The American Christian Worldview

The American Christian Worldview

All across the United States Christians are talking about this term called Worldview. What is it anyway? Many times, we release our guard and end up allowing society to change our thinking into what the rest of the “popular culture” thinks of our very being. As Christians, we should be giving scriptural backup for whatever conclusions one makes about this culture.

Every society has a culture. Each culture has a different method of thinking. One of the major issues each culture eventually deals with is their basic theology. If I were to ask someone who God was, the answer would vary depending on which part of the country I was in. This is where the development of worldview begins. People within that culture begin to migrate towards those who have the same beliefs in fellowship. Those people who have the same beliefs begin to form a culture. After a culture is formed, cultural studies begin taking form. In a religious community, the members of that community begin to form a standard of ethics to live by. After the individuals form a religious community, start a culture that culture begins to do cultural studies. Those cultural studies are a basis for the individuals to set boundaries of accepted ways to produce or consume culture in their community. The next step in this process deals with aesthetics. Aesthetics are the ways in which the culture communicates their beliefs and values. After all these concepts have taken their course, the individual has developed a worldview.

Starting back at the very beginning of this process is the most dangerous aspect of this entire process we follow to gain a worldview. In today’s society there is a variety of versions of “God.” Depending on which God you believe in, your community and culture could be very far fetched from what the truth is. The overlying theme behind every formation that coincides with any worldview can be asked in one question. What is the purpose of my life? As Christians, we should be involved in society’s version of “popular culture.” We are called in the Bible to be the salt of the world, as the salt we shouldn’t be merely consuming the culture in which we live in, we should be part of it, adding everything we can.