preaching about the same King they had imagined at the beginning of Christ’s ministry. In his letter to the Romans, Paul exhorts Christians to reevaluate their worldview and to change it. Similarly to what the Apostle said, the war itself, which absorbed the Romans, was fought on a playground of visual images. Everyone, when considering the Christian worldview, should ask himself whether he is catching any mediation and obedience to Christ, as well as whether his motives are genuine and pure. Then our motivations will not protect us from difficulties, but they will Help us in comprehending the world and understanding why we have genuine optimism for the future. It is critical to believe in Christianity the same way we believe in the sun – not just because it is visible, but because we see everything else in its light (Purtill, 1981, pp. 7-10), as C. S. Lewis once stated.
References
Stahl, F. J. (2022). Philosophical Foundations: Volume II of the Philosophy of Law: The Doctrine of Law and State on the Basis of the Christian Worldview, Book I. WordBridge Publishing.
Purtill, R. L., et al (1981). The Case for Christian Belief, as argued by C.S. Lewis (pp. 7-10). Harper & Row Publishing Company, San Francisco.
Knight, Logan, and Njeri Kagotho. “On Earth and as It Is in Heaven—There Is No Sex Trafficking in Heaven: A Qualitative Study Bringing Christian Church Leaders’ Anti-Trafficking Viewpoints to Trafficking Discourse.” Religions 13, no. 1 (2022): 65.
