Naming the Elephant: Worldview as a Concept

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Overview

What is a worldview?

What lies behind your thoughts about almost everything?

For more than thirty years, James W. Sire has grappled with this issue. In this book he offers readers his most mature thought on the concept of a worldview, addressing such questions as
What is the history of the concept itself?What is the first question you should ask in formulating a worldview?How are worldviews formed ...

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More About This Book

Overview

What is a worldview?

What lies behind your thoughts about almost everything?

For more than thirty years, James W. Sire has grappled with this issue. In this book he offers readers his most mature thought on the concept of a worldview, addressing such questions as
What is the history of the concept itself?What is the first question you should ask in formulating a worldview?How are worldviews formed existentially as well as intellectually?Is a worldview primarily an intellectual system, a way of life or a story?What are the public and private dimensions of a worldview?What role can worldview thinking play in assessing your own worldview and those of others, especially in light of the pluralism in today's world?
In his widely used textbook The Universe Next Door, first published in 1976, Sire offered a succinct definition of a worldview and catalogued in summary fashion seven basic worldview alternatives. Students, critics, new literature and continued reflection have led him to reexamine and refine his definition of a worldview. This companion volume to The Universe Next Door is the fruit of that effort.

Here is an excellent resource for exploring more deeply how and why worldview thinking can aid you in navigating your pluralistic universe.

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Editorial Reviews

Publishers Weekly
Sire, who as an InterVarsity Press editor and author of The Universe Next Door helped introduce Christian college students to "worldview," revisits the subject with a more technical approach that sacrifices the essential simplicity of the earlier work. The title refers to the story of a father asked to explain what holds up the world. Eventually he chooses "the biggest animal he could think of and put a capital on it... `It's an Elephant... it's Elephant all the way down.' " Like the Elephant, a worldview is expected to answer big questions about "the basic makeup of our world," and is likely "brought to mind only when we are challenged by a foreigner from another ideological universe." Sire notes that such challenges are mounting in our increasingly pluralistic world, even though the basic menu of worldview options remains mostly unchanged from a generation ago, with the (grudgingly acknowledged) addition of postmodernism. In defining the concept of worldview, Sire goes beyond his earlier treatment of worldviews as "answers to a systematic set of questions" to consider other possibilities. A worldview can also take the form of a story, a way of life, a pre-theoretical intuition or a pattern of actions. Such alternatives promote a nuanced appreciation of worldviews, and of the serious difficulty in communicating across worldview frontiers. But for all these refinements, Sire's message remains basically the same: Christians tend to have Christian beliefs, and others tend not to. (June) Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.
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Product Details

  • ISBN-13: 9780830827794
  • Publisher: InterVarsity Press
  • Publication date: 5/28/2004
  • Pages: 170
  • Sales rank: 249,482
  • Product dimensions: 5.50 (w) x 8.50 (h) x 0.39 (d)

Meet the Author

James W. Sire (Ph.D., University of Missouri), formerly a senior editor at InterVarsity Press, is an active speaker and writer. He has taught English, philosophy, theology, and short courses at many universities and seminaries. He continues to be a frequent guest lecturer in the United States and Europe.

His InterVarsity Press books and Bible studies include The Universe Next Door (a worldviews textbook), Scripture Twisting, Discipleship of the Mind, Chris Chrisman Goes to College, Why Should Anyone Believe Anything at All?, Habits of the Mind: Intellectual Life as a Christian Calling, Naming the Elephant: Worldview as a Concept, Learning to Pray Through the Psalms, Why Good Arguments Often Fail and A Little Primer on Humble Apologetics.

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Table of Contents

Acknowledgments
Preface
1. Camel, Kangaroo and Elephant
2. Worldview Definitions: From Dilthey to Naugle
3. First Things First: Being or Knowing
4. Flesh and Bones: Theoretical and Pretheoretical
5. Rational System, Way of Life and Master Story
6. Worldviews: Public and Private
7. Worldview: A Refined Definition
8. Intelligent People Who Clash by Day: Worldviews as a Tool for Analysis
Index
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Sort by: Showing 1 Customer Reviews

  • Posted August 25, 2009

    more from this reviewer

    I Also Recommend:

    Universe Next Door: A Basic Worldview Catalog
    How to Read Slowly

    Wise reading!

    I read the 4th edition of The Universe Next Door (having read the 1st edition when it was new and I was in college!) and then had to go on to Naming the Elephant. This is not light reading, something you can pick up for a few minutes in the bathroom and put down again, over and over, but it is certainly worth the slight extra effort you may have to put into reading it! Sire is such a sound thinker, and expresses himself clearly despite his obvious high intelligence (that would make it easy for him to go way over my head with abstruse jargon). I, alas, cannot express myself nearly as clearly, so I can't describe the book very well. Read it, you will be challenged, improved, and then write a better review here and displace mine!

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