Welcome! What follows is our current, though still developing, outline for this short course in

Worldviews and Christians 

The guiding question is, “How should a Christian respond to other worldviews?”

By dealing frankly with these challenges in a supportive environment we hope to

• remove fear of engagement with people who think, worship, and live differently;
• think more deeply about our own faith and how it compares to other ways of thinking;
• enable students to confidently interact with those who believe differently in a way that is loving and reflects the light of Christ in a world with too much darkness.

As we pursue this question, our primary goals in the course are to:

1. love God more
2. love our neighbors better

These goals lead us to reject ridicule or stock rebuttals for those who believe differently than we do. Instead, we will read credible, attractive arguments for non-Christian worldviews. Believing that all truth is God’s truth, we will seek to find what is good within them, as well as to genuinely understand where they conflict with God’s word. We take as fundamental assumptions that God’s word is complete in its guidance for us, that seeing alternative worldviews will help us to love Him more, and that loving our neighbors requires more empathy than condemnation. Luke (Acts 19) tells us of Paul, demonstrating compassion for the Greeks, by studying their culture and situating the living God within it so they could see the gospel as truly Good News.

A comprehensive look at these topics would take more than a lifetime. In four weeks we can only sample a few different lines of thinking and a pattern of exploring such issues with compassion, confidence and scripture. These are the four we have chosen:

I. WORLDVIEWS

We will

• read arguments and analyzes other artifacts presenting a variety of worldviews
• analyze these artifacts to uncover implicit worldview;
• discuss the truth in their arguments as well as where they conflict with a Christian worldview;
• look to the Bible for examples of Christ interacting with a variety of worldviews;
• go on a walking tour of downtown Asheville;
• lunch at the Mellow Mushroom

II. (OTHER) BELIEVERS

We will

• read creation myths from multiple cultures; 
• read excerpts from Buddhist, Confucian, and Hindu teachings;
• analyze the artifacts to uncover implicit worldview;
• discuss the truth in these artifacts and contrast them with a Christian worldview;
• look to the Bible for how God asks us to relate to people of other faiths;
• tentative: visit the Hindu temple in Clyde;
• lunch

III. SCIENCE

We will

• read arguments for science as the answer to the problem of religion; 
• read arguments for science as the best way to know;
• read about evolution as god and the evolution of dogs; 
• read creationist challenges as a scientific challenge to (unwitting) faith in Evolution;
• analyze the artifacts to uncover implicit worldview;
• discuss and contrast the purposes and means of faith and science;
• look to the Bible for God’s attitude toward exploring and understanding His world and caring for each other;
• go somewhere fun;
• lunch

IV. THE CHURCH

We will

• read statements of faith from a variety of denominations and from faiths which see themselves as Christian but aren’t biblical; 
• read letters explaining reasons for a church split; 
• read lyrics to worship songs; 
• read systematic theology (Grudem) on a holy, united church as well as essentials and non-essentials;
• analyze the artifacts to uncover implicit worldview, especially the marshaling of evidence for pursuing God’s will;
• discuss scripture in which Christ warns us of churches being a mix of genuine and false believers, and of Christ’s attitude toward blasphemers in the body;
• go somewhere fun;
• lunch

This framework will most certainly change as we identify more of the actual readings, but the pattern (i.e. What do they say? What does that imply? What’s true about that? What does God say about that?) and the emphasis (know what you believe and love others) should remain.

I’m keenly aware of how much is getting left out. My hope is that after walking through these four short weeks, students will be better prepared to evaluate whichever worldview confronts them next without fear, with love, and with a framework for evaluation from a Christian worldview.