Books & Bibles
Entertainment
Fashion & Jewelry
Gifts & Giving
Home Decor & Accents
Kitchen & Gourmet
Beauty & Health
Specialty Stores
|
|
|
|
|
The Universe Next Door: A Basic Worldview Catalog, 5th Edition
| Our Price |
$ 18.04
|
|
| Retail Value |
$ 22.00 |
|
| You Save |
$ 3.96 (18%) |
|
| Item Number |
708328 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Item Description...
Voted one of Christianity Today's 1998 Books of the Year For more than thirty years, The Universe Next Door has set the standard for a clear, readable introduction to worldviews. In this new fifth edition James Sire offers additional student-friendly features to his concise, easily understood introductions to theism, deism, naturalism, Marxism, nihilism, existentialism, Eastern monism, New Age philosophy and postmodernism. Included in this expanded format are a new chapter on Islam and informative sidebars throughout.The book continues to build on Sire's refined definition of worldviews from the fourth edition and includes other updates as well, keeping this standard text fresh and useful. In a world of ever-increasing diversity, The Universe Next Door offers a unique resource for understanding the variety of worldviews that compete with Christianity for the allegiance of minds and hearts.The Universe Next Door has been translated into over a dozen languages and has been used as a text at over one hundred colleges and universities in courses ranging from apologetics and world religions to history and English literature.Sire's Naming the Elephant: Worldview as a Concept provides a useful companion volume for those desiring a more in-depth discussion of the nature of a worldview.
Jesus Book & Gift Store is Your Christian Resource Center for Books, Bibles, Music, Communion Supplies, Gifts, Videos, Sunday School & Church Supplies |
Item Specifications...
Pages 293
Dimensions: Length: 0.75" Width: 5.75" Height: 8.75"
Weight: 1 lbs.
Binding Softcover
Release Date Nov 1, 2009
Publisher IVP-InterVarsity Press
ISBN 0830838503
EAN 9780830838509
|
Availability 70 units.
Availability accurate as of May 26, 2012 03:45.
Usually ships within one to two business days from Johnson City, TN.
Orders shipping to an address other than a confirmed Credit Card / Paypal Billing address may incur and additional processing delay.
|
Product Categories
Similar Products
Reviews - What do our customers think?
 | The Universe Next Door: A Basic Worldview Catalog Oct 12, 2009 |
This is an exhaustive study of worldviews, well written, with a wealth of detail for those who require this. However, Sire's book on worldviews reads like a doctoral thesis; an academic work written for other academics. In each of the seven worldviews he reviews, he addresses the same basic issues: God, creation, mankind, death, knowledge, ethics and history. In my opinion this work is too detailed and academic to really assist the average churchgoer in understanding worldviews and particularly articulating that understanding to others. He approaches worldviews from an almost purely intellectual and philosophical point of view, highlighting the origin and path each has taken, and their inconsistencies in belief, concluding that each "ends in some form of nihilism."
He advocates a return to "an early fork in the intellectual road," to the Christian theism of the 17th Century or before, as if simply pointing out the inconsistencies is sufficient to convince his readers that theism is the answer for all of society. To be fair, he does say that "to be a Christian theist is not just to have an intellectual worldview; it is to be personally committed to the infinite-personal Lord of the universe."
An excellent book, but too academic for most. | | |  | An excellent resource May 25, 2009 |
| Very, very useful in understanding major worldviews--and, of course, what constitutes a worldview. Read it. It was one of my favorite college textbooks. | | |  | Where is the option to award less than one star? May 2, 2009 |
This book is offered as a textbook to give college students the opportunity to explore various worldviews. Sire admits some bias toward his Christian Fundamentalist views, but claims he will attempt to repress them in the interest of fairness. Sire emphasizes that the book isn't meant as a decree of his personal worldview. Reading past the first chapter proves otherwise.
Sire is the living, breathing antithesis of the term "impartial". The book's alleged premise is a smokescreen. Its true objective being to convert young readers to his warped, narrow version of Christianity. Though initially skeptical of the author's ability to be objective, in light of his religious convictions, I determined to keep an open mind and trust that Sire, as a professed Christian, possessed intellectual integrity. Honesty is one of the main tenets of the religion, after all. Reading beyond the introduction brought me back to reality. The first chapter,(Christian) Theism, is given preferential treatment, understandably. If I were writing a book on various belief systems, I wouldn't honestly be able to avoid presenting my own in a positive light. Sire stated in the introduction, however, each worldview would include a description of its strengths and weaknesses. Interestingly, no "weaknesses" in theism are mentioned. His bias gradually progresses from tepid criticism to total vilification of the "absurd" world views that conflict with his own. His arguments are not only invalid, but snide and arrogant, weakening his stance, word by patronizing word. He uses psychological manipulation to instill spiritual panic in the reader from the start. Sire writes "those who do not have faith in the...Lord...must feel - alienation, loneliness, even despair" and "...the loss of a center to life [God] is like the chasm in the heart of a child whose father has died." He clearly insinuates the tragic fate of the reader witless enough to reject Christian Theism. His words "...we live either the examined or the unexamined life...the examined life is better" epitomize his hypocrisy. It is soon apparent he hasn't researched the worldviews he presents. He doesn't want readers to thoughtfully examine issues of consciousness, rather follow his lead...to the letter. His certitude in the authenticity of his worldview falters as he denies its vulnerabilities, its contradictions. Sire refers to disagreements in the early Church as "family squabbles." Historians take a slightly stronger view. What Sire flippantly refers to as "family squabbles" were used to justify the torture and execution of countless people, Christian and otherwise. To list all examples of exaggeration, distortion, and haphazard research, would require a book in itself. Therefore follows a scattering of the book's myriad sins.
Deism, given a generous evaluation compared to other views, writes Sire, is a "reduction" in theism, implying inferiority. "A deeper study of the deists would...lead to the conclusion that they were simply inconsistent and didn't realize it." Apparently men like Locke, Jefferson, Lincoln, Voltaire, and Tennyson did not have the mental capacity to realize the inconsistency of their worldview. Sire then attempts to explain naturalism, claiming it to be a step toward nihilism. Subsequent worldviews are declared progressive shifts away from God, toward nihilism. As Deism originated in Theism, then Theism itself, as a matter of course, must then be the origin of nihilism. Sire, however, fails to make this connection.
Sire refers to Christian ethics as "traditional morality", the source of all modern values. In truth, most of the stories contained in the Bible are revisions of stories written thousands of years before. The Ten Commandments were taken from the Law Code of King Hammurabi. "Do not impose on others what you do not wish for yourself", was a teaching of Confucius - five hundred years before Jesus preached the Golden Rule. The chapter on nihilism contains the most laughable fallacy. Sire suggests parallels between Douglas Adams' "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" and nihilism. Adams was an atheist, not a nihilist. Sire refers to the characters' search for the "Ultimate Question of Life", answered by a supercomputer as "42." A new quest to find the ultimate question answered by "42", results in "What is 6x9?" Thus, Sire goes on to declare that "the most rational discipline in the universe [mathematics] has been reduced to absurdity." With a modicum of research he would have discovered that 6 x 9 at base 13, rather than the conventional base 10, indeed equals 42. Sire states that "to read....Douglas Adams is to begin to feel....the pangs of human emptiness, of life that is without value...purpose ...meaning..." Quite the opposite, Adams' British satirical look at modernity has a large, diverse, and emotionally stable fan base.
Particularly offensive is his suggestion that the supposed nihilistic worldviews of Nietzsche and Ernest Hemingway brought about their insanity and deaths. Modern scholars attribute Nietzsche's mental illness to syphilis, cancer or brain degeneration. Hemingway, a severe alcoholic suffering from bipolar disease, had a family history of suicide. It would have been surprising if he had not taken his life. Neither man was a nihilist, as a real research would have shown. The description of Eastern Pantheistic Monism is full of inconsistencies. He refers to Zen Buddhism as a monistic religion. It is non-theistic. Buddha taught that the path to enlightenment was found in the self, rather than external gods. The New Age movement is treated as though it is one collective acid trip. He presupposes that all students of New Ageism subscribe to uniform beliefs. An exploration of New Ageism cannot at once be so narrowly condensed and taken seriously. The connection he makes between the New Age movement and drug use is intentionally misleading, intended to prevent the reader from doing their own research. His treatment of Postmodernism is similar. A single chapter on Postmodern thought cannot scratch the surface of this enormously multifaceted philosophical body. Once again, Sire illustrates the pseudo research that formed the basis for this book.
Sire's book is little more than the immature ranting of a small minded evangelist, so incapable of genuinely defending his beliefs, he resorts to trite, invalid arguments with irrational leaps from statement to conclusion. His position would have been credible and better reached its intended audience, had he portrayed the contrasting worldviews honestly and fairly. Presenting his subject objectively, without disguising it as a dispassionate survey would have merited a more positive review. I would have no grounds for this strong objection to this book and its author had it been upfront about its theme - a dissertation on Christian fundamentalism's superiority as a world view and its uncompromising truth. Sire has no less right than anyone to express his views freely, whatever they may be. It would be undefensable to state otherwise. However, Sire's work is no more than a deceitful sermon incognito admonishing and attempting to discredit any opposition, regardless of how remote, to Christian Fundamentalism. Ironically, I will close with Sire's own words. It is indeed "not what you say you believe, but how you act you believe" that is your true worldview.
| | |  | great book Sep 4, 2008 |
| this was a great book. it was very insightful. the author did a great job of defining and describng the most prominent worldviews held in todays world. | | | | Excellent! Aug 10, 2008 |
| We used this book in our class on Western Heritage. It is really useful in explaining the differences in current world views as well as the development and historical aspects of our own. | | | Write your own review about The Universe Next Door: A Basic Worldview Catalog, 5th Edition
|
|
| |
Welcome to Jesus Book and Gift Store. Your Christian Retail store, where you get great prices on the Internet, and in the store, by phone, or by catalog!! We work hard to give you great deals all day every day.
Whether you are an individual, or a Christian Ministry such as a Church, you will find great discounts in our store. Our heart is to help customers get the best possible price on all our items so that you can donate more to missions, outreach and other important ministries. Most of our products are discounted between 10% and 50% everyday. And you will be pleased to find that we have the best prices out there. We're not a secular retailer dabbling in Christian products. We live, breath and love Christian Products. They are our life!
Our Life Application Study bibles are on sale all the time - and we just reduced the prices even more. You will also find excellent reductions on our NIV, KJV, NKJV and Amplified Bibles (We love the Amplified Bible!!). And even though Mothers Day is yet to come, we've already been planning our Mothers Sales. A huge selection of purity rings in Stainless Steel and Sterling Silver are now reduced 20% - but only while supplies last. This is a one of a kind price reduction that will not be repeated! We've also worked hard with our fiction line, reducing most adult fiction by 20% or more from the list price. So if you are a book maven, then be sure to stock up on some warm stories for cold winter nights! We have also been busy slashing prices on Church Bulletins, Communion Supplies and Artistic Communion Trays (which are proudly made in America!!).
So we encourage you to browse around our website and check out our great prices. And stay tuned for our E-mail Blast. Packed with everyday savings, you will have four great ways to shop with us by Phone, Catalog, Online, in Store; how awesome is that!
Terms Of Use |
Privacy Policy
|
|
|
(0 Items)
