Essentials of Worldview Analysis: Phillosophy of History Flashcards
Worldview
The sum total of a person’s answers to life’s most important questions
Does everyone have a worldview?
Yes, even if they are not aware of it.
If a person is not aware of their worldview, they are probably not familiar with the content of their worldview
Why the Christian worldview?
It offers coherent answers to life’s most important questions
6 most fundamental components of a worldview?
- God
- Ultimate Reality
- Ethics
- Human Knowledge
- Human Beings
- History
How is history related to Christian revelation?
While other religions find revelation in mystical or rational experience, the Christian faith primarily finds revelation in historical events
Christians believe that God has revealed himself through history. That God entered into history approx 2000 years ago
Christians believe that certain historical events like the death and resurrection of Christ are necessary conditions for the truth of Christianity.
Christians believe that historical evidence can prove the claims of Christianity, and therefore the Christian faith is reasonable.
This also means that if the Christian claims can be shown to be unhistorical, the Christian faith would be seriously jeopardized
The Christian faith, therefore, is a historical faith in that it is more than the mere acceptance of some intellectual or theistic philosophy
How is history religious?
History provides us with religious doctrine which are at the same time historical events and historical interpretations
What is history?
The Narrative, account, or record of the past
A narrative that connects significant past events in a way that makes them intelligible.
Chronicle
A simple narative
A mere record of events in chronological order, without any statement of their significance.
Histori and Geschichte
Histori (objective historical) is simply the recording of past events.
Geschichte (existential historical) has to do with historical phenomena that concern us existentially, that makes some sort of demand on us, and calls for commitment.
Geschichte calls for a decision on our part
Even though people may agree on the events of Histori, they may disagree on the Geschichte (existential meaning of the events)
Historians may all agree that Christ was crucified (Histori), but the Geschichte of that event will be different for the Atheist and the Christian.
Are historians objective?
History requires interpretation which is inescapably dependent on the historian’s presuppositions, presuppositions that the historian cannot suspend at will.
What does it mean when we say that the meaning of historical facts does not arise from the facts?
Meaning is dependent on interpretation
Some People (liberal Christians, Deists) believe that even if an event did not happen in the world of space and time, it is still possible for these events to have meaning as Geschichte for them. Kind of like the way allegories and metaphors are not historical events but have meaning.
Pastors that believe that the resurrection is not a historical event, still preach sermons on the resurrection. They are engaged in the strange enterprise of seeking existential significance (Geschichte) in an event that never happened.
What does it mean when we say that the meaning of historical facts does not arise from the facts?
Meaning is dependent on interpretation
Some People (liberal Christians, Deists) believe that even if an event did not happen in the world of space and time, it is still possible for these events to have meaning as Geschichte for them. Kind of like the way allegories and metaphors are not historical events but have meaning.
Pastors that believe that the resurrection is not a historical event, still preach sermons on the resurrection. They are engaged in the strange enterprise of seeking existential significance (Geschichte) in an event that never happened.
