Summary of Worldview Program 
“Worldviews of the Western World” 

The curriculum we follow is a multi-disciplinary approach to the study of  worldviews. The three-year curriculum analyzes, compares and contrasts the  worldviews of these successive periods: 

1. Ancient Hebrew 

2. Greco-Roman 

3. Christian 

4. Medieval 

5. The Renaissance 

6. The Reformation 

7. The Enlightenment 

8. The Modern and Post-Modern Ages.  

The purpose of this curriculum is three-fold:  

1. to develop within the students the intellectual knowledge and analytical  abilities necessary to both stand against the increasingly secular thoughts  and ideas of modern culture and faithfully represent and communicate the  Christian worldview to this present generation;  

2. to develop within the students the rhetorical and linguistic abilities  necessary to communicate the truth with an intellectual rigor and winsome  demeanor; and 

3. to challenge and equip the students to take the biblical worldview into the  various disciplines and venues of modern society.  

Of particular interest is our care and concern to develop within the students not  only an ability to understand these ideas of history but also an ability to express their  understanding and analysis of these ideas in written form (through a number of  assigned essays) and verbal form (through a number of speeches on the subject  matter).

Throughout the three-year course we examine the worldviews of the various ages  and cultures in terms of their answers to seven vital questions:  

1. Is there a God and if so, what is He like? 

2. What is the nature of the universe in terms of its origin and structure? 3. What is the essential nature of Man? 

4. What is the basis of morality and ethics? 

5. What is the cause of evil and suffering? 

6. What happens to man at death? 

7. What is the meaning of history? 

Year One: 

In Year one we begin with an emphasis upon the Judeo-Christian worldview. We  begin with a focus on the thoughts and ideas of the ancient Hebrews as represented  in the Old Testament scriptures. This entails a special focus on the Old Testament  Scriptures and the book of Genesis in particular. Additionally, we study the physical  geography and history of Israel to understand the context out of which the Hebrew  worldview developed. We also carefully examine the more specifically Christian  worldview of the New Testament Scriptures through a special emphasis upon the  four Gospels and the Book of Romans. We are committed to the  grammatical/historical method of Bible study.  

The Greco-Roman worldview is studied as we read through The Iliad and The  Odyssey by the Greek poet Homer and The Aeneid by the Roman poet Virgil. We also  study the ideas of the Greek Philosophers Socrates, Plato and Aristotle. We carefully  read Plato’s The Republic, and listen to dramatized audio recordings on Plato,  Aristotle and Socrates. We also read several select book chapters by Christian  philosophers and theologians who represent a Christian perspective on the  worldviews of the Greek poets and Philosophers. 

We study the worldview of the Middle Ages with special attention to St. Thomas  Aquinas. Other reading assignments include Church History in Plain Language by  Bruce Shelley, select chapters from the book and episodes from the DVD entitled,  How Shall We Then Live by Francis Schaeffer, and selected chapters from The  Universe Next Door by James Sire, Genesis in Space and Time by Francis Schaeffer,  Escape From Reason by Francis Schaeffer. We also read the book entitled How Long  Oh Lord by D.A. Carson, and other books as assigned.

YEAR Two A (Fall Semester): 

The Renaissance 

In Year II A (Fall Semester) we begin with a focus on the worldview of the  Renaissance. We read several chapters from How Shall We Then Live? By Francis  Schaeffer and several episodes from the DVD by the same title. We study the art and  the music of the Renaissance to understand how the ideas of the Renaissance were  both reflected in and shaped by the worldview of this period. Our study entails  extensive listening to the music of the Renaissance and Classical periods. We pay  special attention to how music developed from the early Christian and Roman  period, to the more extensive musical examples from the Middle Ages and the early  Renaissance, and on to the quit extensive flowering of music from the Classical  period.  

Similarly, we study the art (painting, sculpture) and architecture from the  Renaissance to understand how the worldview of this period is both reflected and  shaped by the worldview of this period. Through extensive viewing of these creative  mediums we examine how art developed from the earliest Roman paintings and  sculptures, through the art of the Middle Ages and on to the extraordinary  development and maturing of art in the Renaissance. We pay special attention to the  manner in which the varying subject matter and themes are exhibited in these  creative mediums throughout these historical periods. 

We read The Divine Comedy by Dante as an example of how the worldview  individuals in this period continues to change and be shaped by the ideas of the  Renaissance. In particular we are seeking to understand how the priority of the  Christian worldview reflected in the Middle Ages yields in the Renaissance first to  the parity between the Christian and secular worldviews and then to the priority of  the Secular worldview over the Christian worldview. 

The Reformation 

In year two we also focus on the thoughts and ideas of the Reformation. The  worldview of the Reformation is analyzed through select readings from Martin  Luther’s writings, extensive readings of John Calvin (The Institutes of the Christian  Religion), John Milton (Paradise Lost), and John Bunyan (Pilgrim’s Progress). We also  carefully read and study the Westminster Confession and the Shorter Catechism. 

Throughout our focus on the Renaissance and the Reformation we also read a  number of articles and select book chapters by Christian philosophers and  theologians who represent a Christian perspective on the worldview of these  periods.

YEAR Two B (Spring Semester): 

Year Two B (Spring Semester) traces the development and movement of ideas into  culture through government. We call this year The Revolutionary Age because our  study focuses on the five great revolutions of the western world:  

1. the English Revolution,  

2. the American Revolution,  

3. the French Revolution, and  

4. the Russian Revolution. 

5. The Scientific Revolution 

1.  The English Revolution 

Our study begins with a careful reading of Machiavelli’s The Prince and Thomas  Hobbes’ Leviathan with attention focused on the influence these writings made on  both English and American political history. 

Our worldview focus on English political theory leads us to carefully examine the  Magna Carta of 1215, the Petition of Rights of 1628, and the English Bill of Rights of  1689. Our study of this period and these legal and political documents examines  how the changing relationship between the church and the state and how society  was viewing the power and role of the sovereign in relationship to the developing  written legal tradition. 

2.  The American Revolution 

Our worldview focus on the American Revolution entails an historical study of the  events leading up to the Revolution and the ideas inherited from England and other  sources that influenced the founding of America and the system of government  ultimately established by the founders. Our study includes reading excerpts from  Rutherford’s Lex Rex, Montesquieu’s The Spirit of Laws, Blackstone’s Commentaries and dramatic audio recordings of Locke’s Two Treatises of Government. We also read   Locke’s The Reasonableness of Christianity, select chapters from The Universe Next  Door by James Sire and dramatized audio recordings of The Declaration of  Independence. 

Our study of the ideas reflected in the actual founding of the American government  entails listening to dramatized readings on the Constitutional Convention and a  careful reading of the text of the United States Constitution.  We also have extensive readings from both the Federalist Papers and the Anti-Federalist Papers and a careful  study of the ratification debates and the drafting of the Bill of Rights.  

3.  The French Revolution 

Our study of the ideas relating to the French Revolution focus on Edmund Burke’s  Reflections on the Revolution in France, Thomas Paine’s Rights of Man as well as A  Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens and Democracy in America by Alexis de  Tocqueville. 

4.  The Russian Revolution 

Our study of the Russian Revolution leads us to carefully read and study the  Communist Manifesto by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels and The Animal Farm by  George Orwell. 

Our focus on the four revolutions will also entail a reading of Frederic Bastiat’s The  Law for an understanding of natural law and a critique of the excesses of  government. 

5.  The Scientific Revolution 

Year three also will include a careful tracing of the Scientific Revolution and rise of  modern science. We will read and carefully study The Soul of Science by Nancy  Pearcey and Charles Thaxton. 

YEAR Three: 

In our final year we will explore the radical shifting of the foundations of the  western worldview reflected in the many political and philosophical developments. We will read Walden II by B.F. Skinner, The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest  Hemingway, The Plague by Albert Camus, and Star Wars by George Lucas. We will  also read select chapters from The Universe Next Door by James Sire for a critical  examination of the changing currents of thought in the Twentieth Century. 

As we examine the philosophical shifts in Science we will read Of Pandas and People by Charles Thaxton and Darwin on Trial by Philip Johnson to understand the  evolutionary worldview that has come to dominate the scientific landscape. 

To understand the extensive philosophical and theological shifts in the twentieth  century we will select chapters from The God Who is There, How Shall We Then Live, and Escape From Reason by Francis Schaeffer. We will also read Sophie’s World by  Jostein Gaardner and listen to dramatized audio recordings on Rousseau’s Social  Contract as well as selections from David Hume, Immanuel Kant, George Friedrich  Hegel, Soren Kierkegaard, Freidrich Nietzsche and Jean Paul Sartre. We will also  read numerous chapters in Josh McDowell’s The New Evidence that Demands a  Verdict and a number of articles and select chapters from philosopher/theologians  William Lane Craig, Norman Geisler, and J. P. Moreland.  

The radical sifts in worldview in the Twentieth Century will also be studied as  reflected in music and the arts. We will study this through extensive listening of  musical excerpts and comparison and contrast with musical selections from  previous ages and genres. We will also have readings from Francis Schaeffer’s How  Shall We then Live as well as the more recent Saving Leonardo by Nancy Pearcey. 

The radical shifts in government will be studied by listening to dramatized audio  recordings entitled Civil War I and Civil War II as well as reading John Whitehead’s  The Second American Revolution. 

We will carefully study the radical changes in the science of Economics by readings  from Christianity: Capitalism with Compassion by Francis Schaeffer and dramatized  audio listenings entitled, The Classical Economists (Smith, Recardo, Malthus), Marx’s  Das Capital, Early Austrian Economics (Bohm, Bawert, Menger), The Keynesian  

Revolution, The Austrian Case- Free Market Process (von Mises/Hayek), Frank Knight  and the Chicago School, Monetarism & Supply Side Economics (Friedman/Mundell),  and Hazlitt’s Economics in One Lesson. 

Finally we will carefully read the biblical book of Ecclesiastes as a philosophical  capstone of our three-year journey through the study of the worldviews of the  Western World.