Different ways of thinking

We all have different ways of thinking. As the son of a missionary, I was confronted with this on a fairly regular basis, as I was called upon to change cultures and countries on several occasions. When I found myself with people who didn’t come from the same region as me, I quickly realized that they didn’t start from the same presuppositions. For example, an Asian will attach more value to honor. Their children’s upbringing will therefore be stricter than in the West. On the other hand, in a very post-modern culture, we often cherish the affirmation of the individual. Based on this presupposition, we find it hard to correct children, because we don’t want to hinder their freedom and development.

Deep divisions

Don’t you see? Because of our upbringing, our culture, our friends, our reading, etc., we have ways of thinking that lead us to act in a certain way. Not knowing our own presuppositions, as well as those of the people we communicate with, means that we often find ourselves in a state of mutual incomprehension. Let’s take an example. In English, one of the words for university is « college » (which means middle school in French). This got me into a lot of trouble, because when I was in 6th grade, I told all my American friends that I was in college. No one understood me because the words we used didn’t have the same meaning.

So we need to understand other people’s language and ways of thinking before we can express our ideas to them. Otherwise, we can use our own patois (called Canaan dialect), using words like sin, grace, God, repentance, etc., and communicate a message quite different from the one we had in mind. Let’s take a moment to analyze the word « repentance ». For our Western culture, what this word evokes is highly connotated, which means that our understanding of it is radically different from that found in the Bible. In the first case, it’s a question of feeling guilty about something, but without implying any specific action; it’s more a general feeling. Whereas in the second case, it’s about a movement: leaving an idol to go to God and ask his forgiveness for something bad you’ve done. So we have to be careful. We can sometimes feel close to certain people because we use the same words when in reality we’re not communicating the same meaning. This leads to all kinds of problems.

Worldviews

Evangelical author Charles Colson, in his book co-written with Nancy Pearcey, describes this very well: « Our choices are shaped by what we believe to be real and true, right or wrong, good and beautiful. Our choices are shaped by our worldview. The term worldview may sound abstract or philosophical, a subject discussed by professors in an academic situation, with a pipe… But a person’s worldview is so concrete. It’s simply the sum of all our beliefs about the world, the « big picture » that drives our decisions and actions day after day. Understanding these worldviews is extremely important ».1 In another book, Nancy Pearcey develops this idea a little further: « Even ordinary people have a set of beliefs about how reality works and how they should live. Because we are created in God’s image, we all seek to make sense of life. Some of these convictions are conscious, while others are unconscious, but together they form a more or less coherent vision of reality. Human beings are « incapable of holding purely arbitrary opinions or making entirely unprincipled decisions », writes Al Wolters in his book on worldviews. Because we are rational by nature, as well as responsible beings, we feel that « we need a creed by which to live, a map on which to chart our course « 2. Worldviews therefore underlie the way we think and live. It’s vital that we take the time to analyze and understand them. Without this, we won’t be able to effectively communicate the gospel to those around us, and come closer to a more biblical worldview. Over the next few articles, we’ll look in more depth at the role of worldviews, their influences and their problems.

1 Charles COLSON & Nancy PEARCEY, How Should We Now Live ?, Tyndale House Publishers, Inc, Wheaton, Illinois, 1999, p. 13-14.

2 Nancy PEARCEY, Total Truth, liberating Christianity from its cultural captivity, Crossway books, Wheaton, Illinois, 2005, p. 23.