Theological Term of the Week: Worldview

worldview
“A network of ultimate beliefs, assumptions, values, and ideas about the universe and our place in it that shapes how a person understands their life and experiences (and the lives and experiences of others) and how that person acts in response.”1

• From scripture, on having a Christian worldview:

We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ, (2 Corinthians 10:5 ESV)

See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ. (Colossians 2:8 ESV)

• From What is a Worldview? by James Anderson:

A person’s worldview represents his most fundamental beliefs and assumptions about the universe he inhabits. It reflects how he would answer all the “big questions” of human existence: fundamental questions about who and what we are, where we came from, why we’re here, where (if anywhere) we’re headed, the meaning and purpose of life, the nature of the afterlife, and what counts as a good life here and now. Few people think through these issues in any depth, and fewer still have firm answers to such questions, but a person’s worldview will at least incline him toward certain kinds of answers and away from others.

Worldviews shape and inform our experiences of the world around us. Like spectacles with colored lenses, they affect what we see and how we see it. Depending on the “color” of the lenses, some things may be seen more easily, or conversely, they may be de-emphasized or distorted—indeed, some things may not be seen at all.

Learn more:

1. Got Questions: What is a Christian Worldview?
2. Bethinking: What in the World Is a Worldview?
3. James N. Anderson: What in the World Is a Worldview? Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5
4. Josh Blount: 5 Questions to Analyze Any Worldview

Related terms:

• apologetics

1 From What It TAKES to Make a Worldview by Dr. James N. Anderson.

Filed under Apologetics

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Theological Term of the Week: Mirror-Reading

mirror-reading
“A way of reading a New Testament passage that assumes that what the author writes reflects a problem or situation confronting the original audience.”1

• From How to Understand and Apply the New Testament by Andrew David Naselli:

Sometimes [a New Testament] author is writing to Christians about an error that false teachers are propagating in their midst. So our job is to read the text very carefully, over and over, and try to discern the nature of that error and what the antidote is. That kind of mirror-reading is not only good; it’s necessary because otherwise you won’t accurately understand a passage. This is especially important for books such as 1-2 Corinthians, Galatians, Colossians, and 1 John. You can be more confident that you are mirror-reading in a responsible way when the author specifically refers to problems in the church. Paul does this in 1 Corinthians 1:10-17 and all throughout the letter. He doesn’t need to lay out in great detail what the problems were because the Corinthians were already acquainted with their situation. But we are not the Corinthians, so we must responsibly read 1 Corinthians over and over and over in order to look for clues about their situation.

That’s how to mirror-read well: carefully read a book of the New Testament over and over and over. Look for clues in the text that tip you off to the situation. That’s a good and necessary way to read the New Testament.

• From Moises Silva in Introduction to Biblical Hemeneutics:2

The question is not whether we should read between the lines, but how we should do it. Certainly, the more an interpretation depends on inferences (as opposed to explicit statements in the text), the less persuasive it is. If a historical reconstruction disturbs (rather than reinforces) the apparent meaning of a passage, we should be skeptical of it. In contrast, if a scholar proposes a reconstruction that arises out of the text itself, and if that reconstruction in turn helps to make sense of difficult statements in the text, we need not reject it on the grounds that it is just a theory.

Learn more:

1. Andy Naselli: Mirror Reading
2. Andy Naselli: Is ‘Background Information’ Ever Necessary to Understand the Bible?

Related terms:

• biblical hermeneutics
• eisegesis
• epistle
• exegesis

1 From How to Understand and Apply the New Testament by Andrew David Naselli.

2 As quoted in How to Understand and Apply the New Testament by Andrew David Naselli.

Filed under Scripture

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Theological Term of the Week: Ectype

ectype
“A copy of the archetype. In theology, the creature is the ectype and God is the archetype.”1 Human knowledge, for instance, is ectypal. It is an imitation of God’s knowledge—derived from his knowledge and only a finite likeness of it.

• From scripture:

Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness… .

So God created man in his own image,

in the image of God he created him;

male and female he created them. 

(Genesis 1:26-27 ESV)

• From Systematic Theology by Louis Berkhof on human ectypal personality: 

We should be careful … not to set up man’s personality as a standard by which the personality of God must be measured. The original form of personality is not in man but in God; His is archetypal, while man’s is ectypal. The latter is not identical with the former, but does contain faint traces of similarity with it… . What appears as imperfect in man exists in infinite perfection in God.

Learn more:

1. Herman Bavinck: The Archetypal/Ectypal Distinction

Related terms:

• accomodation
• archetype
• image of God

1 From None Greater by Matthew Barrett.

Filed under Anthropology

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Clicking on the Theological Terms button will take you to an alphabetical list of all the theological terms.