Thursday, May 8, 2014

Book Review: What's Your Worldview? (2014)

What's Your Worldview? An Interactive Approach to Life's Big Questions. James N. Anderson. 2014. Crossway. 112 pages. [Source: Bought]

What's Your Worldview? is a unique nonfiction book written for believers and unbelievers alike. It is a choose your own adventure book. Yes, a choose your own adventure book!

You, the reader, will be asked a series of questions. Context will be provided for each question; context that will prepare you to think and answer the question asked of you. Go to the page it says, answer more questions, and, finally arrive at the answer to the big question: what's YOUR worldview?

The purpose of the book is simple:
To help you identify and clarify your worldview. To encourage you to consider the big questions and to think through some of the implications of various answers. To help you appreciate that there are important differences between worldviews—and that not all worldviews are created equal! 
What is a worldview?
Your worldview represents your most fundamental beliefs and assumptions about the universe you inhabit. It reflects how you would answer all the “big questions” of human existence, the fundamental questions we ask about life, the universe, and everything… worldviews play a central and defining role in our lives. They shape what we believe and what we’re willing to believe, how we interpret our experiences, how we behave in response to those experiences, and how we relate to others.
Worldviews are like belly buttons. Everyone has one, but we don’t talk about them very often.
So what sorts of questions are asked?
  • Is there any objective truth?
  • Is it possible to know the truth?
  • Is anything objectively good or bad?
  • Is there more than one valid religion?
  • Is there a God?
  • Is God a personal being?
  • Is God a perfect being?
  • Has God communicated with humans?
  • Has God communicated openly to humans?
  • Did Jesus of Nazareth rise from the dead?
  • Was Jesus of Nazareth divine?
  • Do good people go to heaven and bad people to hell?
  • Is everything ultimately one?
  • Is everything ultimately material in nature?
  • Is everything ultimately mental in nature?
  • Is the universe God?
  • Is the universe within God?
  • Is there only one God?
  • Was Muhammad a true prophet of God?
  • Was Moses a true prophet of God?
Not every reader will answer every question. YOUR answers provide the path to arriving at a conclusion.

What's Your Worldview? has a very interesting premise. I liked it very much. It is not a traditional book at all. It's not one that you read cover-to-cover. It's a book ideal for sharing, a book ideal for discussion. I think it would be a great choice for families, for small groups, for classes. It is a thoughtful book that requires your engagement. But it is also a reader-friendly book.

© Becky Laney of Operation Actually Read Bible

1 comment:

Carol said...

Sounds like an interesting one to read with a group of people. May have to add it to my list.