As a Christian I believe that the only way to truly, accurately, and correctly perceive, understand and interpret life and the world we live in is through the bible.
The grand-narrative out of which I live my life must be God's story.
Aside from the at times difficult yet not insurmountable challenges of accurately understanding the bible; there are a number of other things that will distort my view of God's word as i read it. A number of these have come to light as I have been wrestling with many of the issues to do with poverty, consumerism, generosity and so on.
All of us must be aware of these issues as we look to develop a biblical worldview from which we live life.
1. Western worldview - my perspective on life is essentially a western worldview, I must be aware of when my western perspective and how easy it is for me to assume this is a correct perspective. I must search for a biblical perspective and also be careful not to interpret Scripture as would be most convenient for me and my western worldview.
2. Folk theology - many of my beliefs and my understanding of what certain passages of the bible mean, as well as being distorted by a western perspective, will have been shaped by folk theology. Perhaps poor theology is a better term. Growing up in church you hear thousands of sermons over the years. At times comments regarding, thoughts concerning, and meanings of biblical text are presented in an enlightening and inspirational manner but are actually poor theology and far from an evangelical understanding.
3. Discipleship challenge - following Christ should change the way you live life. It should change your priorities, your goals, your dreams, everything. As we journey closer in our relationship with Jesus this will become more and more of a reality. There comes a point where we move from looking for God's blessing and favor for our dreams and goals, to actually letting go of our dreams and goals in order to give our lives in the pursuit of him and his purposes. This can be a challenging and difficult transition. While-ever we approach God's word only looking for how it can bless us and help us with the goals we are working towards, it has the potential to distort our perspective.
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