Biblical Worldview as a Driving Force of the Learning System
By Rod Dreher
Rawlings School of Divinity
CLED 720: Biblical & Theological Foundations of Education
Genevieve Hamer
July 1, 2022
Biblical Worldview as a Driving Force of the Learning System
A Biblical worldview forms the framework for any of the interpretative activities, such as
philosophising, reading, teaching, judging and evaluating (Walsh and Middleton, 1984). This
principle helps educators to understand the impact of their own worldview. This in turn helps
them to understand who they are, where they are, and where they are going (Van der Walt
2003, 40). Understanding their own worldview consequently helps them to understand the
student’s cultural background. It also helps them to understand the importance of the student’s
identity in a multicultural classroom.
South Africa’s pluralistic societies are in a process of developing a new way of
understanding and viewing the reality around themselves. Therefore, the principle assists the
educators to validate and check whether the worldview that is driving the curriculum
implementation is in line with the Word of God. Walsh and Middleton’s questions can be used
as a criterion for evaluating the validity of one’s worldview as a vision of life:
Does it elucidate all of life?
Can it open up all of life to those who adhere to it?
Is it truly a worldview?
Does it tend to open up only to some aspects of life or ignore others?
Does it overemphasise or idolise one thing at the expense of others? (Walsh and
Middleton, 1984. p. 36).
Challenge facing Rainbow Nation
The emphasis of the above questions is on the transparency and holistic nature of such a
worldview. There are challenges that are facing South Africa’s Rainbow Nation (Tutu, 1999)
today. The nation cannot escape the fact that, although people may interpret the realities of
life differently, they have the same structure of reality and they are all bound by South Africa’s
Constitution (Act, No. 108 of 1996). It gives the framework that forms the structure of the
worldview of a pluralistic society.
1. “Heal the divisions of the past and establish a society based on democratic values, social
justice and fundamental human rights”.
2. “Improve the quality of life for all citizens and free the potential of each person and lay
the foundation for a democratic society and the law equally protects open society in which
education is based on the will and needs of the people and every citizen”.
3. “Build a united and democratic South Africa, able to take its rightful place as a sovereign
state in the family of nations”.
The Biblical worldview captures this principle well. It can therefore be used as a tool for
Christian education. It is the right vehicle to foster shared values, patriotism and a common
identity as a nation. The advantage of a Biblical worldview is that it helps the teacher to
develop their classroom initiatives. It also helps students to answer the theological: who am I?
Where am I coming from? Where am I going? It further helps the Christian institution to
achieve its vision, mission and the ultimate goal. These catered around learners’ expected
outcomes.
Model for Success
Our institutions must become very effective learning centres, places that teach and model
the living, breathing gospel of Jesus Christ. God calls us to build relationships that transform
people and ultimately culture and society. Our success will thus depend on the type of people
we put in our classroom. It will further depend on the quality of their relationship with our God
and students. But not only personal relationships, we need men and women who will able to
help the young people to answer the questions on meaning. Why do we exist? Where am I
going? And how shall I live?
Why are we here?
This is the question that asks for the reasons for our existence. The type of Christian
education that we offer should equip our students. It should help them to live a life without
fear. Whether we acknowledge it or not, our greatest fear and danger is not the fear of death
but fear and danger of life without direction. It is the fear to be the captive of empty existence,
or the danger of walking through life without meaning.
You wonder why so many young people are committing suicide; is it because we are living
in an age, which no longer has an answer to humanity’s urgent question? Why do I exist?
Our greatest problem today is not that we do not know enough knowledge, knowledge is
overflowing; rather the problem is that such knowledge is, unfortunately, flowing
meaninglessly.
Whatever we teach we need to do it in a way that will help our students to get the
meaning of what they are doing. It should further also give them reasons for what they are
doing. In other words, we can no longer be satisfied teaching them to know; we must strive to
teach them what to do with what they know; and this requires meaning, rather than just mere
knowledge. That is, it requires a certain kind of faith. This is teaching from a Biblical worldview.
Where are we going?
This teleological question—the question of direction and destiny—does not deal with our
origin. On the contrary it deals with our destination. It deals with the ultimate goal of our lives.
We are living at a time where people measure direction and destiny by success, efficiency,
competition and achievement. More wealth motivates us and we teach them for more money,
recognition and prestige. The questions about the meaning of their goals are, however, seldom
asked, and fewer times answered.
Unfortunately, even by those parameters our young men and women are not making it. For
example, there are many dropouts, forced through poverty or voluntarily because of
meaninglessness. Even the most so-called successful are often not too happy. They have been
pushed into the endless and meaningless circle of getting more and more.
Our education programs should be able to equip young people with the understanding that
Christ has conquered the threatening meaninglessness. Instead of being travellers down a cul-
de-sac or wanderers to nowhere, they should know that it is Christ alone who can lead them to
their final destination. It is not death but eternity. They need to realize that Shalom is a life-
giving meaning for society and culture. Peace and justice, wholeness and equality, freedom and
joy are the marks of meaning. Itrequires a certain kind of hope. This is education from a Biblical
worldview.
How then shall we live?
This is Bennie van der Walt’s third question about meaning. Unlike the first and second
questions, this one does not deal with our origin nor destination. It deals with the present
reality on our way from origin to destination.
The fundamental reason why many today have no answer to the questions of where and
how is because they have not answered the question, why.
If God does not exist, we lose the creator-creation distinction. Perhaps then the world
becomes completely explicable (however, this is a purely Greek idea). But if God does exist,
then the creation’s origin and destiny retain a certain mystery, full of awe and wonder. More
importantly, the question of the present—how we should live today—will remain unanswered.
It relies on a call to the creation from outside the creation. The call of shalom breaks into
creation as an answer to the question: how should we live today?
In other words, God’s Word provides the solution to this third burning question. He equips
us with the plan and necessary guidelines for life’s journey. His answers for our first two
questions are faith and hope. The answer for our last question, how then shall we live: in love.
Love God through Loving thy Neighbour
Love your God with all your heart with your entire mind … and love your neighbour as
yourself. It is only in love where we can see God’s creation in obedience; it is only in love where
we can understand what we are doing and how we are doing what we are doing. In fact, loving
God and loving our neighbour are so closely intertwined that we might say; love God through
loving thy neighbour (Groome, 1980). This is a Biblical worldview.
