Starting Points World View Primer

This course offers students the materials for building a biblical worldview. Besides reading and contemplating a handful of recommended books, students will have the opportunity to further form and express their own opinions through five included writing assignments. The book is composed of 33 weeks of study, divided into four different sections. For the first nine weeks, students focus on building the biblical worldview. They read How to Read Slowly, Answers for Difficult Days and Know What You Believe, answering questions and analyzing statements. This book provides worksheets with outlines and questions for students to complete. After studying these two books for seven weeks, an eighth week is devoted to the first writing assignment, an essay for the student to write about their personal worldview. An outline with specific guidelines and questions to address is included to help the student complete their essay. For the next nine weeks, students identify literature based upon the biblical worldview. In this section, students will several books and watch a couple of videos to determine if they're based on the biblical worldview. These books include several of The Chronicles of Narnia, Frankenstein, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, and The Deadliest Monster, and the videos are It's a Wonderful Life and The Wizard of Oz. While reading and watching these sources, students will compare and contrast key characters, places and events to biblical themes, God, and the biblical worldview. Thought provoking questions encourage students to think about the inspiration and meanings behind some of these writings and scripts. After completing The Chronicles of Narnia, students complete another essay about the world of Narnia. Again, an outline with aids them in their formation of ideas, topic sentences, organization, and overall layout. A third essay is written upon the completion of Frankenstein, in which readers carefully examine author Mary Shelley's worldview following the provided outline. Next, students read Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and then examine Robert Louis Stevenson's worldview through an essay. By the end of these nine weeks, students should be well equipped to evaluate whether or not literature is based on the biblical worldview. The next nine-week section is entitled Speaking the Biblical Worldview into the Culture. Students learn three approaches for talking with non-Christians in the 21st century. Here, students resume reading Know Why You Believe and also Mere Christianity and Assumptions. Students examine the topics presented by answering question and studying the texts. Questions such as "Is Christianity Rational?" "Did Christ Rise from the Dead?" "Why Does God Allow Suffering and Evil?" and "Is Christian Experience Valid?" are discussed in Know Why You Believe. Mere Christianity presents the topics "Law of Human Nature," "The Three Parts of Morality," "Forgiveness," and "Counting the Cost." Assumptions cover issues of cultural assumptions, the value of human life, and separation of church and state. All three of these books offer extensive explanations of a wide variety of both important and foundational topics. The section Founding of a Nation Based Upon the Biblical Worldview includes six weeks spent studying the book Never Before in History. This book explores the political and religious backdrop for the founding of the United States and the ideas the founding fathers used to write the Declaration and the Bill of Rights. In the second week students write their last essay, concerning political and religious backdrop. The final two weeks of the course are devoted to tying up loose ends. These chapters offer final thoughts and questions along with a short tie into the next book, World Views of the Western World. 479 pgs. - Melissa