Chapter 4 - What A Difference A Worldview Makes

1. At the philosphical heart of this book is the issue of worldviews, or how cultures create mental maps that function as working models of reality. Neo describes the transition from modernity to postmodernity by likening it to the last major worldview transition: from the medieval world to the modern one. Why is is helpful to compare our situation to another as we try to understand our present context?

2. Neo lists seven major factors that contribute to the shift from a medieval world to a modern world (pp. 29-30). Review the broader general categories and the specific event within each category that were transformational for the medieval world. Consider how each of these events are significant individually, and taken together, how they altered people's understanding of reality"?

3. Neo also identified recent events that fit the seven transitional categories (pp. 30-31). Can you think of other specific events of recent years that fit these categories? Why are each of these events significant individually, and taken together, how are they altering our understanding of our own "reality"?

4. Dan is distracted by something Neo says during his talk. He is reminded of a time when one of his theological heroes was criticized, specifically the work of Francis Schaeffer as he sought to articulate "the Christian worldviews". Why is Neo suspicious of such grand aims as Schaeffers?

5. Neo enlists the ideas of C.S. Lewis to illustrated "...how one's subjective posture affects what one sees and 'knows objectively'". What does that mean? Neo's words work to warn us of what Lewis later termed "chronological snobbery", that is, the temptation to think that because something is chronologically more recent, its claims to truth and goodness are automatically of greater value. Is this a significant point? How is modernity guilty of chronological snobbery? How can Lewis's words challenge us in this discussion?

6. Neo concludes by challenging his young audience to get buys building a new ship rather than trying to keep the old one afloat. Do you agree with this? Why or why not?