The document discusses different worldviews and approaches to interpreting texts like the Bible. It begins by outlining the key aspects of modernity and postmodernity. It then explains critical social theory, which seeks to expose oppressive power structures and liberate the oppressed. Critical approaches have been applied to interpreting the Bible, with the goal of exposing how it has been used to oppress groups. The document also discusses how different worldviews, like the Israeli and Palestinian perspectives on their conflict, shape how people understand issues. It concludes by contrasting a critical social theory view with a Christian worldview.

1. 5. Worldviews in the Developed World
Thursday, August 5, 2021

2. 5. Modernity, Postmodernity, Critical Social Theory

3. 5.1 Modern Worldviews

4. Modern Worldview
1. Human reason became primary source of knowledge
2. Human authority is from society not God
3. Human and Natural Laws are absolute and universal
4. Di
ff
erence between the secular and sacred
5. Inexplicable phenomena have rational explanations
6. Scripture is accessible and subject to inquiry

6. Legend of Sleepy Hollow
Washington Irving, 1819

7. Model of Bible Interpretation
Text Reader
Writer Language Translation
Copyist
Errors
Writer’s
Cultural
Milieu
Reader’s
Cultural
Milieu
Evangelical: Meaning Begins in Text
Meaning
God

8. Model of Bible Interpretation
Text Reader
Writer Language Translation
Copyist
Errors
Writer’s
Cultural
Milieu
Reader’s
Cultural
Milieu
Historical
Events
Writer
Describes
Rationalist: Meaning in Socio-cultural Milieu of Writer
Meaning
Meaning

9. 5.2 Postmodernity

10. Postmodernism
1. Meaning is determined by the person
2. Human authority is a social construct
3. Human Laws are all relative
4. Di
ff
erence between secular & spiritual is relative
5. Reason can NOT explain everything
6. Bible is one of many Sacred books
7. Search for Neo-Spirituality

11. Energy Psychology

12. Media Coverage of
UFOs

13. Model of Bible Interpretation
Text Reader
Translation
Writer’s
Cultural
Milieu
Reader’s
Cultural
Milieu
Audience
Exegete
is
Addressing
Postmodern Bible Interpretation: Reader Gives Meaning
Meaning

14. 2019 1994 2017 1949 2018 2021
1949 2014 1978 1987 1958 1918 1970
1917
Little Women (Louisa May Alcott)

15. Church’s Disengagement
From American Culture

17. Scopes-Monkey Trial (July, 1925)

19. Dr. King with Rev. Billy Graham

21. 5.3 Critical Social Theory

22. Another Brick in the Wall
(Pink Floyd, 1979)

23. Give her a Hoover
and you give her the Best!
(Hoover Magazine Ad, 1937)

24. Critical Theory
De
fi
ned
A “critical” theory is a method of inquiry that seeks human
emancipation from slavery, liberation from oppression, and
works to create a world which satis
fi
es the needs and self-
determination of individuals. This approach has been applied
to many disciplines such as social science, literary theory,
legal theory, theories of education, and most recently race
relations.
“Critical Theory”. 2005. Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/critical-theory/

25. “The history of all…society is the
history of class struggles”
Karl Marx (1818–1883)
(Marx, Karl.1848/1913. Manifesto. p. 5)

26. • Theory of Psychoanalysis
• All text emerges from subconscious
• All text contains implicit bias
• We can deconstruct the text to
explode the bias
Sigmund Freud (1856–1939)
Whitebook, Joel. 2006. “The Marriage of Marx and Freud” Cambridge Companions.

27. Max Horkheimer
• Brought together: Freud, Marx,
literary theory, and philosophy
of education.
• Traditional & Critical Theory
(Horkheimer,1937)
1895—1973

28. • Response to WWI
• Response to upheavals in Germany
• Marriage of Marx, Hegel, and Freud
• German Marxism 1920s
• Shut down in 1933
• Continued at Columbia University
Frankfurt School (1918 - 1933)

29. Critical Theory
Premises
1. Oppressed v. Oppressor
2. Oppressors oppress through power
3. Oppressed conditioned to accept their oppressed status
4. First goal: Expose the structures of oppression
5. Second goal: Gain knowledge about the oppressed
6. Third goal: Dismantle the structures of oppression
Shenvi, Neil. 2019. “Critical Theory”. New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary

30. Critical Race Theory
Premises
1. Oppressed v. Oppressor
2. Majority races oppress through power structures in society
3. Minority races taught to accept subordinate social status
4. First goal: Expose the social power structures
5. Second goal: Understand their mechanisms
6. Third goal: Dismantle oppressive power structures
Shenvi, Neil. 2019. “Critical Theory”. New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary

31. Brown v Board of Education
May 17, 1954

32. Critical Bible Hermeneutics

33. Critical Bible Hermeneutics
Critical Interpretation
The Bible needs to be liberated from its captivity to one-sided white,
middle-class, male interpretation. It needs liberation from privatized
and spiritualized interpretations that avoid God’s concern for justice,
human wholeness, and ecological responsibility; It needs liberation
from abstract, doctrinal interpretations that remove the biblical
narrative from its concrete social and political context in order to
change it into timeless truths
Russell, Letty. 1974. “Introduction”. Feminist Interpretation of the Bible. Westminster Press, p. 12.

34. Model of Bible Interpretation
Text Reader
Writer Language Translation
Copyist
Errors
Writer’s
Cultural
Milieu
Reader’s
Cultural
Milieu
Evangelical Hermeneutics: Meaning is in the Text
Meaning
God

35. Text Reader
Writer Language Translation
Copyist
Errors
Modern
Audience
Audience
Exegete
is
Addressing
Critical Literary Theory: Expose Oppresser
Find the oppressed
Meaning
Women, homosexuals, slaves, racial minorities, immigrants, impoverished
Oppressor

36. Critical Bible Hermeneutics
Critical Interpretation
The Bible needs to be liberated from its captivity to one-sided white,
middle-class, male interpretation. It needs liberation from privatized
and spiritualized interpretations that avoid God’s concern for justice,
human wholeness, and ecological responsibility; It needs liberation
from abstract, doctrinal interpretations that remove the biblical
narrative from its concrete social and political context in order to
change it into timeless truths
Russell, Letty. 1974. “Introduction”. Feminist Interpretation of the Bible. Westminster Press, p. 12.

37. Critical Bible Hermeneutics
Queer hermeneutics
Then Jonathan made a covenant with David,
because he loved him as his own soul. And
Jonathan stripped himself of the robe that was on
him and gave it to David, (1 Samuel 18:3–4 ESV)

38. Critical Bible Hermeneutics
Example
When two men come from a society that for 200 years had lived
in the shadow of Philistine culture which accepted
homosexuality…and one of them is the social superior of the
other, [and] the two meet secretly and kiss each other…we have
reason to believe that a homosexual relationship existed.
Horner, Tom. 1978. Jonathan Loved David. Philadelphia: Westminster Press. 27-28.

39. Critical Bible Hermeneutics
Example
• Oppressor: Ancient Israel’s society
• Oppressed: Jonathan, David, and the Philistines
• Oppressive structure: Biblical editor
• Goal: Expose oppression of homosexuals in the Bible
Horner, Tom. 1978. Jonathan Loved David. Philadelphia: Westminster Press. 27-28.

40. What are the weaknesses in
Critical Social Worldview?

41. What are the strengths?

42. Critical Worldview vs. Christian Worldview
• Critical Narrative
• Identities: Oppressed/Oppressor
• Objective: expose oppression
• Goal: Human self-determination
• End: There will always be
oppressors and oppressed
• Biblical Narrative
• Imago Dei, Sinful, Redeemed
• Objective: Reconciliation with God
• Goal: Glorify God & Enjoy Him forever
• End: Reign of God

43. 5. Demographic Studies

44. 6. Worldviews in Conflict
Friday, August 6, 2021

45. https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/2021ResidencySurvey
https://gcu.libwizard.com/f/libraryclass

46. Worldview is a Lens

47. Israeli Palestinian Con
fl
ict

48. Israeli Worldview
• Jewish homeland
• Jews were scattered
• Jews wandered, expelled, and persecuted
• Holocaust proved Jews will never have a home outside of Israel
• Jews returned to an empty land
• Arab neighbors tried to drive them into sea
• When they couldn’t they used Palestinian refugees politically

49. Alternative Narratives
• Arab / Israeli Con
fl
ict is an apocalyptic struggle
between the Islamic Civilization and Judeo-
Christian Civilization

50. Palestinian Worldview
• Palestinians original inhabitants
• Jews are Europeans whom Europeans didn’t want
• Europeans dumped the Jews on Arab land to colonize
• Holocaust is an excuse (and may not have happened)
• Israel is a tool of the Western Nations

51. Alternative Narratives
• Holocaust never happened
• 9/11 was secretly planned by Israel
• Israel secretly erased evidence of Palestinian cities in the land
• Jews are descended from Khazars in 900 AD
• Jesus was a Palestinian, not a Jew

52. Critical Social Theory Worldview
• Men & Women are either oppressors or oppressed
• Oppression happens because dominant class exerts power
• All (most?) of what dominant class does is to maintain power
• Oppressed redeem themselves by tearing down power structures
• Reconciliation happens when oppressors brought to justice
• Oppressed will eventually become the oppressor (cycle)

53. Christian Worldview
• Men & Women are made in the image of God
• Oppression happens because of sinful hearts
• Redemption happens when Christ transforms the heart
• Reconciliation happens when people are brought together
• Christ will return, subject all the world to Him, establish peace

54. Other Worldview Families
•Honor / Shame
•Innocence / Guilt
•Power / Fear