A video invitation to participate.

Want to read more about why I think this course is important?
Check out this post.

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A video introduction/syllabus for this seminar series.

Supplimentary Reading:

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For more on how the Christian community views story try reading:
Lesslie Newbigin, Chapter 6, The Gospel in A Pluralist Society

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For more on the Christian communities struggle with holding a proper view of our humanity try reading:

C. S. Lewis, The Weight of Glory

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You will get more out of this video if you first read John 1: 1 - 18.

Also mentioned are quotes from Dallas Willard, Rennovation of the Heart, Chapter 6.  A book on my "all Christians should read this" list.

Here is a PDF worksheet for Genesis One and Two

You may also enjoy this short online article offering a Hebrew interpretation of the Image of God.

A summary of key points I hope you garnered from the Biblical Foundations portion of the seminar.

Here are some notes and additional quotes related to this video.  In addition, I've attached a draft chapter I wrote during my sabbatical study of The Environmental Design Professions and the Post-secular Present.  It deals with the impact of postmodern thought and post postmodern critical theories on highter education.

The recommended optional reading is -
Lesslie Newbigin, The Gospel in a Pluralist Society (Chapt. 1 - 5)

Some favorite resources exploring specific aspects of worldviews:
 

Most fun book on 'isms' - 
Peter Kreeft, The Journey.

Most accessible account of Western secularization - 
Francis Schaeffer, The God Who is There 

Best entry level survey, according to many -
James Sire, The Universe Next Door 

Detailed exposition on "the question of God" and tests for truth -

Norm Geisler, Christian Apologetics

Accessible comparative theology -
Kreeft and Tacelli, Handbook of Christian Apologetics  (Chapt. 14)

A portion of this video is adapted from a draft chapter I wrote in 1998.  In 2004, I presented elements of it to a landscape architecture graduate seminiar at the University of Wisconsin.  Read the chapter if you want to see more of how I related the five wordview types to the problem of environmental ethics.
 

The Worldview Resources Handout contains information beyond what is covered in the video.  The material, compiled and illustrated by me, was extracted from Kreeft and Tacelli, Handbook of Christian Apologetics; Norman Geisler, Christian Ethics; Norman Geisler, Christian Apologetics, and other incidental supplementary sources.

This video provides a transition from the second to the third portion of the seminar and an introduction to the reading.  It is highly recommended that viewers read Chapter 2 of Dallas Willard's Renovation of the Heart after viewing the video.

For a general introduction to the soul/body problem and definition of relevant terms read:  

Introduction and Chapter One of J. P. Moreland,

The Soul: How We Know It's Real and Why It Matters.

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For a comparison of Cartesian and Thomistic views read:

Paul Chutikorn:  "A Thomistic Critique of Cartesian Dualism".

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To better understand Aquinas' view of "powers of the soul", which explains soulishness in various kinds of creatures in the chain of being read:  

pages 263-5, Peter Kreeft, A Summa of the Summa.

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J. P. Moreland's paper, "Tweaking Dallas Willard's Ontology of the Human Person" offers a more highly articulated description of the soul than does Willard in Renovation of the Heart.  Published in the Journal of Spiritual Formation and Soul Care (2015, Vol. 8, No. 2), it includes more technical academic language that the readings above.
 

For an introductory level reading offering more context and development of philosophical terms used in this video see DeWeese and Moreland, Chapter Two, Philosophy Made Somewhat Less Difficult: A Beginner's Guide to Life's Big Questions.

​A more developed and technical discussion of these issues can be found in an intermediate level seminary textbook by Moreland and Craig, Philosophical Foundations of a Christian Worldview.

What should young Christians know about challenges to knowledge and truth in contemporary society?  That is the subject of this session. Some understanding of the history of American higher education is helpful in understanding the origin of these challenges.  For a quick introduction I recommend the First Things article by George Marsden, "The Soul of the American University."  I constructed the attached timeline as a graphic summary of Marsden's article combined with material on the history of technology from John Kassen's Civilizing the Machine.  

Can Christians explain what it means to know things?  Critical realism is an explanation of how we know things that appears to be consistent with the claims of scripture.

The recommended supplimentary reading is Chapter 12 of R. Scott Smith's In Search of Moral Knowledge: Overcoming the Fact-Value Dichotomy.   Smith pulls together the hylomorphic view of our humanity, the realism of both external objects and our mental states, and our ability to know moral truths.  Pages 1 to 15 relate most closely to this video.  The the balance of the chapter relates to the subject of the next video.

How is it that we come to know moral rules and virtues?  In this session we explore some answers related to that question.

For additional reading see:

DeWeese and Morland, Philosophy Made Slightly Less Difficult: A Beginner's Guide to Life's Big Questions

R. Scott Smith, In Search of Moral Knowledge: Overcoming the Fact - Value Dichotomy