DESCRIPTION: In some sense, everybody has a worldview, more or less
self-conscious and coherent. The different worldviews have a major impact on
our values and actions. Do Christians have also a specific worldview? Or do
they usually and easily adopt the world's worldviews, just adapting them to the
gospel or also adapting the gospel to them? To answer these questions we will
have to explore what a worldview is exactly, if there is such thing as a
worldview previous to modernity, and if postmodernism is or is not a worldview.
These questions will guide us to a more comprehensive question about the
relationship between Christianity and its context, not just in the past, but
also in our postmodern context.
SIGNIFICANCE FOR LIFE AND MINISTRY: This course will aid the pastor, the
evangelist, the teacher, the counsellor to be sensitive to basic
assumptions--conscious and unconscious--that form people's values and affect
their responses to faith.
LEARNING OUTCOMES: This course is intended to increase the student's skills in
critical thinking and academic writing. It aims to promote the student's
ability to address intellectual problems and promote the appreciation of
scholars with different views. There are also three more specific outcomes of
this course: First, the student will learn to think about the relationship
between the gospel and its social and cultural context. Second, the student
will explore the concept of "worldview" (cosmovisión), with attention to
the particular elements of worldviews and how they form, undergo alteration,
and disappear. Third, the student will examine the situation of Christian faith
in different contexts, past and present. Finally, the student will identify the
peculiar challenges to Christian faith in the global emergence of "postmodern"
culture and will explore Christian responses to postmodernism.
COURSE FORMAT: The course will meet once a week for three-hour sessions
consisting of lectures and discussion. The course will be taught using live
video feed technology.
REQUIRED READING: