Roadmap

02 Faith and Worldview

This module surveys the integrated Christian package, the six structural commitments of Christianity together with the faith-and-reason relationship and the comparison with rival worldviews.

The worldview-question frame

Every coherent worldview answers (or refuses to answer) the same four basic questions:

What is real?, the metaphysics question
What is wrong?, the diagnosis question
What is the remedy?, the salvation question
Where is history going?, the eschatology question

Christianity has crisp, integrated answers: God the Creator is what is ultimately real; sin is what is wrong; the death and resurrection of Christ is the remedy; new heavens and new earth is where it ends. The competing worldviews each have answers too, and the apologist must know enough of each to compare like with like.

Learning objectives

By the end of Module 2 a believer should be able to:

Articulate the six structural commitments of Christianity without hedging, in a few sentences each
State the historic Christian position on faith and reason: not opposites, not identical, ordered
Explain the difference between Classical Theism and Theistic Personalism and identify which one historic Christianity confesses
Recite 1 Corinthians 15.3-8 from memory as the earliest summary of the gospel
Compare Christianity with Judaism, Islam, atheism/naturalism, and pantheism at the level of the four worldview questions
Distinguish denominational distinctives from load-bearing core doctrines
Recognize the suppression-of-God dynamic (Romans 1.18-21)
Defend Christianity, not generic theism, recognize when an argument lands at "some god" rather than the Father of the Lord Jesus Christ

Lessons

Lesson 2.1, Faith and Reason, faith and reason as ordered partners; Aquinas's praeambula fidei, Anselm's fides quaerens intellectum; the rejection of both fideism and rationalism; the modern redefinition of "faith"
Lesson 2.2, The Six Structural Commitments of Christianity, the six load-bearing claims, why each is non-negotiable, and how removing one collapses the package
Lesson 2.3, The Doctrine of God, classical theism in detail: the incommunicable and communicable attributes; the Trinitarian elaboration
Lesson 2.4, Christology in One Lesson, the Chalcedonian formula; the eight categories of biblical evidence for Christ's full deity; the six major Christological heresies
Lesson 2.5, Worldview Comparison, Christianity vs. Judaism, Islam, atheism/naturalism, pantheism, deism, process theology, run through the four worldview-questions grid

Key passages

Genesis 1.1, creation ex nihilo; the Creator-creature distinction
Deuteronomy 6.4, the Shema; Old Testament monotheism presupposed by Trinitarian confession
John 1.1, Logos Christology; Christ's full deity and personal distinction from the Father in one verse
John 14.6, the exclusivity of Christ
Colossians 1.15-20, Christ as the image of the invisible God; reconciliation through the cross
Philippians 2.5-11, the kenosis hymn; pre-existence, Incarnation, obedience, death, exaltation
Isaiah 53, the Suffering Servant; the substitutionary atonement
1 Corinthians 15.3-8, the AD 35-38 creed; the gospel in four lines (memorize this)
Hebrews 1.1-3, classical theism and Christology in one sentence
Romans 1.18-21, the suppression text; what unbelief actually is
Revelation 21.1-3, the new heavens and new earth; where history is going

Next module

When you can state Christianity in one paragraph covering all six structural commitments, recite 1 Corinthians 15.3-8 from memory, distinguish classical theism from theistic personalism, hold the Trinity in mind for an extended conversation without drifting into modalism or tritheism, and steel-man at least one rival worldview, you are ready.

→ Continue to 03 Arguments for God.