The document discusses understanding culture and worldviews. It defines culture as consisting of both visible and invisible elements like behaviors, traditions, values and beliefs. Worldview is defined as a foundational set of assumptions that provides a framework for understanding reality. Cultural texts are any works created by humans that bear meaning and should be interpreted, such as movies, songs, books and traditions. Exegeting cultural texts involves interpreting them to gain understanding about the culture.

1. Culture & Worldviews
INT-525 Christian Worldview and Mission | Topic 3

2. Understanding Culture

3. Visible
Invisible

4. Behaviors
Traditions
Cultural Artifacts
Values
Political Beliefs
Religious Beliefs
Worldview
Visible
Invisible

5. Behaviors
Traditions
Cultural Artifacts
Values
Political Beliefs
Religious Beliefs
Worldview
Exegete

6. Behaviors
Traditions
Religious Practices
Values
Political Beliefs
Religious Beliefs
Worldview
Exegete
Understand

7. Describing Culture

8. Geert Hofstede
Cultures & Organizations:
Software of the Mind

9. Culture is Learned
•Personality is the hardware
•Culture is the software

11. Edward T. Hall
The Hidden Dimensions

13. Frons Trompenaar
Riding the Waves of Culture

15. Trompenaar’s Six Dimensions

16. Hofstede’s National Dimensions
Thin italics

17. Describe the cultural values

18. “The Pie”. 1994. Seinfeld

19. What is Seinfeld’s Culture?

20. What is Audrey & Poppie’s
Culture?

21. What values collided?

22. Kung Fu, 1972, “Why did you not drink”

23. What values were depicted?

24. Describing
Worldviews

25. Behaviors
Traditions
Religious Practices
Values
Political Beliefs
Religious Beliefs
Worldview
Visible
Invisible

27. What is a worldview?

28. What is Worldview
Definition
A commitment, a fundamental orientation of the heart, that
can be expressed as a story or in a set of presuppositions
(assumptions which may be true, partially true, or entirely
false) which we hold (consciously or subconsciously,
consistently or inconsistently) about the basic constitution
of reality, and that provides the foundation on which we live
and move and have our being
Sire, James. (2004) Naming the Elephant: Worldview. IVP. 122.

29. What is Worldview
Definition
Worldview is a foundational set of assumptions to which
one commits that serves as a framework for understanding
and interpreting reality and deeply shapes one’s behavior.
(Waddel & Jibben, 2021, “What in the World is Worldview?”)

30. How do you describe worldview?

31. Ways to Describe Worldview
Ways
1. Set of Assumptions
2. Set of Commitments
3. Framework to understand the world
4. Meta-Narrative (Overarching story)
(Waddel & Jibben, 2021, “What in the World is Worldview?”)

32. 1. Set of assumptions
a. Does the God of the Bible exist?
b. Why are we here?
c. What forces are active in the universe?
d. What is a human?
e. How do I decide “right” from “wrong”?
f. Where is my grandmother after she died?
g. What is the purpose of life?
(Waddel & Jibben, 2021, “Set of Assumptions”)

33. 2. Set of commitments
a. What’s my responsibility to my family and my community?
b. What is my responsibility to religious views?
c. What is my priorities at work?
d. What traditions or practices should I maintain? Why?
(Waddel & Jibben, 2021, “Commitments”)

34. 3. Framework to Interpret the World
a. Why do good & bad things happen to me?
b. How do I explain inexplicable stuff?
c. Why do people hurt other people?
d. Why does this person love me?
(Waddel & Jibben, 2021, “Framework for Understanding & Interpreting”)

35. 4. Meta-Narrative - Overarching story
a. How did I get here?
b. What is the prequel to my life?
c. Where am I located in this story?
d. What is the story after I’m gone?
(Waddel & Jibben, 2021, “Worldview impacts Behavior”)

36. Meta-narrative
An overarching account or interpretation of events and
circumstances that provides a pattern or structure for people’s
beliefs and gives meaning to their experiences.
Oxford Dictionary

37. Set up a temporary spam email
https://temp-mail.org/en/
Take the Worldview Test and view the results
https://wvtest.com/

38. Describing Meta-Narratives

39. Narratives have components
1. Setting
2. Characters
3. Plot
4. Con
fl
ict
5. Resolution
6. Point of View
7. Theme

40. Narratives have chapters
1. Chapter One - Introduction
2. Chapter Two - con
fl
ict or building action
3. Chapter Three - climax or moment of truth
4. Chapter Four - resolution
5. Chapter Five - epilogue

41. What are the chapters of the story?

42. Beauty and the Beast 2017

43. In the following clips:
1. What meta-narrative is told?
2. What are the implications of the narrative?

44. “The Big Bang Theory”, CBS, 2007

45. “Your Welcome!”, Moanna, 2016

46. “Tradition”, Fiddler on the Roof, 1971

47. “Stand Up”, Cynthia Erivo, 2021

48. When worldviews collide!

49. Competing Worldviews

50. Israel’s Story
• God chose Abraham & his descendants
• God gave them the Law and the Land
• Israel broke the law and got scattered everywhere
• Jews were persecuted and died in the Holocaust
• Jews returned to Israel, their promised land.

51. Palestinian Story
• Palestinians lived in Mid East for 2,000 years
• White Europeans persecuted a group called the Jews
• They sent these Jews to Palestine to colonize it
• These white Europeans displaced the Palestinians and
continue to occupy their land.

52. Christian Worldview

53. Christian Worldview
Chapter 1 — Creation
Chapter 2 — The Fall
Chapter 3 — Redemption
Chapter 4 — Restoration

54. Creation

55. The Fall
“Expulsion from Paradise”, Benjamin West, 1791

56. Redemption
The Passion

57. Restoration

58. Restoration — The Kingdom of God
• Now — God is restoring the world
• Not Yet — We await the return of Christ

59. Cultural Texts

60. What are cultural texts?

61. Visible
Invisible

62. Cultural Texts
Values
Political Beliefs
Religious Beliefs
Worldview
Exegete

63. Values
Political Beliefs
Religious Beliefs
Worldview
Exegete
Understand
Cultural Texts

64. What is a cultural text?
Any human work that, because it is something done purposefully bears
meaning and should be interpreted.
Vanhoozer, 2007, p. 298

65. What is a cultural text?
People “make meaning” by creating “cultural texts”

66. What are types of cultural texts?

67. What are types of cultural text?
• Movies
• Songs
• Books
• Cultural or social trends
• Traditions
• Religious objects
• Religious rituals

68. The same cultural text is often
interpreted by later generations
To create new meaning.

69. Louisa May Alcott
1832 - 1888

70. 2019
1994 2017
1949
2018 2021
1949
2014
1978
1987
1958
1918 1970
1917
Little Women (Louisa May Alcott)

71. What was author’s
meaning of the work?

72. What is the meaning
of the 2019 film?

73. Woman’s value in society is not tied to
marriage or the role of her husband
Little Women (2019)

74. Little Women (2019)

75. How do we exegete Cultural texts?

76. What are cultural hermeneutics?
The art and science of interpreting culture; the set of rules, guidelines, or
principles for interpreting cultural texts and trends
Vanhoozer, 2007, p. 298

77. What is exegeting a cultural text?
Interpreting the meaning of a cultural text in order to gain
understanding about the culture.
Meyer, 2021, just now

78. Hermeneutics: The art of interpreting texts
Text Reader
Writer

79. Hermeneutics: The art of interpreting texts
Text Reader
Writer
World
of
the
Writer

80. Hermeneutics: The art of interpreting texts
Text Reader
Writer
World
of
the
Writer
World
of
the
Reader

81. Cultural Hermeneutics
Cultural
Text
Interpretor
Creator
Culture
of
the
Creator
Culture
of
the
Interpretor

82. Mulan (2020)

83. 1. Mulan’s Qi is strong (Daoism)

84. 2. Mulan’s duty is to ful
fi
ll role in the family (Confucianism)

85. 3. Mulan makes her choice

86. Discussion questions
Mulan, 2020
1. What two Chinese concepts are in con
fl
ict?
2. What can you learn about Chinese culture from this clip?
3. Why does the
fi
lmmaker want to explore these concepts?
4. What can we a
ffi
rm, from a Christian Worldview?
5. What might we disagree with, from a Christian Worldview?