Monday, December 19, 2011

Books I've Read - Living at the Crossroads

Living at the Crossroads: An Introduction to Christian Worldview
By Michael W. Goheen and Craig G. Bartholomew

This book is written by two philosophy professors and is about the intersection between the Christian worldview and some of the other worldviews that have become popular in our society.  It looks at some of historical philosophical movements that have brought popular culture to where it is today and talks about the importance of understanding those underpinning views of the world that colour the way we see everything around us.

I found this book to be a fairly accessible introduction to modern day philosophy although I did find it a little slow at times and I think that it suffers from the same flaw that almost every book that is delving into philosophical matters has; the authors try to hard to be utterly precise in everything they say, to the point of losing readability.  I understand that in a book that is largely about the hidden presuppositions we are taking into every discussion, you would not want to leave it up to the reader to 'fill in the gaps,' but this still does make it a somewhat dry read. 

There was a not a lot of 'new' material in this book, but I don't think the authors intended there to be.  This book works well as an introduction to the topic.  If you are interested in epistemology or a basic philosophical understanding from a Christian perspective this could be a useful book. One thing I would have liked to see more of in the book is how to take you worldview understanding and do something with it.  It is useful to understand where someone is coming from, or what presuppositions you have, but how to do we go about changing those things in ourselves or others?

Random Quote:
...Thus it can be easy for any of us to assume that we are seeing our world in an unmediated, objective, neutral fashion unless we pay deliberate attention to the fact that all experience of the world is mediated through a worldview. (Page17)

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