Missions Textbook 26 Worldviews

We Never Saw It Coming: An Introduction to Christian Missions (textbook)

Every culture makes fundamental assumptions about reality. These assumptions form the worldview of that culture, and these assumptions are seldom questioned by the people of that culture. The worldview takes both philosophical and cultural forms. The philosophical form encompasses things about God, Man, and Nature. The cultural form deals with things about daily life. The cultural form is grounded in the philosophical form.

For instance, Buddhism assumes multiple gods, and their daily lives are “influenced” by various gods. Man is a higher form of animal and can reincarnate up or down. Nature is alive and can reincarnate upwards. These are all assumptions, never questioned, and they impact every aspect of the beliefs, values and behaviors of Buddhist culture: education, women, health, elephants, gnats, food, cars. Nothing exists apart from the all-encompassing worldview (assumptions).

The worldviews are Beliefs held in common – things that are true or false. The Beliefs support the cultures’ Values, things that are good or bad. The Values support the Behavioral actions.

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LAYERS

VISIBLE: Behavior - What is done?

INVISIBLE: Values - What is good (and bad) or best (and worst)?

INVISIBLE: Beliefs - What is true (or false)?

CORE FOUNDATION: Philosophical & Cultural Assumptions

The Philosophical Worldviews fall into four broad categories

The Theocentric worldview assumes that an all-powerful, all-knowing God exists apart from humanity. Judaism, Christianity and Islam believe that God is the Creator and Lord over all of creation, and that humanity is God’s delegated lord over creation. However, Islam differs significantly from the other two on the value of men versus women. Islam is riddled with animism, and this affects all of its beliefs, values and behaviors.

The Spiritistic or Animistic worldview places supernatural gods within nature, thus influencing all of nature and humanity, but these gods are quite limited in power and knowledge, and the gods never have a positive relationship with humans. The gods and nature keep people in constant fear of the unpredictable and unexplainable actions of nature and the gods. Humans believe that the gods directly influence and change nature, and morality is of secondary importance, if at all. There is a lot of overlap between the Spiritistic and Mystical worldviews.

The Mystical worldview is almost a subset of the Spiritistic or Animistic worldview and removes the gods to a distant semi-non-existence, and it places nature in the position as the mother of humanity, thus requiring that humans submit to nature. Mankind and Nature are “one.” Taking care of the grasshoppers is just as important as taking care of human babies. Some parts of this worldview see the spiritual world as “real,” but the material world as an illusion. Logic and science lose out to magic. Nirvana of the Buddhists, Brahman of the Hindus and Christian Science fall into this category.

The Mechanistic worldview comes the closest to equating Man with the gods, thus placing Nature under man’s arbitrary dominion for man’s own benefit, regardless of any damage done to Nature. So-called rationalism and naturalism reject anything outside the natural universe. A person’s own experience becomes the ultimate criteria for meaning, truth, and guidance through this physical life. There is no future life. Magic and psychology rule the day. Taken to its logical result, this worldview results in Nihilism, which subjects life to chance and fate, thus devaluing the meaning of human existence into uselessness and senselessness. Some have titled the current model of this worldview as postmodernism, but that title of an “assumed” era has gone out of vogue over twenty years ago. Judges 21:25 makes it clear that the world has always been plagued with this form of this worldview. “In those days there was no king in Israel; everyone did what was right in his own eyes.”

Take for instance the place of animals in society. The Theocentric worldview holds the belief that humans are more valuable than nature. This places more value on hospitals than veterinary clinics, on laws protecting humans rather than animal rights, and on the right to keep animals as pets or hunt them instead of worshipping them. In the midst of a flood, a person with a Theocentric worldview will first rescue the humans in distress, even at a cost to himself. On the other hand, the person with a Spiritistic worldview worships elephants or cows. Rescue the elephants or cows first. The person with a Mystical worldview can’t decide which to save first in a catastrophe, humans or animals. And the person with a Mechanistic worldview saves himself and his bank account, because everything else has no personal meaning.

Every worldview treats the place of men and women differently in society. The Theocentric worldview holds the Belief that both men and women are created equal, and should be treated as such in society. The Spiritistic and Mystical worldviews (and Islam) place men above women, who are treated as property. Women’s education becomes superfluous, if not blatantly forbidden. And the Mechanistic worldview makes everything equally without meaning.

The goal of the missionary is to contextualize (See the article on Contextualization) the Gospel to speak to a person’s worldview. Then let the Holy Spirit do the rest. The absolutely best way to discover another person’s worldview is to learn that person’s language as thoroughly as possible.

While learning the language, the missionary should find some answers to each of the following questions. Every worldview attempts to answer these foundational questions. The answers will reveal underlying assumptions (world view) of that culture. They will give the missionary the key to making the Gospel relevant to that particular culture.

1. What is Prime Reality? Inner-most circle: God, gods, spirits, matter, illusion

2. Who is Man? Created being or an advanced protoplasm (evolution) or just a bunch of atoms

3. What happens to man at death? Transformation or reincarnation or extinction or resurrection

4. What is the basis of morality? God’s character or social good or cultural & economic survival or physical survival

5. What is the meaning of Human History? God’s plan or cycles or chance

To discover a culture’s worldview, the missionary needs to observe how the people function (Behavior) in specific situations in their lives and attempt to find answers to the following questions.

1. How do parents teach their children to behave?

2. What do people regard as major offences (sins)? What are the consequences?

3. What do people do in a crisis?

4. What rituals do people perform? At birth? At puberty? At birthdays? At weddings? At funerals? When they sneeze?

5. Who are the gatekeepers and trendsetters? The Fathers? Grandmothers? Witch doctors? Prophets?

6. What are the greatest fears that the people have? How do they handle them?

7. What are considered to be words of wisdom? Who said them?

8. What is expressed in the art forms of the people? Who created them?

9. What aspects of the culture are most resistant to change?

We Never Saw It Coming: An Introduction to Christian Missions (textbook)

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