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For Want of a Christian Worldview

Why does so much of the world act like swine?

“The rationalist tradition has driven a wedge between intellect and emotion in human psychology; and between the arts and sciences in society at large.”

So argues Ken Robinson in his important book, Out of Our Minds: Learning to Be Creative. He continues, “It has distorted the idea of creativity in education and unbalanced the development of millions of people. The result is that other important abilities are overlooked or marginalized.”

He is correct, I believe. In almost every facet of life, and in particular, those like education and politics, which are most socially formative, science is regarded as the only reliable source of knowledge. Knowledge is factual and practical and proves itself in pragmatic and utilitarian ways. Knowledge, as it is pursued these days, has little or nothing to do with emotion, and nothing at all to do with spirituality. This helps to explain why the arts are dead, pop culture dominates our cultural lives, and why churches assess growth in quantitative more than qualitative terms.

What Francis Schaeffer referred to as “the spirit of the naturalism of the age” does indeed “creep into our thinking” and our practice, but not unrecognized, as may have been true in Schaeffer’s day.

Many church leaders have bought into the rationalist, pragmatic, “under the sun” mindset lock, stock, and barrel, and the big game they aim for is bigger numbers across the board. Not to grow numerically is to admit failure, or, at best, to settle for mediocrity, and will set a pastor to seeking greener pastures and church leaders to seeking a new pastor.

Lacking a vision other than what can be measured numerically, many church leaders cast about for the latest innovation or other big thing that they hope will enable them to keep pace with the megachurch across town, or, at least, in their minds. Meanwhile, true spiritual living is minimized, the art of disciple-making founders, the work of shepherding is neglected, worship devolves into a form of entertainment, the responsibility for evangelizing the lost falls to the lost whom we expect to “seek” salvation, the Kingdom of God stalls, and the culture and social order continue their descent into stench and stagnation.

Want of a Biblical and Christian view of humankind, culture, society, and the world has left this generation with only pig pods to consume. So we should not be surprised when so many act like swine. 


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