Developing a Christian Worldview

The course requirements for PT504 Christian Worldview are as follows

1. Time:

Students are expected to spend a minimum of 120 hours in this course for 3 semesters or 4 quarter hours of graduate credit.

2. Lesson Plans:

Students are required to listen carefully to the 24 lectures of recorded material by Dr Grier, following along with the questions and note-taking helps in the Lesson Viewer. Completion of these lessons— on the grader's evaluation of their conscientious effort — is worth 20% of their grade. Many of the questions are given to assist with note-taking, and their answers are readily available in the Lesson Visuals (PDF download located under Resources). Other questions are of an interactive, andragogical nature, so their answers will be somewhat subjective. In such cases, the answers will exhibit a wide variety. Effort and completion will be the factors in the evaluation.

3. Reading:

Required readings are provided to the student within each lesson. Suitable substitutes may be utilized when necessary. Some of the readings have follow-up questions that should be completed as a part of the Lesson Plans.

4. Research Paper:

Each student should write a 12-15 page (double-spaced) research paper using the title, “Worldview and _____________”. The student should select a topic of interest, and apply reading and the lectures to the topic so that the relevance of the student's worldview is interpreted and applied to the chosen subject.

Sample topics:

• Worldview and Youth Ministry
• Worldview and Family
• Worldview and Media
• Worldview and Missions
• Worldview and Christian Counseling
• Worldview and Business
• Worldview and Church Education
• Worldview and Medical Ethics
• Worldview and Culture
• Worldview and Preaching

The paper should show the implications of the student's worldview for the chosen subject, and should also demonstrate the student's grasp of the subject (quite possibly, this will involve some reading and citation of sources from that area). The purpose of the paper is to enable the student to critique a subject from a worldview perspective and to reconstruct the subject along the lines of a Christian worldview.

This will provide an opportunity for the student to practice and develop competency for instructional objectives 3 and 5, in particular.

Recommended guidelines for the paper are those set forth in the latest edition of Kate L. Turabian, A Manual for Writers for Term Papers, Theses, and Dissertations (Chicago: University of Chicago Press), or whatever style guide is in use at the appropriate institution.

5. Final Examination:

A final exam will be given at the conclusion of the course. It will test mastery of the lecture material. Insofar as the lecture material interacts with required reading, that reading is fair game for the test. However, the focus is on the lecture material. The test will require students to function with the lecture material not just at lower cognitive levels (knowledge, understanding), but especially at higher levels (application, synthesis etc.).

Click here to download the course outline (PDF)