A nice little contribution from a student
Sent: 2007-07-25 20:00:34 (PST)
To: buzzard@bayardtayloronline.com
Subject: A nice little contribution from a student
"Before you dive, get the big picture."
Fellow Buzzards,
Hannah Bagley, one of the WorldviewEyes students, made an interesting suggestion for future Blah presentations, based upon her experience of four Blah sessions at the WorldviewEyes seminar and her reading of Blah, Blah, Blah.
She said she really liked the first two sessions (Worldview Zoo and Roots & Fruits), but that 101 Ways to Kill God should be replaced with a session on what Christianity has in common with other religions (like I do in Blah chapters 5-9).
The 101 Ways to Kill God session has always been the hardest one in which to sustain interest, mainly because I'm usually going over a bunch of academic disciplines and their leading figures, showing how their worldviews influenced their disciplines (see Blah chapters 10-12 or so).
I've worked hard at trying to make this stuff simple and easy to understand, however, this session was the weak link in that regard. 101 Ways to Kill God might be good for 3rd or 4th year college students, but it's overwhelming to high school students.
I think Hannah's on to something. I'm going to try out her idea next time I have a four-set of sessions. The four will be:
1. Worldview Zoo
2. Roots & Fruits
3. Common Ground (or, Still Haven't Found What I'm Lookin' For)
4. How To Talk To Absolutely Anybody.
Now, the tricky part of all this, especially in a culture where tolerance is the highest value of all, is letting the pendulum swing too much toward common ground side of things, ignoring, papering over or otherwise sanitizing differences.
Here's how Richard Knopp, director of WorldviewEyes and professor of philosophy at Lincoln Christian College and Seminary put it:
"I agree that Hannah's on to something. I do think it's important to communicate the concept that worldviews are overlapping in terms of their truth-claims--hence, they cannot be wrong about EVERYTHING and therefore share some truths with other worldviews. Minimally, this helps blunt the undesirable psychological sense that people have--including, if not especially, Christians--that we are TOTALLY OPPOSED to everyone else on everything. As a result, it's a great idea to make this point in effective ways. When WVE produced some sessions on Islam several years ago, we included some of those shared notions. In addition, when we've talked about other worldviews, we've often presented the 'attractions' of those worldviews--those beliefs and practices that are not only attractive to our wants but apparently true.
"On the other hand, it's my belief that this emphasis would be inadequate BY ITSELF for most Christian groups. While it's important to present similarities, somewhere along the line we must give direction on the contrasts. Ideally, I would think it would be best to develop a session (or perhaps two complementary sessions) that would do both. It would help if there were a brief, catchy way to categorize it (e.g. ideas and practices we share / ideas and practices to shun; attractions / temptations -- when does the appeal of the apple become a temptation?; appeal / repel; receive / reject; etc.) You're quite good at coming up with such 'brief, catchy' ways to capture something. I'd be curious to see what you could come up with."
Well, to that project I now turn. If you'd like to offer your thoughts, please write me at bayard@bayardtayloronline.com.
To: buzzard@bayardtayloronline.com
Subject: A nice little contribution from a student
"Before you dive, get the big picture."
Fellow Buzzards,
Hannah Bagley, one of the WorldviewEyes students, made an interesting suggestion for future Blah presentations, based upon her experience of four Blah sessions at the WorldviewEyes seminar and her reading of Blah, Blah, Blah.
She said she really liked the first two sessions (Worldview Zoo and Roots & Fruits), but that 101 Ways to Kill God should be replaced with a session on what Christianity has in common with other religions (like I do in Blah chapters 5-9).
The 101 Ways to Kill God session has always been the hardest one in which to sustain interest, mainly because I'm usually going over a bunch of academic disciplines and their leading figures, showing how their worldviews influenced their disciplines (see Blah chapters 10-12 or so).
I've worked hard at trying to make this stuff simple and easy to understand, however, this session was the weak link in that regard. 101 Ways to Kill God might be good for 3rd or 4th year college students, but it's overwhelming to high school students.
I think Hannah's on to something. I'm going to try out her idea next time I have a four-set of sessions. The four will be:
1. Worldview Zoo
2. Roots & Fruits
3. Common Ground (or, Still Haven't Found What I'm Lookin' For)
4. How To Talk To Absolutely Anybody.
Now, the tricky part of all this, especially in a culture where tolerance is the highest value of all, is letting the pendulum swing too much toward common ground side of things, ignoring, papering over or otherwise sanitizing differences.
Here's how Richard Knopp, director of WorldviewEyes and professor of philosophy at Lincoln Christian College and Seminary put it:
"I agree that Hannah's on to something. I do think it's important to communicate the concept that worldviews are overlapping in terms of their truth-claims--hence, they cannot be wrong about EVERYTHING and therefore share some truths with other worldviews. Minimally, this helps blunt the undesirable psychological sense that people have--including, if not especially, Christians--that we are TOTALLY OPPOSED to everyone else on everything. As a result, it's a great idea to make this point in effective ways. When WVE produced some sessions on Islam several years ago, we included some of those shared notions. In addition, when we've talked about other worldviews, we've often presented the 'attractions' of those worldviews--those beliefs and practices that are not only attractive to our wants but apparently true.
"On the other hand, it's my belief that this emphasis would be inadequate BY ITSELF for most Christian groups. While it's important to present similarities, somewhere along the line we must give direction on the contrasts. Ideally, I would think it would be best to develop a session (or perhaps two complementary sessions) that would do both. It would help if there were a brief, catchy way to categorize it (e.g. ideas and practices we share / ideas and practices to shun; attractions / temptations -- when does the appeal of the apple become a temptation?; appeal / repel; receive / reject; etc.) You're quite good at coming up with such 'brief, catchy' ways to capture something. I'd be curious to see what you could come up with."
Well, to that project I now turn. If you'd like to offer your thoughts, please write me at bayard@bayardtayloronline.com.
