Assignment

Seven Basic Worldview Questions

James Sire defines a worldview as “a commitment, a fundamentalorientation of the heart, that can be expressed as a story or in a set ofpresuppositions (assumptions which may be true, partially true or entirelyfalse) which we hold (consciously or subconsciously, consistently orinconsistently) about the basic constitution of reality, and that provides thefoundation on which we live and move and have our being.”* He assertsthat to understand the concept of worldview, we must answer thefollowing questions:

•What is prime reality?

•What is the nature of the world around us?

•What is a human being?

•What happens to a person at death?

•Why is it possible to know anything at all?

•How do we know what is right and wrong?

•What is the meaning of human history?

**For the Christian nurse, the answers to these questions come from thestories, themes and patterns found in the Bible. This careful study ofScripture reveals to us the nature of persons, the context in which we liveand practice, the meaning of health and the impetus for nursing care. ForChristians, prime reality is God, who created and sustains all things. Thus,this worldview is derived from a Christian theology of nursing.