Kennedy’s book is a welcome contribution to the critical discussion of worldview, especially as it affects Christian educational institutions. It provides a substantive history of worldview in German idealism and Dutch Neo-Calvinism. It offers guidance toward a Christian epistemology that is objective, rather than subjective in orientation. And while it does not answer all the questions that arise, it opens up a discussion, inviting further contributions to the Christian theory of knowledge beyond the deductive model of a Christian worldview.

Christian teaching about worldview has done much to alert us to the biases that prevent secular scholars and journalists from objectivity. However, the language of “worldview” has also, at times, been used to suggest that Christians cannot be objective either. We must instead introduce our own worldview, our own bias, into our intellectual engagement with the world.

But is worldview the right solution, or a concession to subjectivism?

Simon P. Kennedy, author of Against Worldview and research fellow at the University of Queensland (AU), encountered this question as a professor. The Christian college at which he taught required that every course have “a learning outcome related to a Christian worldview.” But for reasons he could not yet articulate, Kennedy felt that this exercise was forced or artificial. He puzzled over how to “frame a Christian worldview learning outcome” for courses as diverse as mathematics, ancient poetry, and World War II history. Of course, he wanted his students to be Christian and to think about the world as Christians. But something about the concept of a worldview did not sit right.

In his book, Kennedy articulates the reasons for his discomfort. He objects to a deductive model of worldview: At the beginning of our investigations, we download a correct worldview from the Bible, later applying to each subject matter we encounter. In contrast, he recommends an inductive model: A Christian worldview is the product of continuous study and interaction with the world God has made. It is the pursuit of wisdom, rather than rigid adherence to a prior worldview.

Christian education at every level has been impacted by the worldview approach to Christian thinking. On this account, education and study of the different disciplines of human learning must be guided by an over-arching worldview. Helpfully, Against Worldview appears to be targeted toward not only Christian academics but Christian educators generally. It is informative, but also accessible.

In the first chapter, Kennedy introduces his own motivation for the project, including both his personal story as a Christian educator, mentioned above, and his philosophical objections to the worldview-model. The temptation might be to teach the course as it would be taught at a secular university, but with intermittent sprinklings of Bible verses. How distinctive does it have to be?

In the second chapter, Kennedy details the history of worldview. He focuses on proving two claims: that worldview thinking derives from German idealism, and it is designed for ideological conflict. On the first point, the notion of worldview is derived from German idealism: Kant, Schelling, and Hegel. According to idealism, the mind does not passively experience reality; it shapes reality by its own concepts. In Hegel especially, “worldview” comes to mean a perspective on the world that shapes perception and differs between cultures, religions, and philosophies. Dutch Neo-Calvinists, chiefly Abraham Kuyper, took up this notion. Kuyper’s ideological descendants were Cornelius Van Til and Francis Schaeffer, from whom the evangelical worldview movement arose.

Read More