Yet, we are not just creators and cultivators; we are also consumers, participants, and critics. We live in a world in which others spin stories that are antithetical to God’s story of the world—views of reality that have conflicting definitions of good, true, and beautiful and views about whether there even is a God that we can please.

While only Scripture is trustworthy to show us which of these conflicting stories match reality, we need a tool that helps us navigate life in God’s true story in the midst of the contemporary false ones. Worldview is that tool. It helps us think scripturally about the dominant stories surrounding us at any given time—the stories that compete with the true story of Scripture and threaten to build in us false, ugly, bad habits as we live our lives.

This is the reason for the cliché in worldview circles that “worldview is caught, not just taught.” Our habits and experiences are shaped by the culture—including the stories about the world that nurture us—and these gradually shape our perception of reality, our worldview. Think of the way that television or movies, for example, over time shape the way that we live—how we speak, write, dress, and interact with one another. We very easily conform to the world around us. (See Rom. 12:2a.)

Of course, it works the other way around too: Our worldview shapes our actions, and our actions shape our cultural activities. A specific view of work, for example, compels us to act in a particular way at the office and in turn influences what we create with our hands and words. We are indeed “transformed by the renewing of our minds.” (Rom. 12:2b)

Ultimately, worldview and culture are inseparable. Worldview is participation in culture, and conflicting cultures shape us as we develop our worldview. Worldview is much more than simply principles that we hear and study.

What might all this mean for parents and other educators?

First, we must be familiar with prevailing cultural stories.
Anyone who lives in a house, buys clothing, owns a television, or surfs the Internet is confronted by stories that challenge the biblical story. In God’s true story, the world was created good and was then corrupted. All creation was and is polluted by human sin. God is at work to redeem the world through the work of His Son, Who is reconciling all things to Himself. Human beings, created in God’s image, have a role to play in that reconciliation, and through our culture-making activities, we take part with God in His work. Though the victory was complete on the cross, the work of full reconciliation will not be finished—consummated—until Jesus returns and makes all things right.

Contrary stories abound. One current antithetical story, consumerism, tells us that life is meant for success and that success is found in the acquisition of things that can make life easier and more enjoyable. Therefore, buying and using things—including material “stuff” but also power, people, and entertainment—is the way to the good life.

There are other cultural stories alive and well around us, including postmodernism, scientism, and nihilism, among others. We need to know the content of the dominant stories, because they work their way into all that we do as we seek to live as Christians in the world. We must be conscious of the stories so that we do not unconsciously begin to live them out.

We must be intentional, reading cultural commentary, listening to the news, and asking critical questions about the books we read, the movies we watch, and the people who teach us—all from a Christian perspective. We should read what our children are reading and know about the stories that are told to them. We must sit down with our daughters, look at a magazine or television ad, and ask them, “What is that telling you about what it means to be a good woman? Is that true?”

Second, virtually every current story borrows elements from the true story of creation, fall, redemption, and consummation, so wisdom and discernment are necessary in order to distinguish the good from the bad.
As we interact with culture and create it, we embrace what is true and reject what is false. Doing so requires discernment. This discernment requires living out God’s story, even in the midst of the competing stories.

Often, rather than risk living where these stories intersect, Christians attempt to escape the influence of false culture by withdrawing from cultural activity altogether. Not only is this impossible, it is contrary to our calling. Our culture-building task is at the heart of the human calling. That calling anticipates that we join God in his reconciling work in the whole of creation and come into conflict with the powers at the heart of the competing stories.

Finally, we will ultimately be assimilated into false stories if we live unintentionally—if we fail to live the true story.
The question is not whether we will live based on some story that defines reality; the question is which story will we live?

Note how the “consumerism” story described above is related to cultural ideas about individualism, free-market capitalism, and the American work ethic—all ideas that we esteem, at least to some extent. Consider whether we value these things because we are Westerners or because we have carefully examined each from a biblical perspective. Is the capitalist economy “good,” for example, simply because we are capitalists? Or have we seen that it is good and then pursued it? This is not necessarily a criticism of free-market capitalism but rather an example of how living in the midst of a story engulfs us—unless we intentionally pursue alternative stories.

Our spending habits; our language; our hopeful or cynical attitude toward church, government, or education; our use of technology; and even the way we eat and dress tell us (and others) what stories we believe about reality. My spending habits, for example, reveal how much I have been “conformed” to the consumerism story. It never hurts to stop and evaluate the habits and practices of our home. From where have they come, and to where are they leading us? Which cultural story do they reveal, and into which story do they push us?

Both the unthinking consumption of culture, on the one hand, and faithful culture-making, on the other, are key worldview builders. Our task is to be faithful to be salt and light to the world around us by living and proclaiming the true story—building true culture—and to resist and reject what is false, bad, and ugly in the cultural stories that prevail around us.

Select Bibliography

• Andy Crouch, Culture Making: Recovering our Creative Calling (InterVarsity 2008). Explains the cultural calling of Christians.
• Michael W. Goheen & Craig G. Bartholomew, Living at the Crossroads: An Introduction to Christian Worldview (Baker 2008). Discusses the “living at the crossroads” of conflicting stories.
• J. Mark Bertrand, (Re)Thinking Worldview: Learning to Think, Live, and Speak in This World (Crossway 2007). Discusses the concept of wisdom as it relates to worldview and story.

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I want to suggest three principles at the heart of this biblical understanding of justice.

Some Foundational Principles

First, while justice is rooted in the character of God, nothing in the Bible encourages human beings to seek to “do justice” on the same, cosmic scale as the omnipotent, all-knowing God. The Sermon on the Mount, for example, and Paul’s short discourse on “civil rulers” in Romans 13 demonstrate that civil justice, while based in God’s justice, is not the same thing. We have limited authority biblically to act toward other human beings, and if the authority to so act is not granted to us, we ought not to delegate that authority to ourselves.

Second, because justice is about relationships, this question of proper authority—jurisdiction, if you will—is always important. For example, the question as to what “justice” might be done to a disobedient child is wrapped up in a determination by parents of the needs of that child and the discipline necessary for restoration. Obviously, the state would not have a role. Likewise as to what is due a widow and her family, the church, rather than the state, is competent to oversee caretaking, using the guidelines of “pure and undefiled religion” (see James 1:27, for example). Yet, the punishment due a thief, or the recompense owed by a mugger, is within the jurisdiction of the state.

Of course, these determinations are not always delineated clearly in Scripture, and there is plenty of room for disagreement. However, the question of proper jurisdiction must be a central factor in the “justice” equation.

Third, God dealt justly with our sin in His treatment of Christ, Who was both punished for our sins and paid our debt. Therefore, human conceptions of justice should be grounded in just desserts—what is due a person?—and in restitution—what is owed?

Social Justice

In contrast to this biblical understanding of justice, today “social justice” is all the rage. I am inclined to agree with my friend Craig, who says that “social justice” is to justice as “social security” is to security. Let me explain.

My first objection to social justice is that it is so broad as to be meaningless, thereby denaturing the very important concept of justice itself. Consider just a couple of definitions pulled from the Internet in a quick search:

Social justice means moving toward a society where all hungry are fed, all sick are cared for, the environment is treasured, and we treat each other with love and compassion.

Social justice means no kids going to bed hungry, no one without shelter or healthcare, and a free and lively discussion and participation by all people in the political direction and organization of our communities and nation.

To the extent that “social” justice involves compassion for the poor and needy, a recognition that there are haves and have-nots in the world and in this country, a desire to clothe the naked, an attempt to feed the hungry, proper stewardship of the environment, and the provision of equal treatment to all under the law, it can be a good thing. Yet we should be hesitant to embrace the social justice movement because, more often than not, “social justice” empties the word “justice” of its meaning. If “justice” means mercy, compassion, and charity, then what is mercy, compassion, or charity? If “social justice” means that justice is charity, compassion, mercy, hospitality, care, and kindness to all, then justice just means “everything nice.” This is utopianism at its worst.

Second, and more troubling, “social justice” talk is often a cover for the political aim of promoting the state as the primary provider for every need. If “social” justice simply means state-directed compassion, mercy, and kindness, then what happens to real justice rooted in restitution and retribution? What is left of just desserts—giving to each his due?

The primary questions posed by the term “justice” involve relationships: what is due, to whom, from whom, under what circumstance? “Social justice” begs these questions, because proponents usually assume that the state, the church, the individual, and the family all have exactly the same responsibilities and ability to show compassion, mercy, and charity. This, in short, is the third objection to the current social justice movement: it overestimates the state’s authority and competency to do things that other institutions ought to do.

The Call of the Church and Families

The usurpation by the state of the ministry of the church and the family is one of the greatest public crises of our time. The response of the church should be to become more compassionate, merciful, and loving, not to further abandon its obligations and encourage the state—a notoriously inefficient and imprudent lover of neighbors—to take up the slack.

As we think faithfully about justice, we ought to be able to reclaim the vision that empowers individuals, families, and churches to seek the desirable ends of the “social justice” movement, such as compassion for the poor, equal treatment under law, the eradication of racism, and an accessible and just legal system. While complete justice will never be accomplished by human beings, our faith that God is perfectly just should give us confidence in Him as the Righter of all wrongs and the Corrector of all error. Yet, we have work to do, for He tells us what He requires of us: “to do justice, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with God.” (Micah 6:8)

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