Naming the Elephant: Worldview As a Concept

Features

• Cover Type: Paperback with 172 pages
• Published by: InterVarsity Press June 2004
• Written in: English
• ISBN 10 Number: 083082779X
• ISBN 13 Number: 978-0830827794
• Book Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.6 x 0.5 inches
• Weighs: 6.9 ounces

From Publishers Weekly
Sire, who as an InterVarsity Press editor and author of The Universe Next Door helped introduce Christian college students to "worldview," revisits the subject with a more technical approach that sacrifices the essential simplicity of the earlier work. The title refers to the story of a father asked to explain what holds up the world. Eventually he chooses "the biggest animal he could think of and put a capital on it 'It's an Elephant it's Elephant all the way down.' " Like the Elephant, a worldview is expected to answer big questions about "the basic makeup of our world," and is likely "brought to mind only when we are challenged by a foreigner from another ideological universe." Sire notes that such challenges are mounting in our increasingly pluralistic world, even though the basic menu of worldview options remains mostly unchanged from a generation ago, with the (grudgingly acknowledged) addition of postmodernism. In defining the concept of worldview, Sire goes beyond his earlier treatment of worldviews as "answers to a systematic set of questions" to consider other possibilities. A worldview can also take the form of a story, a way of life, a pre-theoretical intuition or a pattern of actions. Such alternatives promote a nuanced appreciation of worldviews, and of the serious difficulty in communicating across worldview frontiers. But for all these refinements, Sire's message remains basically the same: Christians tend to have Christian beliefs, and others tend not to.
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Product Description
What is a worldview?What lies behind your thoughts about almost everything?For more than thirty years, James W. Sire has grappled with this issue. In this book he offers readers his most mature thought on the concept of a worldview, addressing such questions as

• What is the history of the concept itself?
• What is the first question you should ask in formulating a worldview?
• How are worldviews formed existentially as well as intellectually?
• Is a worldview primarily an intellectual system, a way of life or a story?
• What are the public and private dimensions of a worldview?
• What role can worldview thinking play in assessing your own worldview and those of others, especially in light of the pluralism in today's world?

In his widely used textbook The Universe Next Door, first published in 1976, Sire offered a succinct definition of a worldview and catalogued in summary fashion seven basic worldview alternatives. Students, critics, new literature and continued reflection have led him to reexamine and refine his definition of a worldview. This companion volume to The Universe Next Door is the fruit of that effort.Here is an great resource for exploring more deeply how and why worldview thinking can aid you in navigating your pluralistic universe.

Reader Reviews
Philosophy and theology is what is written about here. The two have always been interlinked by cultures. Here Sire expands on his previous work "The Universe Next Door" where in the modern world of the religions being more universal in scope he presents his additional thinking on the subject. Certainly this can be beneficial in several senses. First, for the Christian one can gain insight into the consistency of one's own worldview. What I mildly object to is the sense that one's behavior overall speaks of one's worldview. According to Romans 7, then this is impossible consistenly. Second and more importantly, apologetically speaking this is of value is helping Christians speak of worldview in case of discussing with other worldviews. All this needs tempering with the Biblical truth that no one will be argued into the faith, either philosophically or worldview speaking. The Spirit must teach the truth or no penetration will succeed, no matter how good the worldview is. He has good biographical sources cited, especially would this reviewer suggest Nancy Pearcy's book "Total Truth."