The Universe Next Door
One of the most important topics that we can study is that of worldviews. We all have a worldview, the question is how well do we understand our own and that of others? An excellent resource on this topic is The Universe Next Door by James W. Sire.
This is one of the best books that I have read on worldviews. In the book, Sire looks at the following basic questions:
- What is prime reality⏤the really real?
- What is the nature of external reality, that is, the world around us?
- What is a human being?
- What happens to a person at death?
- Why is it possible to know anything at all?
- How do we know what is right and wrong?
- What is the meaning of human history?
- What personal, life-orienting core commitments are consistent with this worldview?
Each of these questions are applied to the following worldviews:
- Theism
- Deism
- Naturalism
- Nihilism
- Existentialism
- Monism
- New Age Spirituality
- Postmodernism
- Islamic Theism (This chapter is written by Winfried Corduan)
The result is, as the subtitle suggests, a basic worldview catalog. Sire writes with an engaging style that is easy to understand and is also based on extensive research. After going through this book, the reader will have a solid understanding of the major worldviews and will be in a much better position to engage them. I highly recommend The Universe Next Door.
