Sent: 2006-07-30 14:45:15 (PST)
To: buzzard@bayardtayloronline.com
Subject: A College and Seminary Syllabus

"Get the big picture before you dive!"


Fellow Buzzards,

I really hope you are signing up other worldview teachers for this newsletter. This stuff is important enough that we need to be talking to one another.

In my previous two posts, we expanded the first and third resources in the list below:

1. One-shot 20- to 40-minute presentations.
2. Weekend seminar outlines (3-5 session).
3. A basic 7-week worldview orientation - phase 1 topics.
4. An intermediate 7-week worldview orientation - phase 2 topics.
5. A semester-long college-level syllabus for a worldview course.
6. Stuff on leading discussions on worldviews for Christian high schools and home schoolers.


In this post, you'll find the 5th resource, a semester's college- and seminary-level course on worldviews. This is the same syllabus I've submitted to Channel Islands Bible College & Seminary where I'll be teaching a worldviews course this fall.

Here you go:

Channel Islands Bible College & Seminary
Course number: Th AP300
Course title: Introduction to Worldviews
Credit: 3 semester hours
Prerequisites: none
Instructor: Bayard B. Taylor, M.Div.
Instructor email: bayard@bayardtayloronline.com. Do not send spam.
Dates & times: August 24 - December 21, 2006; Thursdays from 6:30 to 8:15 pm.
Place: 3326 Nyland Avenue, Oxnard, CA 93036; Bldg. 1 Room A.

Course Description: Your worldview is more important than whatever religion or philosophy you profess. This course introduces students to the concept of worldview, the basic worldviews, and the biblical worldview. The practical aim is help students become more confident, effective public representatives of Christian faith in our increasingly pluralistic and postmodern culture. The theological aim is to increase worship of the Trinity. To achieve these aims, we'll study the assumptions, "rules," history, leading figures and contemporary expressions of each worldview. Then we'll apply these insights to identify the core of Christian faith and to critique some well-known cults and sub-Christian religions that pose as Christian.

Required Texts:

• The Bible, by God (any recognized version will do).
• Blah, Blah, Blah: Making Sense of the World's Spiritual Chatter, by Bayard Taylor (Bethany House, 2006): ISBN 10: 0-7642-0187-5; ISBN 13: 978-0-7642-0187-5 ($11.99).

Supplemental Readings & Assignments:

• Main resource: the website (see below).

Student Learning Objectives: As a result of taking this class students will be able to:

• Explain what a worldview is and why it is important;
• Draw a simple diagram of each of the basic worldviews and be able to explain them to others;
• Manage technical and whimsical worldview terminology and come up with terms useful for the student's own spheres of influence;
• Identify what the biblical worldview has in common with the other worldviews and what makes it unique;
• Quote pertinent Bible verses and know where to find important Bible passages relevant to worldview issues;
• Categorize films, plays, books, music, art, poetry, and other cultural expressions according to which worldviews they represent;
• Quickly identify (or at least take educated guesses) what peoples' worldviews are from common expressions and sayings;
• Know the basic history and who the main proponents of the major worldviews are;
• Describe what's meant by pre-modern, modern and post-modern and to describe the pros and cons of each;
• Illustrate how the biblical worldview does the best job of answering our deepest human questions;
• Critique cults and sub-Christian religions using worldview as an analytical tool;
• Describe what Christians of all stripes have in common and to have a vocabulary, based upon the idea of worldview, for describing what Christians disagree about;
• Tell why revelation knowledge from the Holy Spirit is essential to this whole enterprise to understand the big questions in life;
• Recognize that the Trinity is under-appreciated, why that is so dangerous when this happens and why without the Trinity all the "good stuff" about Christian faith vanishes.

Outline of Course Content: The class will have three phases.

• Phase 1: In the first 6-8 weeks we'll cover the main content of the book Blah, Blah, Blah: Making Sense of the World's Spiritual Chatter. The rest of the class we'll creatively use the principles established in the first weeks.
• Phase 2: In the next 4-5 weeks, students will elect from a list of options what "Phase 2" worldview topics to cover. Options could include Islam; Hinduism; evolution and creation; how to talk to absolutely anybody; uncovering worldview bias in media and the arts; and the biblical basis for democracy.
• Phase 3: In the remaining weeks, students will develop their own worldview terminology and illustrations that work best for them in their own ministry contexts or areas of interest and share their results orally with the rest of the class.

Expansion of Phase 1: These first seven sessions are crucial for establishing an adequate Biblical worldview foundation. Before people tackle apologetics, the cults, world religions, philosophy or even denominational (or para-church) theologies -- they really need to get these seven ideas under their belts.

It's important to realize that most of the time, Christians (and everyone else) start not at the beginning, but having assumed a host of things that simply aren't up for review. The point of looking at worldviews is to examine these assumptions compared to the alternatives. These seven sessions will help people back up, get the big picture and be able to put their own beliefs and the beliefs of their denomination in a more complete biblical and historical context.

1. God versus the Haunted Worldview: Shows how understanding worldviews gives us a proper context for understanding the Bible's big message.

• Defines the concept of worldview and how understanding worldview is crucial for communicating Christian faith in an increasing pluralistic and postmodern world.
• Explores the pagan, polytheistic conceptual world into which the Bible was written.
• Shows how Genesis challenges the major worldview assumptions of the ancient world.
• Corresponds to Chapters 1-4 and 10 of Blah, Blah, Blah.
• Enhanced by the "Chapter-by-Chapter Study and Discussion Questions" found on the Bonus Features page of the website blahblahbook.com.
• Parallels the College Forum page at the blahblahbook.com website.

2. Worldview Zoo. Provides a basic worldview typology.

• Shows how all the millions of worldviews can be boiled down into six basic types.
• Illustrates the six worldviews with simple, memorable diagrams.
• Demonstrates how the Biblical worldview beats out the competition.
• Corresponds to Chapters 5-9 of Blah, Blah, Blah.
• Enhanced by the "Chapter-by-Chapter Study and Discussion Questions" found on the Bonus Features page of the website blahblahbook.com.
• Enhanced by "Analyze This: 65 Worldview Sayings" found on the Bonus Features page of the website blahblahbook.com.
• Starts categorizing books, plays, movies, music and other cultural expressions according to the basic worldviews.

3. 101 Ways to Kill God. Explores the Naturalist/Materialist worldview.

• Shows how this worldview is the dominant worldview present in colleges and universities.
• Introduces the ancient roots of this worldview and how the Enlightenment challenged the foundations of Western faith and reason.
• Demonstrates how "the rules" of this worldview contrast with reality and with the Biblical worldview.
• Corresponds to Chapters 11-12.
• Enhanced by the "Chapter-by-Chapter Study and Discussion Questions" found on the Bonus Features page of the website blahblahbook.com.

4. The Magical Mystery Tour. Explores the Pantheistic/Monistic and New Age worldview.

• Identifies some of the many faces of this worldview in our culture, including in the arts.
• Illuminates the three major historical roots of this worldview and how they are gaining force in our culture.
• Demonstrates how "the rules" of this worldview conflict with the Biblical worldview.
• Corresponds to Chapters 13-14.
• Enhanced by the "Chapter-by-Chapter Study and Discussion Questions" found on the Bonus Features page of the website blahblahbook.com.

5. Spirituals 'R' Us. Explores the resurgence of paganism in our culture.

• Identifies some of the many faces of this worldview in our culture.
• Illuminates the major historical roots of this worldview and how the Biblical worldview doesn't obliterate this spiritual worldview, but significantly modifies it.
• Demonstrates how "the rules" of this worldview go against the Biblical worldview.
• Corresponds to Chapters 15-16.
• Enhanced by the "Chapter-by-Chapter Study and Discussion Questions" found on the Bonus Features page of the website blahblahbook.com.
• Enhanced by "Supernaturalism in the Bible," a Bible study found on the Bonus Features page of the website blahblahbook.com.

6. The White-Hot Core. Explores why understanding worldviews is the most important tool in discerning truth from error.

• Identifies the worldview roots of four heresies: Deism; Mormonism; Revisionist Christianity and Scientology.
• Distinguishes the core of Christian faith from Church traditions, pious opinions and private opinions.
• Shows how heresies are really worldview challenges that try to insinuate themselves as Christian but are really alien and hostile to the Biblical worldview and the core of Christian faith.
• Corresponds to Chapters 17-18.
• Enhanced by the "Chapter-by-Chapter Study and Discussion Questions" found on the Bonus Features page of the website blahblahbook.com.

7. Trinity, Schminity. Examines why so many Christians are such ripe pickin' for Unitarianism, Islam and other religions that deny the Trinity.

• Exposes the trap of trying to prove the Trinity rationalistically.
• Shows from Bible study how Christian faith is completely worthless without the Trinity.
• Demonstrates that worship of the one true God means worshiping God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit.
• Corresponds with Chapters 19-21.
• Enhanced by the "Chapter-by-Chapter Study and Discussion Questions" found on the Bonus Features page of the website blahblahbook.com.
• Enhanced by the "Bible Study on the Trinity" found on the Bonus Features page of the website blahblahbook.com.

Expansion of Phases 2 & 3: To be determined. The course is designed in its second two phases to be flexible, and flex we shall.

Evaluation Components: Students will be evaluated on the following:

• Homework
• Class participation
• Mid-term
• Oral project
• Term paper
• Final

Required student resources & responsibilities:

• Access to the internet (to get on my website http://www.blahblahbook.com). If you don't have a computer, it is your responsibility to get to a friend's computer or to a library or internet coffee shop that has a computer so you can download the necessary information and complete the assignments.
• Homework assignments must be turned in via email. Do not send me anything in tiny type fonts. If you do, I will not accept it. If you can't turn in your work via email, it must be typed and double-spaced with at least one-inch margins on each side. I will not accept hand-written papers. If these requirements are not met I will not accept the work.
• Academic honesty. The whole point of this course is to get you to think on your own, not to indoctrinate you into one and only one way of thinking. Therefore, it is the students' responsibility to do their own work, cite references adequately, avoid plagiarism at all costs.
• Writing coherent homework assignments, test questions and papers. You will be graded down for bad logic and poor writing, because bad writing indicates bad thinking. If you're not a strong writer, this class will give you an opportunity to improve.

Sent: 2006-07-29 18:51:46 (PST)
To: buzzard@bayardtayloronline.com
Subject: Seven Magnificent Sessions

"Get the big picture before you dive in."

Fellow Buzzards!

In my previous post, we looked at six types of resources I wanted to develop and share with you and we briefly expanded the first.

To remind you, the six were:

1. One-shot 20- to 40-minute presentations.
2. Weekend seminar outlines (3-5 session).
3. A basic 7-week worldview orientation - phase 1 topics.
4. An intermediate 7-week worldview orientation - phase 2 topics.
5. A semester-long college-level syllabus for a worldview course.
6. Stuff on leading discussions on worldviews for Christian high schools and home schoolers. (I've already taught this at one Christian high school and will be doing it at another Christian high school this fall.)

In this post, we'll look at what I have long considered a bare minimum in giving people an adequate Biblical worldview foundation. If you're a teacher of worldviews, you'll understand clearly that before your people tackle apologetics, the cults, world religions, philosophy or even denominational (or para-church) theologies -- they really need to get these seven magnificent ideas under their belts.

So here goes for addressing #3 above.



SEVEN MAGNIFICENT SESSIONS
by Bayard Taylor 7/29/2006

It's important to realize that most of the time, Christians (and everyone else) start not at the beginning, but having assumed a host of things that simply aren't up for review. The point of looking at worldviews is to examine these assumptions compared to the alternatives. These seven magnificent sessions will help people back up, get the big picture and be able to put their own beliefs and the beliefs of their denomination in a more complete biblical and historical context.

One big frustration I've had in teaching worldviews is to realize that people (and especially kids) can't always be counted on to come to the entire series of seven sessions. These ideas really build on each other, and to come in at Week 3 or 4 really puts an student at a big disadvantage for understanding what's going on.

This experience of frustration was a major motivator in causing me to write Blah, Blah, Blah. Now that I have a published book out there in the marketplace of ideas, I can teach without having to be "there." I can be having an impact while I'm taking a nap or asleep because somebody somewhere in the world is reading my book. I also don't have to worry about people missing sessions. I've done my part in presenting the ideas in an orderly and sequential way. If my readers want to skip around, fine. But if they do so and find it hard to understand, unlike with a series, with a book they can easily back up a few chapters and fill in the gaps.

Here are what I believe to be seven essential sessions if you really want to get people squared away with the biblical worldview.

1. God versus the Haunted Worldview: Shows how understanding worldviews gives us a proper context for understanding the Bible's big message.

• Defines the concept of worldview and how understanding worldview is crucial for communicating Christian faith in an increasing pluralistic and postmodern world.
• Explores the pagan, polytheistic conceptual world into which the Bible was written.
• Shows how Genesis challenges the major worldview assumptions of the ancient world.
• Corresponds to Chapters 1-4 and 10 of Blah, Blah, Blah.

2. Worldview Zoo. Provides a basic worldview typology.

• Shows how all the millions of worldviews can be boiled down into six basic types.
• Illustrates the six worldviews with simple, memorable diagrams.
• Demonstrates how the Biblical worldview beats out the competition.
• Corresponds to Chapters 5-9 of Blah, Blah, Blah.

3. 101 Ways to Kill God. Explores the Naturalist/Materialist worldview.

• Shows how this worldview is the dominant worldview present in colleges and universities.
• Introduces the ancient roots of this worldview and how the Enlightenment challenged the foundations of Western faith and reason.
• Demonstrates how "the rules" of this worldview contrast with reality and with the Biblical worldview.
• Corresponds to Chapters 11-12.

4. The Magical Mystery Tour. Explores the Pantheistic/Monistic and New Age worldview.

• Identifies some of the many faces of this worldview in our culture, including in the arts.
• Illuminates the three major historical roots of this worldview and how they are gaining force in our culture.
• Demonstrates how "the rules" of this worldview conflict with the Biblical worldview.
• Corresponds to Chapters 13-14.

5. Spirituals 'R' Us. Explores the resurgence of paganism in our culture.

• Identifies some of the many faces of this worldview in our culture.
• Illuminates the major historical roots of this worldview and how the Biblical worldview doesn't obliterate this spiritual worldview, but significantly modifies it.
• Demonstrates how "the rules" of this worldview go against the Biblical worldview.
• Corresponds to Chapters 15-16.

6. The White-Hot Core. Explores why understanding worldviews is the most important tool in discerning truth from error.

• Identifies the worldview roots of four heresies: Deism; Mormonism; Revisionist Christianity and Scientology.
• Distinguishes the core of Christian faith from Church traditions, pious opinions and private opinions.
• Shows how heresies are really worldview challenges that try to insinuate themselves as Christian but are really alien and hostile to the Biblical worldview and the core of Christian faith.
• Corresponds to Chapters 17-18.

7. Trinity, Schminity. Examines why so many Christians are such ripe pickin' for Unitarianism, Islam and other religions that deny the Trinity.

• Exposes the trap of trying to prove the Trinity rationalistically.
• Shows from Bible study how Christian faith is completely worthless without the Trinity.
• Demonstrates that worship of the one true God means worshiping God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit.
• Corresponds with Chapters 19-21.

For feedback or questions, please contact me at bayard@bayardtayloronline.com.

Sent: 2006-07-29 17:34:29 (PST)
To: buzzard@bayardtayloronline.com
Subject: What if you've only got one shot?

"Get the big picture before you dive in."

Fellow Buzzards! (You don't mind me calling you that, do you? In Buzzard parlance, it's an honorific title.)

In my previous post, I promised to start posting specific ideas and outlines for the teaching of worldviews. Please share these ideas with others who are teaching worldviews and encourage them to sign up for the Buzzard newsletter.

Regarding resources for teaching worldviews, here are some of the things I want to share with you relatively soon:

1. Some one-shot 20-minute presentations of worldview topics suitable for gatherings at school lunchtimes.
2. A basic outline for a weekend seminar (3-5 sessions).
3. A basic 7-week worldview orientation - phase 1 topics. (I've already taught this quite a few times.)
4. An intermediate 7-week worldview orientation - phase 2 topics. (These are the fun hot-button topics that are much more fruitful only after students have a basic phase 1 worldview grounding.)
5. A semester-long college-level syllabus for a worldview course. (I'm going to be teaching a semester-long course on worldviews this fall at Channel Islands Bible College and Seminary. It's unaccredited, tuition is free, and I don't get paid anything -- what could be better for putting together my first college course?)
6. Stuff on leading discussions on worldviews for Christian high schools and home schoolers. (I've already taught this at one Christian high school and will be doing it at another Christian high school this fall.)

To start us off, let's deal with #1 first.


WHAT IF YOU'VE ONLY GOT ONE SHOT?
by Bayard Taylor 7/29/2006

In a previous post we already talked about why when it comes to worldviews it's a really bad idea to try to teach too much too fast.

But what if you've only got one shot? This is a very much less than ideal situation for the actual teaching of worldviews -- but it is definitely an opportunity to do something worthwhile.

For any presentation less than 40-45 minutes, coming in cold with an audience having not the slightest idea what worldview is or why they should be interested in it, you're simply not going to be able to cover much ground. The following ideas can be crammed into periods as short as 20 minutes.

The objective in these cases is to entertain, inspire and advertise.

1. Entertain. Spiritual people often look down on entertainment, as if it is beneath them. But your job as a communicator is to communicate. If you present something really great that nobody ends of caring about you've failed. So at the beginning especially, you've got to find some way to connect to the audience. Use humor, silliness, or film clips that contain humor to capture attention.

2. Inspire. The old saying says, "You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make him drink." True. But you can salt his oats. That's what a one-shot deal on worldview is: salting the oats; helping people see their need, even if coming in it was nowhere on their radar screens. Since in a one-shot deal you're not going to be able to give a lot of content, your job is to help them want to know why the subject of worldview is important.

3. Advertise. Once you've gotten people thirsty, show them where they can satisfy their thirst. Play a little Jars of Clay music and read excerpts from Charlie Lowell's foreword to the book. Have a peer who's read the book give a short testimony. Mention the website. Download stuff from the website <http://blahblahbook.com> and print flyers with information on the book and website. Or maybe even use the time to announce a worldview Bible study coming up. Use Blah, Blah, Blah as a resource in the Bible study.

Here are some ideas on what and what not to do:

• You could use illustrations from the College Forum page of the website to show people the kind of environment they're likely to encounter once they leave high school (politically correct, thought police, christophobic). The College Forum page essentially is an ever-expanding list of resources which reinforce the message of chapter 1 of Blah, Blah, Blah.
• You could informally survey the people, like Jay Leno sometimes walks in and works his audience. After getting names and seeing if you can work the brief interview for some humor, ask what their post HS plans are. After a couple of these interviews, ask the larger group for a show of hands who's planning to go to college and if they think the environment there is going to be more friendly, less friendly or about the same to Christian faith as high school. Try to generate some discussion about anybody they know who's left Christian faith once they left high school. Ask why it is that they think that this happens -- and suggest that lack of worldview knowledge could have something to do with it (although it's certainly not the only factor).
• You could show a clip from a film, like the scene from M. Night Shamalayan's "Signs" from where Mel Gibson enters the kitchen having seen an alien in the corn field, gets Joaquin Phoenix and the kids in front of the TV to watch the news, and has a quiet conversation with Phoenix about "two kinds of people in the world." Mention that the question that comes up here is a worldview question and ask people to discuss the two viewpoints. Ask if these two are the only two worldviews, or if there are more. Then quickly define worldview (it must be quickly because peoples' attention spans are so short) and try to cover some of the five "Worldview Mantra" points mentioned in chapter 3. You probably won't be able to cover all of them.
• Under NO CIRCUMSTANCES attempt to cover all six worldviews in a one-shot presentation. That's way to much for 99.9% of people and I guarantee you'll put people to sleep (I know; I've done it too often to want to remember). At the most, present two worldviews: the Haunted worldview of the Ancient Near East (see chapter 10) and the Biblical. You could enact a skit of the Ancient Near East creation myth and then discuss from Genesis 1 how the Bible spoke into that worldview -- with the main point being NOT the Bible vs. Darwin, but the Bible vs. the Haunted worldview.
• Get creative. Show a clip from the documentary "Brainwashing 101" or from another film that brings up or alludes to worldviews. Since you're trying to entice people into wanting to be intereste, rather than turn them off because something is too complicated, try to go for clips that illustrate fairly obvious worldviews (not really obscure ones). CAUTION: I've found that the outside limit for asking people to stay tuned into a film clip is three to four minutes. More than that and people either check out mentally or are bummed that you stop the movie (like when somebody stops a video in the middle of a movie to go to the bathroon or pop some popcorn).
• You can also use children's books or movies to illustrate worldviews. For an example, in chapter 4 ("Worldview Zoo") I illustrate the What You See Is What You Get worldview with the Berenstain Bears. The point of using children's literature or film is to show people that worldview stuff is not that hard to get. You don't want to scare people off from what you're talking about, as if it's too abstract or intellectual.

Well, I hope that gets your juices flowing. Contact me if you've got some other great ideas along these lines.

Sent: 2006-07-27 21:19:35 (PST)
To: buzzard@bayardtayloronline.com
Subject: How to Use the Website
Author: Bayard Taylor

"Get the big picture before you dive."

Fellow Buzzards, fellow teachers of worldview:


Blah, Blah, Blah stands alone, but is not alone -- it has a companion website. Similarly, the website stands alone, but is companion to the book. Together they powerfully enhance one another, providing students with a solid worldview introduction.

Here's how:

1. The Home Page has links to what the book's about (the Great Conversation), who it's for, and how it got named. Teachers: if the books you ordered are late, you can still have students get a head start on the Foreword by Charlie Lowell of Jars of Clay and Chapters 1-3, which are all downloadable. Chapter 3 is an MP3 file read by a lady with a beautiful British accent. You can also order the book from this page and you can even buy chatter teeth like you see on the cover of the book!
2. Look at the clickable buttons across the banner on the home page. Click on the "Bio" button and it takes you to the Bio page, which tells something about me. Most students will pass right over this, but it's there if anybody wants to see it (parents?).
3. The Bonus Features page has not one, but four (count 'em, four) study guides. You don't have to go to the store and spend more money to buy study guides -- they're FREE and they're ONLINE. These guides are suitable as thought questions for personal study or for group discussion: (a) One is a chapter-by-chapter set of questions; (b) Another called "Analyze This" gives 65 common cultural expressions and asks the reader to classify them according to their most likely worldview, which burns in one of the main points of Chapter 7 that we need to be "quick on the uptake;" (c) The Supernaturalism in the Bible study (expanding on Chapter 14) gives 188 examples of supernaturalism in the Bible, a lively demonstration that the Bible's worldview and the Haunted worldview recognize the reality of the spiritual world of angels and demons; and (d) A study on the Trinity (expanding on Chapter 19) unlike any other you've ever seen, a study that will make you fall in love more with God and want to worship him more with your whole heart.
4. The Blog is a running commentary by me on various news items and other things through the prism of the biblical worldview -- with an open invitation for people to enter into conversations online. The categories are: (a) The Artists' Corner (contributions from readers are welcome -- contact me first on how many kilobytes are suitable), where we try to look at art or experience art through the biblical perspective; (b) Big Picture Stuff, where we tease out the big questions in life from various situations; (c) Buzzard haiku (the word haiku is both singular and plural, like the word deer; you don't say "haikus"), which are some of my favorite haiku that refer to buzzards (and vultures and condors) -- which is, by the way, Fellow Buzzards, our namesake; (d) Fool's Errands, in which I try to motivate people to join me in doing things to help promote the message of the book to an ever-expanding group of people; (e) Philosopher's Stone, where we get into things that are a bit more technical and philosophical; (f) Teach It!, where we encourage people to not just read about worldviews, but to disciple others to be worldview-savvy; (g) The Inside Scoop, which is supposed to give you context and fascinating insights into the mind of the author and the writing and development of the book and the website; (h) Worldview Quizzes, which are open-ended questions that I periodically pose to get people to think; (i) Worldviews in the Church and (j) Worldviews in the News, which are categories that treat worldveiew issues in the Church and in the news, respectively. As a time-saving teaching help, students or teachers can click on any of these categories and all the posts under that category will pop up. You can also do normal word searches in the search box.
5. The Book Me page tells what I can do for your group. I'd like to schedule appearances all over the place to get people excited about Jesus through understanding worldviews. You can help this happen by telling people you know about the book and website, and that the author is looking for opportunities to speak in all different kinds of settings.
6. The Newsletter: This is where you sign up for the Buzzard Newsletter. Anybody who's teaching worldviews, or thinking about it, should get on this listserve so you can be first to hear about insights on teaching worldviews. Also, your contributions are encouraged. If you have a great idea or set of ideas for teaching worldview, your ideas could appear right here.
7. The College Forum page. We've borrowed from George Orwell for our theme of "Resisting Groupthink." The basic idea on this page is to provide a constantly enlarging database that documents how "Thought Police" and political correctness dominate many college and university campuses -- and to incite Christians to commit "Thought Crimes" against the "Thought Police" by standing up for religious and academic freedom and taking their faith public. This page of the website elaborates on what we only barely touched on in Chapter 1, the Spiritual Meat Grinder that chews up so many naive Christians once they get out of high school.
   

Just like the blog, the college forum will ideally have students posting and talking to each other (I haven't figured out yet how to get this to happen -- any ideas??). Greater relationships in the Body of Christ and great encouragement to stand strong for Jesus despite opposition are the imagined results.

In summary, the website provides plenty of resources for creative study, project ideas, and fun ways to explore worldview, the basic worldviews and the incredible beauty of the biblical worldview. Make the most of your Blah.

(Sorry for any typos that might appear on this post.)

Sent: 2006-07-26 19:58:08 (PST)
To: buzzard@bayardtayloronline.com
Subject: The Formation of a Christian Mind

"Before you dive, get the big picture."

Fellow Buzzards!

REMINDER: The purpose of this newsletter is to focus on the teaching of the concept of worldview, worldviews and the Biblical worldview.

So, without further ado let's get to part 2 of Teach It!

*****
TEACH IT! -- INITIAL THOUGHTS ON TEACHING WORLDVIEWS TO PEOPLE IN THIS CULTURE (Part 2)
By Bayard Taylor
created: 1/16/2006

In part 1 (posted April 10, 2006) we reviewed the difficulties in teaching the concept of worldviews in this culture, including:
1. The fact that people feel maxed-out and over-busy;
2. The resistance people have to words that sound complex or end in "ism";
3. The idea that worldview education just isn't a felt need (until it's too late);
4. The attitude that in the adult world all you need is a child-like (Sunday-school) faith;
5. The desire of spiritual gatekeepers to prevent weak Christians from being exposed to false teaching;
6. The way other priorities (like teaching against drugs and pre-marital sex) muscle out the teaching of worldview; and
7. The perception that "we already have apologetics" and "we already have teaching against the cults" so why do we even need this new-fangled approach?

To the list above, let's add:
8. The desire to indoctrinate Christians into a particular theological system that's been handed down through the generations and must not be tampered with;
9. The propensity of Christians to emphasize the emotional-spiritual at the expense of the intellectual-spiritual;
10. The effort to publicly refute infidels and annihilate their arguments in high debate rather than come alongside and affirm our common humanity.

Together, these attitudes contribute to a lack of Christian engagement with the culture. Christians train students to memorize all kinds of answers to questions that hardly anybody is asking. In contrast, the approach advocated here tries to help Christians understand each of the major worldviews from the inside and to show how each worldview's foundational assumptions require it to arrive at certain conclusions.

The list of objections above is formidable. But if we do not prepare high school graduates for the certain intellectual ambush that awaits them, we are not preparing them for real life.

So, how can Christian resistance to the teaching of worldviews be overcome?


A WAY FORWARD
I don't know if there is a direct way to overcome all these objections and attitudes. However, there are some indirect things that can be done.

Assume intelligence
I think one overall key is to respect the intelligence of our audience. Teaching worldviews does require people to think in new ways, but these ideas can be easily grasped by most people if you have a little patience and approach it with some thoughtfulness.

Age is a factor. Teaching worldviews in any depth is for people over the age of 16 or 17. It's possible to go younger, but you have to keep it super-super simple and concrete. I say 16 or 17 because teaching worldviews involves abstract thinking that younger teens and kids are not yet ready for mentally. (It has to do with the physical development in the brain that we don't have time to go into here.)

Encourage people that it's not so hard
Tell them, "You don't have to be a genius to get this stuff. Just catch on to a few basic ideas and learn how to use them. If you do, you might amaze your friends so much they think you are a genius."

You'll find this encouraging attitude on the product buttons of this website: "Want to be smart? Buy this product now and find out what a genius you are."

Have fun
I have found that many Christian treatments of worldview come off as grim culture battles or as sterile debating points. It's true that spiritual warfare and tight arguments are sometimes components in teaching the Biblical worldview, but if conflict is the main or only thing that's emphasized, Christian faith doesn't sound so enjoyable. The joy of the Lord is our strength. A little humor (even corny stuff) isn't such a bad thing. Spicing things up with silly games, jokes and sight gags can loosen people up so that they'll be learning in spite of the fact that it's a class. As a matter of principle and practice, I try to make worldview sessions as un-classlike as possible.

Entertain
I resisted this idea for a long time, not wanting to heed the siren call of mindless entertainment. I wanted to drive straight ahead with the unadulterated, full-strength, no-nonsense gospel. But a few years back, when I heard a comedian say, "In Southern California, everybody has two businesses -- their own business and show business" -- at that moment, something clicked. Not everybody in Southern California is connected to Hollywood, but most everybody likes to be entertained. So I decided not to fight it anymore but to go with it. Allow entertainment to be part of your shtick.

Simplify
Truth be told, if you really get into it, understanding worldviews gets pretty complex pretty fast. There's no end to the depth and questions in which you can immerse yourself. And yet, without realizing it, everybody uses his or her worldview every day. So, my objective has been to make hidden things visible, and very complex things as simple as possible, even to the point of perhaps oversimplifying. I don't want to throw people to the wolves unprepared. I'd rather give people a basic, revisable framework that they can tweak on their own as they go through life than a perfect, watertight, bombproof system that very few can understand. Bottom line: A basic scaffolding of worldview ideas is better than one that is too complex, and a basic scaffolding is better than none.

Go slow
This worldview stuff can easily be taught too fast. Start slow and easy. Allow time for the big ideas to sink in. Let people mull them over in their minds and in their sleep for a few days. Don't overwhelm them with information. The big temptation is always to teach too much.

This is the problem with seminars -- way too much information in way too short a time. After a seminar, most people just put the seminar notebook on their shelf and forget 99% of what they heard. I want a different outcome: I want people to remember a very few things for the rest of their lives.

Entice
Resist the temptation to get through all your (wonderfully prepared) material in any given lesson. There's always going to be way more really good stuff than can be taught at one time. Therefore, the idea is not to teach so that you exhaust a topic, but to teach in such a way that at the end of the session people want more. In this respect, in some ways it's more important what you don't teach than what you do.

Start with the familiar
Especially in the beginning, I have tried to use familiar illustrations in my book and in teaching about worldviews. Hence I use children's books, pop culture, celebrities, music groups, films, well-known plays and commonly-taught authors from high school American literature. I remind people of what they already know and have studied, or what they will soon study if they haven't already.

Don't intimidate
I keep the vocabulary very, very simple at first, avoiding technical vocabulary like the plague. That's why the fun nicknames were chosen -- to give nonthreatening names to very deep subjects. With these nicknames, anybody can recognize the references and figure out what they mean, even though they don't have the graduate school vocabulary for the topic.

Tell stories
The Bible is a storybook. When Jesus wasn't healing people, he was telling stories. People respond to stories and storytellers because everyone's life is a story, and everyone's life is connected to a Bigger Story. That's why I have tried to include stories and the Bigger Story in every single session, from the movie clips that we use, to the Ancient Near Eastern cosmology skit, to Nietzche's "Parable of the Madman," to the "Two Trees" dialogue.

Give a little -- use it a lot
I aim to give people one solid thing in each lesson, then give them lots of opportunities to try that idea out in various ways. This keeps it real and it reinforces the importance of what has just been taught. If you go from one huge idea to the next to the next and never stop, none of the ideas will stand out as very important.

Burn it in
I believe in repetition, sometimes by rote, sometimes not. If by rote, make it fun. When you have your students recite the "Worldview Mantra," for instance, don't have them sitting and reciting it quietly. Get everybody standing -- speaking out -- loudly -- in unison -- chanting! If not by rote, use games, competition, short papers, in-class discussion and questions, and so on to bring out what most needs to be repeated.

Change it up
Don't get into a rut. Never do anything exactly the same way twice. It is good to have some regular features, but keep the audience guessing. Don't be predictable.

Get people moving
The worst thing you can do is keep people sitting listening to your boring lecture for the whole time. No, no, no! Break up the session. Vow never to lecture more than 20 minutes. 25 tops. Have a time keeper hold you to your time limit. Get people out of their seats. Have posters on the walls so they'll need to get out of their seats to come up and see. Have them sit on the floor in small groups. Have them do jumping jacks if they're nodding off. Anything but letting them sit there like bumps on a log.

Get participation
In my worldview sessions, I have people do skits, run the DVD player, set up the room, make posters, greet, work the reception table, take attendance, read a passage of Scripture, facilitate small groups, lead the large-class discussion, or review -- anything I can think of. My rule is: Everybody does something, even if it's only to pass out pencils. I don't want anybody to come and just sit there, because I don't believe people get much out of passive learning. And I want the time spent to be valuable and memorable.

Use the five senses
Most learning in schools involves seeing (a lecturer, words on a screen or in a book, a physics demonstration), hearing (a lecture), and, stretching the definition, touch (writing lecture notes with a pen). I try to get people experiencing four or five senses each session. This can include food rewards (in review sessions, you can pass out small treats for correct answers, or good tries); incense burning; stretching exercises, and so on.

Most important: Get them talking!
The best learning happens when people are allowed to process what they are experiencing by talking about it. So -- the less talk, the less learning! This means that class, small-group and one-on-one talking needs to be part of the learning repertoire. If it's not, you're not doing your job, which is to teach! If they aren't actively learning (i.e., talking at least some of the time), you aren't teaching.


WHAT NOT TO DO
As far as I'm concerned, trying to teach this stuff in a single blast (whether one session or even a weekend seminar) is impossible and could even be harmful.

It's impossible because no matter how qualified the teacher, well crafted the classes, or smart the students, cramming this stuff into one session is feeding a baby with a fire hose. The ideas flow too powerfully and the vocabulary comes too fast for the vast majority of recipients to reap any benefit.

It's counterproductive because the medium is the message. Relegating worldview stuff into a single session gives the audience the distinct impression that you don't think the material is all that important. It misleads people into thinking that they've "covered" something when in fact they've barely scratched the surface.

Therefore, in my opinion it is much preferable to deliver your worldview series in several well-planned exposures over a period of some weeks or months. The little parts of this teaching need time to sink in. People need to sleep on these really big concepts for a while and let their subconscious minds work them over. It takes patience to do it this way, but in the long run it will definitely be worth the effort.


MORE RESOURCES TO COME(?)
Here are some things that may be coming down the pike. I haven't totally decided what should and shouldn't be posted here. Maybe you'd like to give me some feedback. In the meantime, here are some of the things I'm thinking about:
* Providing ideas on what to do if you only have one shot to present the concept of worldview, worldviews and the biblical worldview;
* Providing outlines and lesson plans for a 3-5 session weekend worldview seminar;
* Providing outlines and lesson plans for a 7-session basic worldview overview, phase 1;
* Providing outlines and lesson plans for a 7-session basic worldview overview, phase 2;
* Providing syllabus, outlines and lesson plans for a full semester course;
* Providing other resources like PowerPoints and skits to enhance presentations.

You all should know that I'm making this up as I go along and I'm constantly learning how to do it better. I welcome insights, creative ideas and constructive criticism from you. Maybe we can help each other. You know how to get ahold of me.


*****
Dear Buzzards,
Please encourage your friends who teach worldview to sign up for this newsletter, even though it's not yet perfect.
--Bayard