The Flourishing Christian and His Transcendent Worldview Development

Written by Jeremy Livermore | 07 October 2008
Posted in Blogs - Jeremy Livermore

Often I sit and ponder “What is real?” Actually, this is the question that a branch of philosophy, called metaphysics, asks. But answering the question is more than an academic pursuit because the answer always has personal life-altering implications. Understanding reality is a life-long spiritual and self-realization journey of every person that ever lived, not just philosophers. For a child, the understanding of reality is in constant development as he experiences his culture, his world. For an adult, this prior understanding is later verified and confirmed over and over again as his reality is experienced. This continuous developing and experiencing reality and culture is what shapes, maintains, and justifies one’s personal own worldview. This is postmodernism, the dominant theory of how we see and experience reality.
While “postmodernism” is a loaded term and requires a very thorough explanation, postmodernism at the least contains a blend of consumerism, ethical relativism, and epistemological skepticism. Without defining these individual ideologies it is safe to identify a key component that each ideology captures: the priority and perseverance of the individual self. As such, postmodernism is an easy worldview to accept and maintain because it challenges not the self but that which is opposed to the self. That is, the satisfying of the self is the flourishing of the self to which none have a right to deny.

In postmodernism, because culture defines reality to the individual, worldviews are shaped. That is, culture presses any individual, Christian or not, to align their worldview with the predominant one. Exposure to media, people, and ideas of the culture will attempt to cause this. But, how does one, who was developed as a “modern” child, and as an adult verifies and confirms his non-postmodern worldview, survive and thrive when his view differs and never conforms? Under postmodernism, happiness and flourishing is self-satisfying, which can only be obtained by embracing the predominant understanding of reality. Without this conformance one will always be swimming upstream, against the flow, denying the self. Anxiety, depression, and doubt will come to the striving individual until he or she accepts the media, people, and ideas of the culture. That is, until one stops denying the self to please the self.
So according to postmodernism, understanding reality today, like any other day in history, involves perceiving the internal and external through the presuppositions one holds. One cannot escape the lens he or she uses to perceive. Thus, the individual can only experience a filtered image and not know reality entirely. “The postmodernists claim we have these presuppositions to start with. That is, we have no direct contact with reality, because we see reality through something, our language, ethnicity, culture. Thus, we see the world through glasses, through our presuppositions, through ‘seeing as’ rather than ‘seeing that.’” This line of thought comes from the rationalist philosophy of Locke, Berkeley, and Hume. But this worldview is ridiculous in light of the fact that I have direct awareness of reality and can know it in its entirety.
In a postmodern culture anyone’s version of reality is tolerated except those versions, those worldviews, that do not tolerate another’s or claim to have the absolute objective truth. But this would imply that under postmodernism, postmodernism would reject itself because it rejects those views that aren’t all inclusive. While this is obviously a self-refuting contradiction, postmodernism is still the dominant worldview. This worldview would only reject belief systems that force one to consider self-discipline. As a result, the self can be satisfied and temporary pleasure rather than temporary discomfort can always be preferred. While pleasure is nice, the implications of the postmodern worldview fall short of meeting the requirements for true human flourishing. Thus, postmodernism ought to be rejected as a worldview.

The worldview that most accurately corresponds to reality ought to be adopted. These are “the moral and intellectual duties of any thinking human, first, to believe as many truths as possible before we die, and second, to refuse to believe as many falsehoods as possible before we die.” One would hope that his beliefs are not just sincere but are actually right and truthful. But how can a person flourish while holding a worldview that counters culture and does not satisfy the self? In any culture and time, true human flourishing is only found in adopting a Christian worldview because that understanding of reality corresponds best with reality itself compared to other worldviews, especially postmodernism. Thus, the only way to be a flourishing Christian and develop a transcendent worldview is to embrace the teachings and the founder of Christianity himself.
For any individual, Christian or not, true human flourishing lies in the notion of embracing reality, where reality is the entire sum of substances (abstract and concrete) and movement in material and immaterial realms. This would presuppose that, one has direct awareness of reality, that is, one has direct experience of the natural and supernatural. Moreover, one can see things in light of our worldview, not through our worldview. As philosopher J.P Moreland notes,
“Our worldview is a set of habits that form and shape the way we see the world. We constantly make a distinction between the foreground and the background. Our worldview informs us what to pay attention to and not to pay attention to. Our set of values help us choose what we pay attention to and not. Our values cause us to notice in the foreground things that which we value.”

Here, one’s worldview is grounded in values, or important objective truths that are beyond the temporal and cultural, transcendent values.
The most secular worldviews, even some religious ones, evolve and adapt as time passes and cultures transition. However, a transcendent worldview is a belief system that endures through any culture and any time without modification of values only their application. This transcendent worldview does not prescribe just going with the flow and not struggling with conflicting worldviews. It allows one to experience the world free from skepticism and trust our senses and reasoning. As such, one can transcend, reach beyond, the fullness of one’s own culture and experience a reality that holds all truth, knowable truth.
Overall, this is not the self-satisfying view of happiness and flourishing that postmodernism promotes. “Pleasurable satisfaction makes a terrible goal but a wonderful byproduct of a life well lived, a life that develops courage by trying out new and challenging things, dealing with anger or giving to the needy.” The transcendent worldview of Christianity actually promotes self-denial and as a result of that, one can experience enduring pleasure that results from meaning and value.

Developing the flourishing Christian and a transcendent worldview
A flourishing Christian is one who is learning to accept reality while entrusting reality to his King. Accepting reality means not living in denial and accepting the good and the bad of one’s external world and internal self. To entrust reality to one’s King is the giving over of control to an able Sovereign ruler who he knows and trusts in. This requires a wanting to experience the best reality one can, which is the reality that the King has for oneself. This reality may even seem to be a strange alternative to the reality one experiences. In fact, this reality may be so contradictory to the reality one has always known, confusion may occur and frustration may result.
It is at this time that the self-pleasing alternatives, which one’s culture offers, become more attractive and satisfying. Only through trust-forming habits, repeated experiences that build up trust in the person of the King, can faulty alternatives to reality be overridden. These are usually referred to as spiritual disciplines. They help the Christian remain faithful to the King by continually re-experiencing Him; transcending alternative experiences, cultural pressures, and even one’s own self. One can develop a transcendent worldview and transcend experience the realest natural and supernatural.
The teachings of Jesus correspond with reality and his life gives flourishing life. Embracing what Jesus teaches and offers will allow the power of the immaterial supernatural realm to be actualized in the material natural realm. One can truly experience the reality of the transcendent realm, the reality that King Jesus rules. This realm actually includes the physical and the temporal, but it is not limited and is always being restored unto the order of the King. All other worldviews consider alternative realities, which fall very short in accessing this transcendent reality and offering what King Jesus offers. He taught of and made available a reality – the kingdom of heaven, which he governs as King – where true human flourishing occurs and all humans can be truly satisfied. Here, one can experience the greatest flourishing by living a life, experiencing reality, which resembles the life of the man who flourished the most.