Personal and Christian Worldview Inventory Order Instructions: Personal Worldview Inventory
View Rubric Details: Write an 800-1,000-word essay on your personal worldview. Briefly discuss the various possible meanings of the term “spirituality,” and your understanding of the concepts of pluralism, scientism, and postmodernism. Primarily, address the following seven basic worldview questions:
1. What is prime reality?
2. What is the nature of the world around us?
3. What is a human being?
4. What happens to a person at death?
5. Why is it possible to know anything at all?
6. How do we know what is right or wrong?
7. What is the meaning of human history?
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Personal and Christian Worldview Inventory Sample Answer
Introduction
Most great philosophers have optimized that many people do not have anything approaching an articulate philosophy. Even fewer have a philosophy that is constructed carefully. However, almost every person has a worldview. One may then wonder what the actual meaning of this worldview that affects us is. James Sire in his book In The Universe Next Door defines worldview as a commitment and a framework of attitudes and ideas about ourselves, the world, and life (Hicks and Rasor, 2012). In other words, a worldview refers to a set of beliefs that human beings hold to and live by. It is valuable for people to discover their own worldviews. Actually, it is an important step toward self-understanding, self-awareness, and self-knowledge.
- What is prime reality?
This question tries to find out what is really true and real. For most people, the prime reality represents God, the gods that some belief in, and the material universe or cosmos that surrounds them (Moorman, 2015). This question generates several other worldview questions. For instance, Can we prove that God exists? What are God’s characteristics, and what relationship does He hold with the universe? What is God’s role in history? Was the universe created by God or it has always been in existence? People find the answers to these questions depending on their background experiences, practical applications, the attitudes and values they have developed. Our answers to this question are most fundamental because they set the boundaries for answers that can be given to the other six questions consistently.
- What is the nature of the world around us?
Here people’s answers are directed towards whether they as autonomous or created, orderly or chaotic, as a spirit or matter, whether the world is the objective part of human beings or whether man emphasizes his subjective and personal relationship on it.
- What is a human being?
A human being is usually defined as a sleeping god, a highly sophisticated and complex machine, made from the image of God. Human beings have the ability to utilize systems of symbolic communication for the exchange of ideas and self-expression. They also have the ability to create complex social structures made up of several competing and cooperating groups from family kinships to political states. They are the only existing species that can build a fire and eat cooked food, they are also the only extant species that clothe themselves and create the use of several other arts and technology.
- What happens to a person at death?
The common belief is that after death, there is a personal transformation to a higher state, extinction, reincarnation, existence in a shadowy state on the other side of life. The religion has tried to find the best answer to this question but still, there is much that remains held in the misery of God that needs simple faith. The traditional Christian view is that is that individuals who believe will share external joy in heaven with God whereas those who do not accept God’s love will perish in endless separation from God.
- Why is it possible to know anything at all?
According to Baggett and Baggett, human beings are made in the image of God. One of God’s attributes is that He is omnipotent, that is, He is all-knowing (Baggett and Baggett, 2013). Therefore, human beings also have the urge of knowing almost everything surrounding them. The man has also developed rationality and consciousness and his survival contingencies in the long evolutionary process.
- How do we know what is right or wrong?
According to the Bible, man is made in the same image of God. God has a good-loving character, therefore; a man to live up to the expectations that he should do what is right. This he develops due to conscious and the notions that he develops toward his culture and physical survival.
- What is the meaning of human history?
The man answers this question as to determine God’s purposes or even the expectations of the gods he believes in. The history involves making earth the happiest place; a paradise and to prepare other people to live in a community full of love, joy, and holy God.
It is however of prime importance to note that these questions and answers indicate the various ways the intellectual commitments are worked out in people’s lives. They appreciate the significance of viewing one’s worldview in the context of the varying worldviews; individual ends up having his or her view on reality.
Personal and Christian Worldview Inventory Conclusion
The various worldviews result in the emergence of other issues. For instance, are human beings free or determined? Is God impersonal or personal? Who is in charge of this world? Obviously, these questions boggle the mind. A man should, therefore, realize that he lives in a pluralistic world where he should understand that he has a lot to learn about living in today’s world. Worldviews are fundamental whether human beings realize it or not. They provide a foundation upon which the moral values and corresponding actions are based (Forrest, 2015). When one has more than one plausible interpretation, he/she always interpret in a manner that is consistent with how they see the world.
Personal and Christian Worldview Inventory References
Hicks, J. C., & Rasor, P. (2012). Analyzing the Christian Worldview: Why Christianity is the Only Reasonable, Logical, and the Factual Answer for Life.
Baggett, D., & Baggett, M. (2013). Epistemic humility: Engaging a Christian worldview. Christian Teachers Journal, 21(2), 28.
Moorman, S. (2015). Nursing from a Christian Worldview: Being Transformed to Care. Journal of Christian Nursing, 32(1), E1-E7.
Forrest, J. N. (2015). Evaluating Worldviews.
