WORLDVIEW is at the heart of all culture. It involves presuppositions (often unspoken) that are so basic that the people holding to them may not even realize that they are there. For this reason, it is highly advisable for anyone dealing with people from a different culture to first do some self-analysis. Ethnocentrism is notoriously difficult to avoid and it can rear its ugly head even when well-meaning people are consciously trying to show acceptance of the other culture.

Some of the major worldviews are the Chinese, the Islamic, the Hindu, the primal and the secular. It is often assumed that people who live in Western nations will automatically hold a secular worldview. But, in multi-cultural nations like Australia, this assumption is no longer valid.

The secular, materialist culture markets itself aggressively and undoubtedly asserts a significant influence on many people, but if you ask the right questions of individuals from different cultural backgrounds, you should still be able to discern a variety of worldviews.

David Burnett, in his excellent book "Clash of Worlds" (Marc 1990), evaluates the different worldviews on six criteria; understanding of the cosmos (reality), the self (human-ness), knowing, community, time and value. In his conclusion, he quotes Mark Cosgrove:

"I feel that Christian theism offers the most defensible worldview available to psychology. It fits our data and experience. It is broad enough to explain all the data on man, and yet it is detailed enough to be tested." (Psychology Gone Awry: IVP 1979)

The problem is that many Christians have settled for a worldview that is either too materialistic or too superstitious. To talk about a "Christian worldview" might end up being way too ambiguous. In the end, what we should be aiming for is a biblical worldview. In my opinion, this would include an understanding of God as our holy, sovereign, loving Creator and an understanding of ourselves as created in God's image, but inherently sinful. We need God's mercy and forgiveness as made available through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ.

A biblical worldview will obviously make certain assumptions about the reliability of the Bible. Some Christians might say that you cannot hold a truly biblical worldview; and they might prefer to talk about a Christian worldview (coloured no doubt by their own presuppositions about what that might mean: liberal, sacramental, evangelical, etc.)

It is a traumatic thing to change worldview, but it certainly does happen. David Burnett, for example, gives a fascinating description of his own worldview transformation. "For myself the change occurred in the basic assumptions which I held. The failure of the secular worldview led me to re-examine its assumptions, and finally to change my allegiance from a materialistic to a theistic philosophy." (Clash of Worlds p223)

In a very real sense, all evangelism represents a challenge to established worldview. Christians who want to present their faith effectively need to understand this dynamic.