uiwr University of Calgary
Educational Resources Against Worldviews
under construciton
What are Worldviews?   Religious Worldviews   Secular Worldviews   Against Worldviews

This section of the Understanding World Religions website explores some dangers in worldview thinking.
     
Jeremy Hexham The Appropriation of the Dutch neo-Calvinist concept of "worldview,".  
     

Karl Popper

In The Myth of Framework Sir Karl Popper warns against the misuse of the term worldview as a type of framework that works like a gps system for ideas. In doing so he warns his readers that this is exactly how the Nazis used the term in books like Alfred Rosenberg's The Myth of the Twentieth Century.

In recent years many evangelical Christians and others have taken up the terms "worldview" and "worldview analysis" as a apologetic tool. In doing many believe that they are following the lead of Dr. Francis Schaeffer when he actually preferred the term "presuppostions" to "worldviews."

The problem is that few people realize that these terms orginated as a way of attacking Christianity in early nineteeth century Germany. In his book The Myth of Frameworks Karl Popper presents a strong warning against the misuse of the idea of worldviews that needs to be heeded. Unfortunatly, his work is is only available as a published book.

 
     
For a discussion of this issue view Jeremy Hexham's power point slide On Worldviews    
     
     
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This website was first created in 2011 as a basic website. It was extensively revised to the extent that it became a new website in 2014. At that time new sections of various world religions, links to classic texts, the sections on worldviews and the extended sections on Christianity were added. All texts and graphics on Understanding World Religions are protected by copyright, 1995, 199, 2011, 2014.Permission to reproduce material found on this Web Site must be obtained from the appropriate copyright owner. World religions graphic by Christopher Tobias from Irving Hexham's Understanding World Religions, Zondervan, Grand Rapids, Concise Dictionary of Religion, InterVarsity Press, Carol Stream, 1994.