Introduction
I haven’t written a blog series in a while, and I had this idea on writing about worldviews in a practical way. Most books and courses that teach worldviews do so on a philosophical level, with topics such as Rationalism; Marxism; Platonism; etc… and while this is very important, because ideas do begin in academia and filter down in various forms, most people don’t often think about ‘isms’ on this level. Or rather, they don’t see the connection between these ‘isms’ and how they play out in the real world.

It is in our cultural stories where ideas become practical, such as in movies, books, news media, and music. These often subtle ideas shape our thoughts and how we see reality. They are most powerful in narrative form which is why I’ve always felt that movies were the most influential form of media.

As I was thinking about this… I discovered a book that does this very thing. It is titled “Hidden Worldviews: Eight Cultural Stories that Shape our Lives” by Steve Wilkens and Mark Sanford.

So as I am reading this book, it has inspired my own ideas in presenting some of these thoughts. I like the layout of this book… and the eight discussed views are individualism, consumerism, nationalism, moral relativism, scientific naturalism, New Age thinking, postmodern tribalism and salvation. I would include some of these in my own list but not all of them. For example… Not sure that ‘New Age’ is a current story today… but something like ‘environmental spirit-ism’ would be. So.. I’m finding that I would fine-tune some of these and also include some others not mentioned.

Also, many of our cultural stories are not black and white ideologies. The point is not to simply address the negative aspects of the stories, but also the positive ones (as the authors of this book do as well). I hope to show examples of how these play out in our culture, and help us to recognize these stories behind the stories.

In my mind, there is nothing more important then understanding our cultural worldviews and the impact they have on our lives. In the next couple of months, I look to discover and clarify these narratives and hope these thoughts are useful for you as well.

I grew up in Astoria, Queens NY.
I recall at some point while I was growing up, how much I wanted to move out of there… it was crowded, too much traffic, too expensive, etc… Now that I don’t live there anymore, I really appreciate the qualities about Astoria… the uniqueness, the cultural diversity, the charm. These are all things that I didn’t notice when I was living there… from the inside.

It reminds me of the cultural story we are told that truth lies within us. If we look inside ourselves, our desires, our feelings, it is there that we define what matters. We shape our reality from the inside out.

However, it seems to me that reality is best defined when it is observed from the outside. Of course I don’t mean we have to step outside of ourselves, rather that we discover truth by looking out – the truth of the human condition; the meaning of life; what our purpose in life is.

One obvious example is that of morality. It would be a mistake for me to look inside myself to define what is morally right or wrong…. I know I would really make a mess of things. Rather, morality is a standard that I objectively observe in the world; a law of sorts. Morality is to be discovered, not imagined.

Like the physical realm, mathematics is not something I define, it is something I discover.

Truth in purpose, beauty, meaning, reality… I am convinced that you seek it outside of yourself, and let it define who you are. From the outside in.

It’s interesting how the term ‘Gospel’ is used in our culture and in Christian circles. Here are some examples that I can think of:

The Gospel can be defined as…
a style of music
a type of worship service
the plan of salvation
a personal relationship with Jesus
justification by faith
substitutionary atonement
John 3:16
forgiveness of sins
four books in the Bible
believing in Jesus
writings about Jesus
etc…

Of course when a word means everything, it ends up meaning nothing.

Here is my attempt at trying to define what I think the term meant in it’s original context. Of course this is influenced by scholars I’ve read such as N.T Wright, Dunn, and lately Scot McKnight in his latest book The King Jesus Gospel. It doesn’t follow the reformation tradition in defining the Gospel, but it does seem to make sense to me.

The Gospel is the (good news) announcement that the kingdom of God has arrived in the person and life of Jesus of Nazareth as the fulfillment of the story of Israel. That Jesus narrative brings forth the redemption of mankind and the eventual restoration of creation.

In many ways, only the first sentence of this Gospel outline is the pure proclamation, but the second sentence defines the purpose of the good news and so follows the pattern of the apostolic testimony.

Notice that there is nothing mentioned about believing or being justified. That is because there is a distinction between the proclamation of the Gospel and the response to it. This is in line with what the Apostle Paul mentions to the Corinthians when he states that “by this gospel you are saved… if you hold firmly To the word I preached to you.”

I’ve been reading Scot McKnight’s latest book “The King Jesus Gospel: The Original Good News Revisited” and although I am only half way through the book right now, it is worth mentioning it as an excellent resource on understanding the term “Gospel.”

Scot’s main argument is that the Gospel today, has been reduced to a personal plan of salvation; reshaped to facilitate making a decision. A kind of getting my sin’s forgiven, so I can go to heaven when I die. Scot contends that the Gospel as originally understood is more about the story of Jesus as the completion of the story of Israel. It is the announcement of Jesus as Lord (king) and how that plays out in a more holistic sense.

It’s important to note that Scot doesn’t disregard the salvation message as part of the Gospel, but rather that it flows out of the Story of Israel and thus the Story of Jesus. It is essentially a kingdom message that includes redemption as an outcome.

“The good news is that the more we submerge ‘salvation’ into the larger idea ‘gospel,’ the more robust will become our understanding of salvation.”

Scot uses 1st Corinthians 15 as a blueprint for understanding the Gospel. He unpacks it and cleverly shows how even the early Creeds have been influenced as a proclamation of faith from this passage. He continues by defining how ‘Gospel’ was used by the Apostles, and by Jesus himself.  The Gospel doesn’t equal a plan of salvation; it isn’t Justification by faith; It isn’t a personal commitment of belief. All and all, the Gospel is grounded on Kingdom theology – the narrative of Jesus bringing forth the kingdom. This then results in salvation as an outcome.

“The Reformation did not deny the gospel story and it did not deny the creeds. Instead, it put everything into a new order and into a new place”

There is much more I want to say about this book and it’s claims but I will continue to do so in some upcoming posts. When I first heard about this book, I had the impression that it was going to be highly academic and wrought with sophisticated theological details of Gospel language (which is okay with me), but I was pleasantly surprised at how accessible the book is.

Scot is an excellent writer, and where this book could have easily fell into complex dialog, Scot keeps it perfectly simplistic and to the point. Highly enjoyable and highly relevant.

The common perception of Jesus in our culture is that he would never have been understood by his contemporaries as a divine being. He was just a good moral Jewish guru who was deified by his followers centuries later. So you have this separation of the Jesus of history and the Christ of faith – every show on the history channel, magazine news story, and book sold during Easter or Christmas carries this theme.

However, N.T. Wright does a good job of portraying a very plausible understanding of a divine Jesus in the First Century. In his latest book “Simply Jesus” I enjoyed his characterization of how the Temple, which is the centerpiece of God’s dwelling place, had been redefined around Jesus.

“Heaven and earth were being joined up—but no longer in the Temple in Jerusalem. The joining place was visible where the healings were taking place, where the party was going on, where forgiveness was happening. In other words, the joining place, the overlapping circle, was taking place where Jesus was and in what he was doing. Jesus was, as it were, a walking Temple. A living, breathing place-where-Israel’s-God-was-living.” — N.T. Wright, Simply Jesus

When we think of a God-man in modern terms, we may think of somebody flying around and busting through buildings. Even in ancient times, a God-man for Greeks, or Romans, or Egyptians were superhero-like… crushing opponents with superhuman powers. It was in this supernatural strength… that the Gods were perceived. To be honest, it seems a bit artificial, kinda what people would fashion a God-man to be like.

For ancient Israel, The presence of God dwelt in the temple; sins were forgiven there; sacrifices were made there; people worshiped there; it was sacred space. But Jesus was forgiving sins and healing people right in the street; receiving worship right in the street; Judaism’s “incarnational” symbol of God’s presence was the Temple… but it was being redefined around Jesus.

In fact.. the Jews even asked Jesus:
“What miraculous sign can you show us to prove your authority to do all this?” Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and I will raise it again in three days.” The Jews replied, “It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and you are going to raise it in three days?” But the temple he had spoken of was his body. After he was raised from the dead, his disciples recalled what he had said.” – John 2:18-21

Jesus then took on the final act of Temple ownership – the sacrifice being his own, again, separate from the Temple space. less then 40 years after Jesus, the Temple was crushed to bits by the Romans and was no more.