Developing a Christian Worldviewfor Africa
To assist African students to see the full implications of their salvation by developing a complete world and life view.
MAT 816
Rev. Emmanuel Kiwanuka, B.A., Religious Studies, M.A.T.S.
WestminsterChristian Institute Uganda, Kampala, Uganda
wtcwtsuganda.org
Tel 256-772.409438
MIAMI INTERNATIONAL SEMINARY
14401 Old Cutler Road Miami, FL 33158
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION
LESSON ONE: THE NATURE AND IMPORTANCE OF A WORLDVIEW
LESSON TWO: MAJOR CONTRASTS IN WORLDVIEWS: WORLDVIEW IN THE AFRICAN CONTEXT
LESSON THREE: DEVELOPING A CHRISTIAN WORLDVIEW
LESSON FOUR: GOD’S SOCIAL ORDER
LESSON FIVE: MAN AND WOMAN—A CHRISTIAN WORLDVIEW OF ROLES AND RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN HUSBANDS AND WIVES IN MARRIAGE
LESSON SIX: A COVENANTAL APPROACH TO THE FAMILY
LESSON SEVEN: CHRISTIAN WORK AND GOD
LESSON EIGHT: THE VALUE OF TEACHING A BIBLICAL WORLDVIEW
BIOGRAPHY
BIBLIOGRAPHY
INSTRUCTOR’S MANUAL
INTRODUCTION
Over the years of my life as a Christian I have wondered why our society has changed so slowly. Missionaries have come to our continent (Africa) and have struggled to get the gospel preached, expecting fast results. Sadly enough, this has not been the case. The missionary finds that he has either raised a church with syncretic beliefs or one totally opposed by the native people. In this process we must remember that true transformation comes as the truth touches people’s hearts. It is the Holy Spirit who revolutionizes people’s perspective on life. The church missionary movement should never give up on disciplining believers. In order to see any real transformation in behavior, there must be a change in worldview. The goal of Christian transformation is not to transplant another culture’s worldview but transforming the culture with a Christian, culture transcending worldview. The need for training people in this new worldviewprompted me to write this course. The church should not be indifferent but rather proactive in training members in what they believe and why they believe it. This course is intended to lay a foundation that equips students to analyze false worldviews for the purpose of discerning what is good, right and holy. This course is focused primarily on the Ugandan church but can also assist the church universal by providing basic a paradigm for developing a worldview.
COURSE CONTENT
The course introduces worldview (Lessons One and Two) and the methods used to create a worldview (Lesson Three). Lessons Four through Seven address the application of a Biblical worldview in an African context. Lesson Eight deals with the value of teaching a Biblical worldview.
COURSE MATERIALS
The students are required to read the lecture notes thoroughly along with the relevant Scriptures. It is advisable that the students use additional Scripture through the use of cross-reference Bible to add richness to their study and make this course as their own by suggesting additional content. Students are also required to read 300 pages from among the following books and articles:
BOOKS:
Adams, J. Solving Marriage Problems
Frame, The Doctrine of the Knowledge of God
Gehman, African Traditional Religions
O. Donovan W, Biblical Christianity in Modern Africa
------,Biblical Christianity in African Perspective
ARTICLES/SITES AND JOURNALS:
;
Libraryjournal.com;
Wolor Topor, “The Concept of God in African Philosophy” (Journal of African Religionsand Philosophy)
Kofi Asare Opuku,West African Traditional Religions
COURSE OBJECTIVES
To develop foundational knowledge on Biblical worldview;
To show that one’s worldview affects how one lives and relates to all spheres of life;
To understand how the gospel can transform culture, not merely import a foreign culture;
To prepare students to be patient in the gradual process of worldview change.
STRUCTURE OF THE COURSE
This course has been organized into eight lessons which cover four major areas: (1) the introduction to worldview (2) methods of creating a worldview; (3) Applied Christian worldview to African context (4) the value of teaching a biblical worldview.
COURSE REQUIREMENTS
1. Participate in sixteen hours of common teaching time;
2. Provide one additional Bible text for each passage contained in this course;
3. Write a short response paper on the 300 hundred pages assigned in class (notmore than seven pages);
4. Choose one topic from the following: use of time, tribalism, extended family dynamics. Write a paper or small group lesson from a biblical perspective that includes the cultural elements that clash/conflict OR conform to the Biblical worldview. It must be seven to ten pages, double spaced at BA level, 10-12 at MA level.
5. Students must read 300 pages at Bachelor level and 600 at Masters Level from the readings below:
Adams, J. Solving Marriage Problems
Frame, The Doctrine of the Knowledge of God
Gehman, African Traditional Religions
O. Donovan W, Biblical Christianity in Modern Africa
------,Biblical Christianity in African Perspective
COURSE EVALUATION
1. Student Participation (15%): One point given for each class hour attended.
2. Student Homework (15%): Two points for completing the questions at the end of each lesson.
3. Student Readings (20%): Students will be given credit for completing the required reading. Response papers will be required for every 100 pages.
4. Term paper / project (30%): See the above Course Requirements section.
5. Student Exam (20%)
BENEFITS OF THIS COURSE
The course will provide training in a Biblical worldview to equip participants to stand for what they believe and be instruments for the transformation of culture. It will provide the basics on how to deal with the prevalent challenges that Christians encounter when they interface with other perspectives. The course will also provide doctrinal and practical application to selected situations.
Lesson One: The Nature and Importance of a Worldview
This lesson will introduce the student to the idea of a worldview: what we mean by a worldview, why we need a worldview, and what happens if we lack a proper worldview.
1. What We Mean by a Worldview[1]
A worldview is the way that we see and interpret and act on the world around us.
Definitions: How do we understand the World?
EXPAND
World:The cosmos, the universe, the created order
View:A perspective, an interpretation, this includes differing views on the same reality. It does also raise some conflicting truth claims. As a case in point,some tribes view the bearing of twins as a misfortune while another tribe views them as double blessing.
Worldview:How one interprets and experiences the meaning of the cosmos or created order. This involves the act of observation and knowledge over against personal experiences.
A worldview is simply the way one perceives the world. It is a system in which we allow information about the world to enter one’s mind and then we interpret that information through that set objects and categories into blocks.
A worldview can be defined as “it is the view which a person has of hisworld. It is the way he understands and interprets the things that happen to him and to other people. It is a person’s way of understanding life and the world in which he lives. It is a person’s belief about what is real and what is not real”[2]
It can also be termed as a philosophical system of beliefs that helps us interpret the world and ourselves. It is a window from which one views the world. It can include among others, assumptions and beliefs that people make concerning the events.
All men have a worldview. Man has an urge in himself trying to make a picture of the universe that he occupies and how it relates to his own involvement in it. A worldview consists of some basic assumptions that are not always accurate due to the sin nature about the world that man occupies. In fact if one has a distorted worldview, it distorts even one’s thinking. The worldview is not divorced from relationships that exist in the world. It is a system by which a given group of people live and operate most of the time by acting unconsciously. This can easily develop into documented valuesystem or not. There are cultures where such systems exist without any formal written literature on ground, but operate on subconscious level. Even so, all men have a system through which they operate and live.
Matt Slick explains:
A world view is a set of presuppositions and beliefs that someone uses to interpret and form opinions about his humanity, purpose in life, duties in the world, responsibilities to family, interpretation of truth, social issues, etc. A Christian should view all these things, and more, guided by the light that is shed upon them by the Bible.
The Bible has much to say about the nature of man, the world, purpose, truth, morality, etc., and so does the world. More often than not, the secular worldview is in conflict with the biblical one. For example: Where the world asserts that man evolved, the Bible says he was created and ultimately responsible to God. Where the world says that morals are relative, the Bible says they are absolute. Where the world says that there is no need of salvation and redemption, the Bible clearly states that all people are in need of deliverance from their sin. The contrast is obvious and profound. Both cannot be true.
The secular world exalts man to the apex of evolutionary development, the sovereign over all he dominates, though only another animal. God is relegated to the belief systems of the uneducated and superstitious. Such opposing views will clash.[3]
1.1. Developinga Biblical Worldview
The very nature of man has a deep rooted need to form some general picture of the world he lives in to enable him relate his daily activities to the whole in a way that makes meaning to them. What we think of man can deeply affect the way we treat others. The way we think of God can deeply affect the way we live and so it is very important to have a Biblical worldview, that is, to view all things through the truth of God’s Holy Word.
Many factors contribute to our worldview including parents, religious institutions, culture and traditions, educational institutions and our personal experiences. These affect what we believe, how we live, and how we interpret reality. While there are many factors that contribute to the development of a biblical worldview, this study will focus on laying down general principles and information that will help the student to decipher what he/she hears and experiences in a biblical way. The moment a worldview is formed, it acts as a tool that would begin to shape and influence what one believes, values and culture of an individual or group of people.
1.2. A World-View will Control how One Interprets and Makes Senseof Information.
In this section we will be able to observe that worldviews have some dominating factor that defines it and gives its uniqueness.
How do we ‘understand’ life?Maybe the question should be ‘How should a Christian think?’ Even though in Africa we have the idea of God at the center of religion, a single-minded focus on one objective truth is generally missing. There isn’t one single object through which reality is established. It is very hard to avoid conflicting beliefs.
In my own tribe, people believe there are numerous spirits in charge of different aspects of the world and experiences. The tribe believes there is a god of rain and tweens (Mukasa), of thunder (Kiwanuka), of hunting (Dungu), and other gods which can be prayed to in order to meet particular needs. People find Catholicism acceptable, with its prayers to particular saints, because Catholicism has little difference with African Traditional Religions as it also involves going through the ancestral spiritsfor aid in certain areas.
A Christian worldview sees all earthly issues within the context of the eternal. We need to relate all human problems, social, political, or cultural,to the foundational doctrines of the Christian faith. A Christian should view all of life in terms of God’s supremacy and earth’s transitoriness.
Harry Blamires says:
To think secularly is to think within a frame of reference bounded by the limits of our life on earth: it is to keep one’s calculations rooted in this-worldly criteria. To think Christianly is to accept all things with the mind as related, directly or indirectly, to man’s eternal destiny as the redeemed and chosen child of God.[4]
If the tenets of Christian theology are correct, the effects of original sin permeate every aspect of human function and experiences, including our thinking; error and self-deception have thus been added to the finitude of our creation as delimiters of human knowledge.[5]
Worldview confusion occurs whenever a reader of Scripture fails to interpret the Bible within the intellectual and broadly cultural framework of the Bible itself and uses instead a foreign frame of reference.
2. Why Do We Need a Worldview?
In the Apostle Paul’s exposé of pagan culture, he warns that the wrath of God is being revealed from heaven now against those who suppress the truth of God in unrighteousness (Rom 1:18-23). This present revelation of divine wrath is evident in the loss of moral absolutes and in the growing spiritual vacuum which is being filled with pagan forms of ‘spirituality’. Man’s view and interpretation of the world has been twisted. The wrath of God being revealed presupposes that there is something wrong with man. He is out of relationship with his maker. It is all because man has disobeyed the rules of the creator. He who creates sets the absolutes and also makes known himself through what he has made. Man rejects this revelation and instead decided to live in sin. Sin is another form of suppressing the truth and living in deception. This creates a worldview that works against the Biblical worldview. Men need a Biblical worldview in order to live a full life for God.
Paul says, “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God”(Rom. 3:23).
“All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction for instruction in righteousness” (II Tim. 3:16).
The sinfulness of men and the promise that all we need flows from the scriptures means that our worldview should be shaped by the very Word of God.
But we have a dilemma to overcome; sin that affected mankind.The good news is Christ died in place of sinners to redeem man and translate him from the kingdom of darkness to the Kingdom of his beloved son. This salvation has greater effects than man could ever think, not only in one’s behavior but also in his whole being and worldview.Let us consider its comprehensiveness
First, the Bible specifically states in Matthew 1:21 that Jesus came to save his own, and John 3:16 states, “For God so loved the world that He gave his only begotten Son that whoever believes in Him will not perish but have everlasting life.” This salvation does not stop with individual human beings who are God’s special people. We will see later that our salvation anticipates the redemption of creation as a whole, the non-human objects. It is all about the Kingdom of God that is being built.
Second, the New Testament begins with the inauguration of the Kingdom. “The Kingdom of God is near, Repent and believe the good news” (Mark 1:15). The Kingdom of God has subjects and objects.The Lord begins by transforming the subjects. He transforms their thinking and perspective on life, that is, their worldview.
Jay Wegter says:
This is why biblical worldview is so desperately needed—it instills boldness in believers. It enables them to step out of ‘privatized Christianity’ and into effective evangelism. Biblical worldview imparts a pervasive confidence that there are biblical answers to every important life question.[6]
Developing a Biblical worldview happens by diligently learning, applying and trusting God’s truths in every area of our lives, we can begin to develop a deep comprehensive faith that will stand against the unrelenting tide of our culture’s non-biblical ideas. If we capture and embrace more of God’s worldview and trust it with unwavering faith, then we begin to make the right decisions and form the appropriate responses to questions on abortion, same-sex marriage, corruption, environmental degradation, child sacrifice which is so rampant in Africa and even media choices. In the end, it is our decisions and actions that reveal what we really believe. But it becomes difficult without being transformed. That is why our need of the Savior to touch our lives is necessary and foundational for any change to happen.
2.1. Salvation Goes Beyond the Soul
Salvation touches all areas of life. The concept of salvation can be used to not only concern individuals chosen for eternal life but to touch a broader spectrum of objects that receive redemption. The Christian has this hope that one day all creation will be redeemed. The very fact that God’s creation was referred to as good presupposes that he will not let it perish without redeeming it back to himself. All that he makes is glorious. The image bearers of God are undergoing redemption now. Scripture states that creation remains in pains waiting for the salvation of the sons of God (Rom. 8:19-23). Redemption can be viewed in a narrower sense as touching the elect, and broadly as pertaining to the redemption of creation. Christians have this anticipation of seeing the whole world undergoing redemption. In fact things will be better than they were in the beginning.