Michael W. Goheen - Living at the Crossroads: An Introduction to Christian Worldview

If you havent been able to keep up with all the books on a Christian worldview that have appeared in recent years, now is the time to act. Read this book. Goheen and Bartholomew not only have made use of all the other worldview books but also have written a volume that distinguishes itself. Illuminating our times with historical perspective, biblical depth, and social breadth, the authors show what a biblical worldview should mean for us today.

James W. Skillen, president, Center for Public Justice

As the title implies, this book shows that a Christian worldview is not merely something of intellectual importance, but it has relevance to the whole of life. Clearly written and powerfully argued, Living at the Crossroads is rooted in biblical faith but reaches out to engage the contemporary world in a historically informed way. This is essential reading for thoughtful Christians who wish to live out the gospel and love God with all of their being.

C. Stephen Evans, University Professor of Philosophy
and Humanities, Baylor University

This book means to put genuine life back into worldview studies. Bartholomew and Goheen present a Reformational world-and-life view with missional dynamic. Biblical theology and an evangelizing church enter fully into their reflection on following Jesus in every sphere of human society in todays mixed-up, deteriorating world culture. The authors bring redemptive insight to bear upon Western history, business, politics, art, and spirituality as well as the resurgence of Islam, and they do it in clear, passionate, down-to-earth language. Living at the Crossroads is basic, an invigorating challenge to anyone who would become a mature disciple of Jesus Christ.

Calvin Seerveld, Institute for Christian Studies, emeritus

Knowing where you have come from is nearly as important as knowing where you want to go. Goheen and Bartholomew trace the deep roots of our contemporary Western worldview in that kind of easy, broad-brush comprehensiveness that makes one exclaim, Yes of course, thats exactly the way things areand why! But alongside that, they do an equally good job in presenting the biblical worldview as the story that tells it like it really is, for life, the universe, and everything. Thats the way things arebut as God sees them. The combination powerfully forces us to see the dissonance between the two and the stark choice that Christians need to make. Which story do we live by? Which road do we travel from the crossroads? But the book is far from all theory. It grounds the challenge of living out the Christian story in a variety of practical, up-to-date, areas of life in the world around us. This is a book filled with eye-opening insight, biblical nourishment, practical challenge, and robust hope. It turns the mission of God into our mission in the world and compels us to make some radical choices.

Christopher J. H. Wright, international director,
Langham Partnership International

Finally, a worldview text that moves incisively beyond mere theory. Living atthe Crossroads is profound and practical, intelligent and warmly pastoral as it proceeds from a comprehensive understanding of the biblical story to an insightful engagement with twenty-first-century issues. Goheen and Bartholomew write out of their deep missional commitment with admirable clarity. They beckon us into a faithful and relevant involvement with complex issues, including globalization, postmodernity, consumerism, and the resurgence of Islam. Living at the Crossroads will stir you to embrace both unbearable tension and unprecedented opportunities to bring genuine hope to a waiting world. It is a must read for all who long to develop a worldview shaped by Gods Word.

Rod Thompson, School of Theology, Laidlaw College

2008 by Michael W. Goheen and Craig G. Bartholomew

Published by Baker Academic
a division of Baker Publishing Group
P.O. Box 6287, Grand Rapids, MI 49516-6287
www.bakeracademic.com

Ebook edition created 2010

Ebook corrections 04.02.2014, 02.10.2016, 02.21.2017

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any meansfor example, electronic, photocopy, recordingwithout the prior written permission of the publisher. The only exception is brief quotations in printed reviews.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is on file at the Library of Congress, Washington, DC.

ISBN 978-1-4412-0199-7

Unless otherwise indicated, Scripture quotations are from the Holy Bible, Todays New International Version. TNIV. Copyright 2001, 2005 by Biblica, Inc. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. www.zondervan.com

Scripture quotations labeled NIV are from the Holy Bible, New International Version. NIV. Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984, by Biblica, Inc. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. www.zondervan.com

To
Pieter and Fran Vanderpol
John and Jenny Hultink

In appreciation for their commitment to Christian scholarship

Contents

Our Stories

Life isor should beabout knowing God deeply. This book emerges out of the journeys we have been on since God turned our own lives upside down by drawing us to his Son.

Mike grew up in a Baptist church. The gospel that was preached there was one of individual, future, and otherworldly salvation. It was all about going to heaven when you die. Nevertheless, that church was a place where God was at work through the gospel; people loved the Lord, and their faith was alive. Mike remains grateful for much in this traditionfor example, its earnest commitment to reading Scripture, to prayer, and to evangelism; its stress on the importance of individual holiness and morality; and its emphasis on the personal relationship that we have with Jesus. These remain important issues for every Christian, and Mike is thankful for this early training. Yet it had little to say about the broader, public life of Western culturepolitics, economics, scholarship, education, work, leisure, entertainment, and sports.

During Mikes seminary years he began to see that the gospel that Jesus preached was a gospel of the kingdom. The good news is much bigger than Mike had been led to believe: God is restoring his rule over all of human life in Jesus and by the Spirit. Further reading during those seminary years in literature that explored the Christian worldview began to open up the implications of this scriptural insight for a Christian approach to the public life of culture. It was exciting, akin to a second conversion! The gospel had something to say about all of human life.

Doing his doctorate on the work of Lesslie Newbigin, one of the greatest missiologists of the twentieth century, Mike found his conviction deepened and strengthened. Having served as a missionary in India for most of his adult life, Newbigin was concerned in the last years of his life to bring the gospel to bear on the public life of Western culture. Newbigin shared many of the convictions that Mike had embraced during his seminary days. But Newbigin also had fresh emphases and critiques that were important in Mikes worldview development. Mike got to know Lesslie Newbigin well, and his influence helped Mike to see the integral connection between mission and a Christian worldview.

For the better part of the last two decades, Mike has taught numerous worldview courses to undergraduates and graduates of varying denominational backgrounds in various parts of the world. But the importance of worldview for living has moved beyond the classroom for Mike. It moved him and his wife, Marnie, to struggle with the implications of the gospel for education and to undertake the home schooling of their four kids with the intention of shaping their education with the gospel. This change affected numerous areas of life, but it has especially opened up the arts, literature, and music. Marnie shared and participated in the same worldview conversion that Mike did. Her new appreciation of the arts as Gods gift was passed along to her family. Their four kids became an accomplished string quartet and devoted themselves to the study of literature, music, and the other arts. It has led on to graduate studies in the arts and music for several of them up to the PhD level. Mike and Marnies life is still filled with concerts, now at a professional level, in which their children play. This is only one way that a broadening worldview has affected Mike and his family, but it shows that ones view of the gospel does have consequences.