Introduction to Christian Living
Trinity International University
© John Stevenson, 2008
Dr. John T. Stevenson
• Family Life
• Academic Life
Dr. John T. Stevenson
• Family Life
• Academic Life
• Professional Life
Dr. John T. Stevenson
•
•
•
•
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Family Life
Academic Life
Professional Life
Spiritual Life
Ministry Life
Dr. John T. Stevenson
http://JohnStevenson.net
JohnStevenson@Bellsouth.net
Group Introductions
• Your name
• Your home church
• What have been the highlights of
your faith journey?
• Where are you in the this stage of
your Christian life?
Syllabus Overview
Introduction to Christian Living
Romans 12:1-2
Therefore I urge you, brethren, by
the mercies of God, to present your
bodies a living and holy sacrifice,
acceptable to God, which is your
spiritual service of worship. 2 And do
not be conformed to this world, but be
transformed by the renewing of your
mind, so that you may prove what the
will of God is, that which is good and
acceptable and perfect.
Stated Negatively Stated Positively
Do not be
conformed to this
world
Be transformed by
the renewing of your
mind
Course Objectives
• Reflect on the value of the mind for a
Christian and what it means to think
Christianly
• Discover and understand what is a world
view
• Define your own personal world view
• Understand what the essential elements
of a biblical Christian world view are
Course Objectives
• Integrate the biblical Christian world view
into all areas of life
• Discern world views in circumstances of
life, especially in popular culture and the
media
• Live the Christian faith
Textbooks
• Phillips, Timothy and Dennis Okholm.
A Family of Faith: An Introduction to
Evangelical Christianity. (Revised
Edition) Grand Rapids, MI: Baker
Books, 2001. Spiritual Disciplines for
the Christian Life. Donald S. Whitney,
NavPress, 1991
• Romanowski, William. Eyes Wide
Open: Looking for God in Popular
Culture. Grand Rapids, MI: Brazos
Press, 2007.
Textbooks
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•
Cornelius Plantinga, Jr. Engaging
God’s World: A Christian Vision of
Faith, Learning and Living.
Eerdmans, 2002.
Student Manual for CM 446R,
EXCEL. Available through
www.tiu.edu/EXCEL/manuals
Course Requirements
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Class Discussion
Assigned Readings
Homework Assignments
Group Project
Applied Learning Paper
Assignments
• Papers normally due at the beginning of
each class session
• Final Paper due one week after Session
Five
– 10 to 12 pages
– Typed & double spaced (APA formatting)
– Can be handed in manually or Emailed
– If it is Emailed, use Word, Wordperfect or pdf
• Attendance Policy
Grades
Homework Questions
50 pts
Class participation
50 pts
Group Project
50 pts
Applied Learning Paper 50 pts
Total Grade
200 pts
Attendance Policy
• Attendance required to all classes
• Group participation counts for 25% of
the final grade
• Missing a single class automatically
lowers up to a final grade by one letter
• Missing more than a single class
results in an “F”
Group Formation
Group 1
Group 2
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Group 3
Calvin Graham
Kelvin Murray
Gregory Willocks
Rosa Duran
Carmen Landa
Rachael Riley
Evil
Death and Dying
Group
Faith and Reason
Topics
Gender roles
Old Age
Progress
Feminism
Individualism
Consumer Culture
Religion and Politics
Racial Integration
Crime and Violence
Justice (economic or criminal)
Victimhood & Personal Responsibility
Individual vs. Community
An Introduction to World View
Paradigms and Perspectives
What is a World View?
A window to the world
The glasses through which we see
Four Basic Questions
• What is real?
Timothy Phillips
&
Sennis Okholm
Page 27
– What is the nature of
ultimate reality?
– Is this universe all
there is?
– Is this physical
universe an illusion?
– Who or what is God?
Four Basic Questions
• What is real?
• Who am I?
Timothy Phillips
&
Sennis Okholm
Page 27
– What does it mean to
be human?
– What is the purpose of
human existence?
– What are we doing
here?
Four Basic Questions
• What is real?
• Who am I?
• What is wrong?
Timothy Phillips
&
Sennis Okholm
Page 27
– What is the origin of
suffering and evil?
– Why do we die?
– What keeps humans
from utopia?
Four Basic Questions
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Timothy Phillips
&
Sennis Okholm
Page 27
What is real?
Who am I?
What is wrong?
What is the solution?
– How does one remedy
this problem?
– How does one attain
“salvation”?
James Sire
• Outlines basic worldviews
that underlie the way we
think
• Traces historically how these
worldviews developed
• Understand ourselves and
others so we can genuinely
communicate
www.home.snu.edu/~HCULBERT/ppt.htm
“A worldview is a set of
presuppositions (or assumptions)
which we hold (consciously or
subconsciously) about the basic
makeup of our world.”
― James W. Sire, The Universe Next
Door (Downers Grove, Ill.:
InterVarsity, 1988), 17.
Most of your
World View lies
under the
surface and is
not immediately
obvious
What a World View Does
One’s worldview determines how
the events and circumstances of
life will be…
• Understood
• Accepted
• Acted upon
Sire’s Seven Questions
• What is prime reality?
• What is the nature of external reality,
the world around us?
• What is a human being?
• What happens at death?
• Why is it possible to know anything?
• How do we know what is right and
wrong?
• What is meaning of human history?
How important are religious
beliefs to one’s world view?
“Theology is not simply a system of
beliefs to be added alongside the
others. Theology is the master
blueprint on which all other
blueprints are mapped”
-- Paul Hiebert, missionary anthropologist
Questions that inform all world
views
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Definition: What is it?
Purpose: Why is it here?
Direction: Where is it going?
Application: What should we
do about it?
Naturalism
Subtitle: The silence of finite space
• Secular Humanism
• God is removed; the
universe was selfactivating
• Human personality is only
an interrelation of chemical
properties
• Values are man-made
“The cosmos
is all that is
and all that
was and all
that ever will
be.”
― Carl Sagan
C.S. Lewis in
his book
Miracles…
Naturalism is selfrefuting because it
is inconsistent
with the validity of
reasoning.
Nihilism
Sire’s subtitle: Zero point
B.F. Skinner
• Extreme pessimism /
skepticism
• Nothing has meaning, value,
significance, dignity or worth
• Human beings are conscious
machines with no ability to
effect their destiny
• Human animal only invents
values
Existentialism
Subtitle: Beyond Nihilism
Jean-Paul
Sartre
• Humanity is central: people
make themselves who they are
• Knowledge is subjective
• No absolute moral values
• History is uncertain and even
unimportant
• Supernatural is brushed aside
Existentialism
Atheistic
Theistic
Existentialism
Subtitle: Beyond Nihilism
Paul Tillich
Even the theistic
version says that
the Bible, though
“religiously true,”
is historically
untrustworthy.
Eastern Pantheism
• Many (if not all) roads lead
to the One
• Ideas are not really
important
• Time is unreal
• History is cyclical
• Desire to enter the
undifferentiated One; in one
sense, each person is God
New Age
Sire’s subtitle: A separate universe
• “Core” experience is
cosmic consciousness
• No personal God; only
a mysterious Force; no
Lord of the Universe
unless it be us
• Borrows heavily from
animism
“May the
force be
with you”
― Yoda
The Circle of Life
Postmodernism
Sire’s subtitle: The vanished horizon
• All stories equally valid
• Focus changes from being to
knowing
• Paradoxically, reality is forever
hidden
• Any story but my own is
oppressive
• Social good = whatever
society takes it to be at the
moment
Postmodernism
Sire’s subtitle: The vanished horizon
• The postmodernist stares blankly at
any claims to truth and shrugs: “Okay
if it works for you.”
• “There are many kinds of truths and
consequently, there is no truth” –
Nietzsche
• Instead of “the truth shall make you
free,” postmodernism claims that
“freedom shall make you true.”
Wayne Stayskal, Tampa Tribune
Postmodernists and Truth
• “Truth is what one’s peers let one get
away with” -- Richard Rorty
• “Postmodern ethics inevitably slides in
the direction of nihilism, holding that
since nothing is really true, nothing is
necessarily good” -- Gerard Reed
“Reality is that
which, when you
stop believing in it,
doesn’t go away.”
- Philip Dick (19281982)
Deism
Sire’s subtitle: The clockwork universe
• God
– Is Distant
• an intellect to be recognized
• not a person to be worshipped
– Is an architect, not a lover or
a judge
• The Cosmos is not fallen or
abnormal
Voltaire
The Cosmos in Deism
• A closed, linear, cause and
effect system
• A clockwork universe that
God allowed to run on its
own
• God, as the first cause,
never intervenes
• Miracles do not happen
Voltaire
Christian Theism
Sire’s subtitle: A world charged with the
grandeur of God
Knowledge, death, reality, ethics,
history, and the realness of human
beings are all focused on God.
Matthew 6:24
No one can serve two masters;
for either he will hate the one and love
the other, or he will be devoted to one
and despise the other. You cannot
serve God and wealth.
How is one’s world view impacted
if he attempts to serve two
masters?
What is the
impact of
taking a
“double vision”
approach to
life?