What's Your Worldview?: An Interactive Approach to Life's Big Questions

by James N. Anderson

2014 Popular Theology Book of the Year - World Magazine

How do you view the world?

It’s a big question. And how you answer is one of the most important things about you.

Not sure what you’d say? Join James Anderson on an interactive journey of discovery aimed at helping you understand and evaluate the options when it comes to identifying your worldview. Cast in the mold of a classic “Choose Your Own Adventure” story, What’s Your Worldview? will guide you toward finding intellectually satisfying answers to life’s biggest questions—equipping you to think carefully about not only what you believe but why you believe it and how it impacts the rest of your life.

Genres: Theology, Philosophy, Nonfiction, Christian, Religion, Christianity, Evangelism

114 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2014

Reviews

[Ruth York · Rating 1 out of 5]

I am very glad I only paid 50 cents for this "book" after finding it in the bargain used bin at my local store. Although, I can't say it was worth even that. I saw the title, and subtitle, and thought, "Hmm. I've really expanded my worldview over the past few years, this might be fun." I thought, mistakenly, that this "choose your own adventure" type book was about your WORLDview, not your RELIGIOUSview. I realized my mistake early on. But thought, ok, I'll still go along. I ended up with a view that wasn't totally far out for me. But as I got to the author's opinion at the end of the section, I realized, what a pompous writer. So, because I wanted to give him the benefit of the doubt, I "cheated" and read all the possible "endings." Except for Christianity, he pretty much finds faults with ALL world religions and beliefs. He starts out each ending extolling the positives, but then comes "But the problem with (insert belief here) is, (insert his biased reasoning as to why you are wrong, and he is right)." This book is NOT about discovering YOUR worldview, but telling you why HIS worldview is the only correct one. The only positive I can say about this book is that it was short.

[Jimmy · Rating 5 out of 5]

For some time now I wanted to see a work by an apologists from the Presuppositionalists perspective written primarily for non-Christians. It seems most works by Presuppositionalists is to teach believers biblical apologetics. Yet it is also important to directly address unbelievers with Presuppositional apologetics. I think James Anderson does a masterful job of filling this much needed void with his upcoming book What’s Your Worldview? The format of the book makes this work very engaging: For those who are familiar with the children book series “Choose Your Own Adventure,” Dr. Anderson in similar fashion has short chapters that ask various questions and how you answer according to your view will dictate what page you turn to—and also what are the consequences for those ideas. Not all consequences are pretty! In fact, most worldviews Dr. Anderson points out is irrational or unlivable if one tries to go by with it consistently. In this fashion the author is to be commended for making the readers think about what they believe and refute irrational worldviews in a creative and engaging way. It is already wonderful that the book is informative and interactive but Anderson’s humor makes it even better. The author is witty. The book also makes it clear that it is not meant to be the last word on worldviews and I would definitely agree—it is a short book. The author tries hard to avoid unwarranted generalization and interact with the major worldviews and thought in the West today, although I think he does better than that with his awareness and response to some of the worldviews popular in the East. For instance, he talks about Pantheism and also made a good distinction between Pantheism and Panentheism. I suppose the only thing I have to disagree with the book is Anderson’s definition of religion and worldview. It seems to me that the two are quite synonymous, if we understand religion as “ultimate commitment.” But this is a minor point. Overall an excellent work, even though I have a review copy in electronic file I plan to purchase the paperback when it comes out. One should definitely remember the name James Anderson for Lord willing, we will see more quality books and scholarly papers articulating and defending the Christian faith.
NOTE: This book was provided to me free by Crossway Publishing and Net Galley without any obligation for a positive review. All opinions offered above are mine unless otherwise stated or implied.

[Addy Smith · Rating 5 out of 5]

An interesting book I read for school!! Very deep and engaging. Would recommend!

[Grace Blake · Rating 3 out of 5]

I could see this being a very helpful resource for college students or people in campus ministry. I wish I had this when I was a part of campus ministry. I like how the book is set up in the format of a “Choose Your Own Adventure” book.

[Brandon Hill · Rating 4 out of 5]

Was a good interactive approach to discovering your worldview and very informative on those world views. However, I didn't get any things that surprised me from it because I already knew where I would end up, and I did end up there. I think this book would be great for new believers as it can show where they are being misguided on core doctrine and worldview. The descriptions of differing worldviews were helpful as I didn't know lots of nuances of differing beliefs etc.

[Jake Busch · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fun adventure book. Dr. Anderson asks a series of questions, such as, “Is there any objective truth?” If you answer yes, you turn to page 5. If you answered no, you flip to page 45. He asks 40 questions that help you determine your worldview. That is, your worldview is your “all-encompassing perspective on everything that exists and matters to us.” It’s your most fundamental beliefs and assumptions about the way the world really is. Do spirits exist that we can’t see (i.e., supernaturalism), or is the word really just composed of things that we can touch and see (i.e., naturalism)?

Everyone has a worldview. The question is, do you live consistently within your own? If you don’t, and if your worldview fails to answer some of life’s biggest questions (what gives life meaning? What is goodness? What happens when I die? Why is there something rather than nothing?)… if your worldview can’t answer these basic questions, then it’s worth thinking about. Let this book help guide you.

Previously, the question on college campuses was “what is truth?” Now, the question is “who am I?” By returning to the former we can better answer the latter. Ask questions, think about them, and seek to live consistently within your worldview. If you can’t, perhaps your worldview doesn’t contain as much truth as you’d like to admit.

[Heather · Rating 4 out of 5]

A helpful summary of worldviews that could be useful as a conversation starter.

[chrissy haupt · Rating 5 out of 5]

The book primarily covers the most prominent and influential worldviews in Western culture today. It focuses on worldviews rather than religions. So if you want to identify your own worldview or reflect on others and their implications, this book is for you! I do recommend it;))

[Marie · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was such an awesome little book! And it's short, so you have no excuse not to read it after I tell you about it!

I can't think of any way to ease into this: it's a Choose-Your-Own-Adventure style book!!! I did a large chunk of my growing up in the 1990's, and read a lot of Choose-Your-Own-Adventure books. I was super, super excited to check out What's Your Worldview? from the library and discover that it was written in the same style! It was recommended by a guest speaker at my church, and I figured it'd be a good but maybe a little dry read. WRONG! I flew through it, and was engaged the whole time.

Dr. Anderson opens the book with an introduction that explains the book's format, and also explains that there's no "right" or "wrong" answers- you are to answer each question as honestly as possible, and then you'll discover your worldview. He goes on to explain why it's important to know our worldview; to know where we're coming from when we view important issues of our day. Knowing our own worldview and being able to identify others' worldviews makes it easier for us to communicate.

After the introduction, each page is a standalone. You read the few paragraphs, then answer a question at the end, then turn to the indicated page to continue your journey. For example, the question on one page might be "do you believe in evolution? If yes, turn to page 5. If no, turn to page 8." Fun theology! (You don't see that phrase every day!)

I'm thorough, so after I read the book through answering all the questions honestly I went back and read the pages in between, that don't pertain to my own worldview. The whole book is so well-written! Obviously, Dr. Anderson is a Christian with a Christian worldview (he's a professor at Reformed Theological Seminary in Charlotte, NC), but the pages that explore other worldviews don't seem judgmental at all.

So I definitely recommend! (I read this whole book in less than two hours. You can totally find that kind of time to check it out!)

[T Fool · Rating 1 out of 5]

I'm cheating. Yet I'm not. I began reading what appeared to be a clever game with serious, open-ended discovery.

Although Anderson admits he's as biased as all of us, one thinks he understands that we understand he's coming from a particular religious perspective.

But the bias isn't (just?) that. It's in the 'binary' yes/no of it.

Following the book's rule, the first question that is meant to lead us to further exploration is 'The Truth Question'. EITHER, in the clearly explained set-up, you are to choose believing 'truth' resides institutionally, personally, culturally in equal measure loyal to where you are and who you are, subjectively, OR there are many things that are objectively true (or false) to anyone.

What the fuh?

But what does 'truth' mean? When we use the term, we use it in different ways. We base some truth on empirical proof, some on habitual practice, some on belief, some on logical 'demonstration'.

I reached the bottom of that simple page with its black-and-whiteness inviting me to turn to one of two particular discovery pages depending on my 'position' -- yes or no -- on the question whether there is 'any' objective truth.

My answer was possibly, probably, maybe, depends, yes, and no.

Well, I'm sure Dr. Anderson would dead-head me in any class he taught. But there I was, and am, unable to continue beyond the bottom of page 21, stymied by the rules only a logician would love.

Since the rules also say the book ends where it ends, I guess I've read it.

That's true, isn't it?

[Hannah Milillo · Rating 1 out of 5]

It started out okay- I thought it would be a quick summary of common worldviews and beliefs that I could keep on my shelf and go back to from time to time for a refresher. Halfway through I realized I was being totally manipulated...

The book seemed to reach a point in which Anderson has believed that he has convinced you that you’ve chosen to believe in a single Christian God through a “choose your own adventure” style. So any unsuspecting reader would assume that they’ve chosen all options in order to come to the conclusion that a single Christian God exists. Except, there is no other possible outcome in which the reader would come to any other conclusion. The book is manipulatively set up in a way that you cannot avoid the inevitable outcome, as if to say, “Great! You did it! In just 30 pages I have convinced you that absolutely nothing besides a single Christian God exists in the universe, which I have just proved to you through dismissive, inaccurate summaries of all other philosophical theories that deny the existence of any other God whatsoever.”

Pathetic.

[Amanda Hunsberger · Rating 4 out of 5]

Short & simple (even fun), choose-your-own-adventure-style book to identify your worldview & its blind spots.

[Thaddeus · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is excellent!!! Highly recommended. Easy read for anyone who wants to have a basic understanding of worldviews, or for use as an evangelism tool. It reads like a "choose your own adventure book" with questions that determine where in the book you go depending on how you answer. Via this process, you are guided to understand what is your worldview and what are its logical repercussions. It is a great apologetic tool!

[Stephanie · Rating 1 out of 5]

What an actual piece of shit. I went through it a bit because it was given to me for free, but had to stop quickly because the rebuttals of various worldviews in the back were nauseatingly reductive. Perhaps I would recommend this to 12 year olds in church youth groups, but I can't fairly waste anybody else's time with this one.

[Mike Bennett · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting book to help you see your worldview and others

[Jesus Salgado · Rating 4 out of 5]

A helpful and quick introduction to different world views.

[B. Tyler Ellis · Rating 5 out of 5]

What first piqued my curiosity about this little book was its comparison to Choose Your Own Adventure books (as mentioned on the back cover and in the Introduction of the book).

When I was in Junior High School, I read Choose Your Own Adventure books exclusively for two reasons. First, the books were fun because the reader got to act as the main character in the story and actually make plot decisions that would alter the story’s outcome. Second, the books were deceptively short, since you only read a fraction of the scenarios included in the book. And that was particularly nice for a twelve year old kid who would rather play outside than write a book report.

In What’s Your Worldview? An Interactive Approach To Life’s Big Questions, James N. Anderson, PhD, runs with the Choose Your Own Adventure concept, developing an interactive book that helps readers, not in choosing an adventure, but in identifying a worldview (which can be quite adventurous).

Anderson, a professor of theology and philosophy at Reformed Theological Seminary, and ordained minister - does well to introduce the book with a clear definition of worldview, explaining it to be a philosophical view of the world; an all-encompassing perspective on everything that exists and matters to us; reflections of how you would answer the “big questions” of human existence, the universe, and everything else.

Like cerebellums, everyone has one, we can’t live without them, but not everyone knows that he or she has one. Anderson says, “[w]orldviews…shape what we believe and what we’re willing to believe, how we interpret our experiences, how we behave in response to those experiences, and how we relate to others.”

The stated goals of the book are as follows:

• To help you identify and clarify your worldview.
• To encourage you to consider the big questions and to think through some of the implications of various answers.
• To help you appreciate that there are important differences between worldviews – and that not all worldviews are created equal.

Admitting his unavoidable bias, Anderson says, “The real issue isn’t whether we have biases – we all do – but whether we’re aware of them and able to think critically about them.”

How Does the Book Work?

The book presents us with a series of questions, ranging from Truth, Knowledge, Goodness, and Matter, to Religion, God, Personality, and Communication. Each question includes a one-page explanation, and invites us to answer yes or no concerning our agreement.

Next, our response to these questions directs us to another page that leads either to further questions, a brief commentary, or eventually a final worldview synopsis.

It’s kind of fun. And just like a Choose Your Own Adventure book, if the implications of your worldview don’t sit well with you, you can always flip back to previous questions and consider following a different path.

Two Thumbs Up

The book can also serve as a reference guide to understanding worldviews other than your own, whether that is Atheism, Deism, Mysticism, Polytheism, Relativism, Christianity, and so forth. It also concludes with a helpful Q & A Appendix, a subject Index, and a link where you can go to explore further resources online: www.crossway.org/worldviewresources. It’s worth mentioning that the resources listed are books both for and against each theme.

All in all, it liked it, as evidenced by the fact that I willingly wrote a book report instead of playing outside. It’s a clever, helpful resource and I recommend ordering a copy and reading through it with a friend. It will certainly make for some great conversations in the least, and at best: a more confident worldview that can change your life as you live it out.

[AJourneyWithoutMap · Rating 4 out of 5]

What's Your Worldview? An Interactive Approach to Life's Big Questions by James N. Anderson, and published by Crossway, is one of the most fascinating and awesome books I have come across in a long, long time.

To be honest, the concept is something totally alien to me. But going through this book, I find it really absorbing, and Anderson literally took me on a wild ride which I actually enjoyed. Why? The concept of this book is just plain fun. It is similar to Choose Your Own Adventure book but so different in many ways. It is similar as the book is not meant to be read from cover to cover. Anderson, rather, invites you to make key decisions or choices at a number of points in order to determine the outcome. It’s not a game book but there’s still a sense in which you are the player. How things turn out really depends on you.

But why in the first place is this book written? Here are the main goals of this book:
• To help you identify and clarify your worldview.
• To encourage you to consider the big questions and to think through some of the implications of various answers.
• To help you appreciate that there are important differences between worldviews—and that not all worldviews are created equal!

But how does the book work? Anderson explains:
You’ll be presented with a series of questions that are designed to be answered yes or no. (Don’t worry if you’re not really sure how to answer a particular question. Just go with the answer that best reflects your current beliefs, the answer that seems to you most likely to be true. You can always go back and choose a different answer later if you want to.) The question will be stated in a box at the top of the page, and the rest of the page will give an explanation of the question to make sure you understand exactly what you’re being asked.

Depending on your answer to the question, you’ll be directed to another page, where you’ll find one of the following:
• A brief commentary on your answer and its implications.
• A further question, to narrow down the remaining options.
• A final worldview page.

The last of these will have “Worldview” in the page heading. If you land on one of these pages, you’ve hit the end of the trail you have followed. There you’ll find a summary of the type of worldview you have, based on all the answers you gave, along with some commentary designed to provoke further thought. You’ll also have the option to go back up the trail, so to speak, by returning to one of the earlier question pages.

Are you ready for an exciting adventure?

[Terence Tan · Rating 5 out of 5]

I mentioned at length how non-Christians would receive this book because I think the book’s format makes it a curious novelty for even the most hostile reader. Let’s turn now to the Christian.

Christians in general will like the book because it affirms what you always believed to be true and it’s always nice to have our Christian biases confirmed by err… other Christians.

But I want to zoom in to a particular sub-group of Christians that I think will greatly benefit from this book. The people who grew up in Christian homes, Sunday schools, youth meetings, and churches who feel like they never had a real choice in what to believe. They are taught, some would say brainwashed, that other worldviews, beliefs and religions are not just wrong, but evil.

Then they meet people outside of church who are kinder, smarter, more sincere and more open than the people they know in church. Maybe they have a reverse Road to Damascus encounter, a pagan epiphany. There is no progress for the pilgrim. They deconstruct their faith. They conclude that Christianity is irrational. They come out of the church and celebrate their de-conversion.

What if before all that happened, they were able to explore other worldviews without feeling conflicted about reading the Quran or listening to Richard Dawkins. Maybe by making it forbidden, the church has also made those worldviews attractive and more powerful than they really are.

This book allows you to enter so-called forbidden worldviews. You pick up a worldview, just as you would play a role in a game. And as you run through this simulation, you see how it ends and thus you save yourself from what was at first an enticing worldview, but in reality an intellectual, spiritual anti-climatic dead end.

This book is good for the Non-Christian to enter the worldview of the Christian and see how Christianity does make sense and it is beautiful. It is also good for the Christian to simulate an alternate worldview without losing the soul.

Full 2,200 word review: https://readingandreaders.com/podcast...

[Paul Schlehlein · Rating 3 out of 5]

Summary: an interactive storyline designed to help the reader identify and clarify their worldview and its implications.

Don’t read this little paperback from cover to cover. Follow the “Choose Your Own Adventure” plot to help you discover the consequences to your worldview (e.g. atheism, polytheism, pantheism, etc.) and other big questions (“Does God exist?” “Is there more than one true religion?”).

Pros: (1) Creative. The book is short. But it must have taken considerable thought to piece it together. (2) This is a nice, little title to give the unbeliever in the cubicle next to you. The size won’t intimidate him and it will make him think. (3) This is a good refresher on apologetic terms like Nihilism (what does that word mean again?) and Deism (“a halfway house on the road from Theism to Atheism”). (4) This is a good refresher on apologetic arguments, like why the problem of evil is harder for the atheist than the Christian. (5) His six-page intro on worldviews was excellent.

Cons: (1) Anderson tries to be unbiased but is sometimes timid (“some worldviews…walk with a pronounced limp”) or feeble (“the Christian worldview has a lot going for it”). Actually, all other worldviews are dead wrong! (2) The “end of the trail” on the Christian worldview was weak. If I traveled this far, at least give me a taste of Whitefield.

Quotables: “Worldviews are like [brains]: everyone has one and we can’t live without them, but not everyone knows that he has one.” (12)

[Becky B · Rating 4 out of 5]

By reading short background explanations of defining questions and then answering those questions, readers get to figure out their worldview. The author also provides big questions each worldview holder needs to think through and possibly wrestle with to see if that is what they truly believe.

My husband teachers a philosophy/worldview class and asked me for my thoughts on this book he's using in class. I really liked the Choose Your Own Adventure-type structure to this book. I know that must be complicated to set up, but it really works well to help someone figure out what they believe. It also is structured in such a way it is easy to backtrack if you feel like you ended up in the wrong worldview (each Stop page has suggestions of what pages to revisit if you feel it isn't quite right). I read through a couple different worldview paths to get a feel for what it said about not just my own worldview but some other very different ones. I felt like Anderson did an excellent job of explaining each of the questions in easy to understand terms and it's a fairly quick read. And everyone should walk away from this book with some further questions to think through, which isn't bad. If your worldview can't stand up to some tough questions maybe it really isn't your worldview and you NEED to think through those questions.

[Notes Between Pages · Rating 3 out of 5]

What’s Your Worldview? is a short yet thought-provoking book that takes readers on a guided journey through fundamental questions about belief, reality, and meaning. Designed in a choose-your-own-path format, it leads you step by step to a conclusion about your own worldview, making the process both interactive and engaging.

What stood out to me was the book’s simplicity and clarity. Anderson distills complex philosophical and theological ideas into a practical and accessible format, ensuring that each possible worldview is explained concisely and without unnecessary complexity. This makes the book easy to follow and digest, regardless of prior philosophical knowledge.

That said, while I found it interesting and enjoyable, it wasn’t a groundbreaking or transformative read for me. It’s a great tool for self-reflection, but it doesn’t necessarily provide deep or new insights if you’ve already explored these topics before. It’s more of a structured guide rather than an in-depth philosophical discussion.

Would I recommend it? Yes, especially for those looking for a straightforward introduction to worldview exploration. Did it change my life? No. But it was a worthwhile and enjoyable read that provided a simple yet structured way to reflect on fundamental beliefs.

[John · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not too bad. A reasonably unbiased overview of various worldviews and how to determine what yours is. At the very least, I learned something new about what my worldview might be called, and where and when it became popular. It's not particularly exciting or revelatory, but gives you some insight and perspective.

A few things left my head scratching. You can tell it has a Christian bias, but that's not what got me (I can see how this book would tick off atheists, though, because anything that exposes the myriad flaws in their worldview is "too biased" which is rich coming from them). I felt like the author compartmentalized the worldviews a little too much. The vibe I got was that having one worldview means it can't overlap with any others- for example, are polytheism and pluralism mutually exclusive? Or does a Relativist not ever consider the Knowledge question (answering no to which makes you a Skeptic?)

So yeah, it's a bit wonky, but I suppose a book like this is very difficult to pull off, and here they did as good a job as you could expect them to do.

[Benaiah Neetz · Rating 4 out of 5]

James Anderson is probably the most astute and current philosophical theologian in the line of the Van-Tillian Presuppositional tradition. This is an excellent book to give to a young believer, high school, college student and even a non-Christian friend of yours to help them to decipher some of the most important questions of life. It’s done in a very creative fashion as if it’s a “choose your own adventure” where you are able to discover what your worldview is.

One-critique: there has been a number of critiques that the idea of a worldview is too reductionistic, abstract and too much of a post-enlightenment novelty. I disagree, however I think it is more than merely philosophical commitments, but there are cultural and story ingrained beliefs that we have that James Sire in his second edition of naming the elephant addresses and uses to make the idea of a worldview more wholistic. I’d like to see Anderson do an updated edition of this with that.

[SBC · Rating 1 out of 5]

I loved the concept behind this book (philosophical self-discovery in a 'choose your own adventure' format). Unfortunately, the reality fell flat. This wasn't the book I wanted it to be. I thought I would be guided through profound questions to better self-understanding. Instead, the book openly begins and ends with the premise that not all worldviews are equal (and that the author believes his is best). A better title for the book might have been 'Screw your worldview'. Beyond that obvious problem, my other issues with the book were the limited range of worldviews presented (religion was the focus - either for or against) and the descriptions of those worldviews, which skimmed the surface and lacked significance nuance.

[Mar · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5-3 Initially, I was intrigued by the format of the book in which readers flip to various pages based on their answers to questions. For example, if you think God is personal, go to page x; or if is anything objectively good or bad--go to page x. However, after a while, it became tedious. Anderson thinks he is being objective in explaining the strengths and weaknesses of various worldviews, but his bias does come through.
It may be a good book for those curious about worldviews and who want to play around with their own views, but ultimately, I think there are better books which tackle this subject.

[Tony Ferguson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fun, super easy read and easy way to understand different worldviews. Literally, can be read in under an hour in one sitting. Short book but powerful in determining how one views their life and the backdrop for all decisions one makes. It is like a "CYOA"(create your own adventure) book where you answer questions as you go and it leads to a conclusion. It is like do you believe this or that - if this, turn to page 49, if that turn to page 88. What do you believe? Where do you fall? What religion do you believe? What defines your daily actions? Give it a shot. Love it.

[Kelsey Grissom · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a text I’m using at the beginning of my 200-level theology class, mainly to warm up discussions and introduce the idea that people have very different worldviews (and their worldviews often change). The book is written as a choose-your-own-adventure, which is such a fun idea, but that’s the full extent of its appeal for me. The author’s bias is *very* clear (like a lot more clear than it needs to be), and I thought his tone with the other worldviews was a little too sarcastic and mocking.

[Bledar · Rating 5 out of 5]

Genius! Seriously, this was a great tool to use for yourself and even use for others. I have enjoyed it very much and I can see tons of ways to use in ministry.

The book presents some key questions (part one) that leads to form broad categories (part two) and hone down to a specific worldview (part three). If you are not happy with the results at the end of the trail, the book enables you to reconsider questions that can lead you to a different trail.

[Trish McLellan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Written by a Christian, it is not very open to other religious views, i.e. the author's Christian worldview, is what he is wanting you to like best. I found it an interesting book to read, but there were a lot of things left out. Though quite a few worldviews were listed, I found that the author's approach was rather simplified and biased. The book was recommended to me by a Christian and I wanted to see what that person was reading so as to be able to have a discussion afterwards.