I saw something online the other day in which the author claimed, as a Christian, his worldview was shaped by the Bible alone. A line I found interesting, if unconvincing. Not least, as the author happened to be American, that I have seen lots of that same author’s pronouncements that purport to be biblical but are often very clearly and heavily filtered through the prism of American culture.

I know it is tempting to want to argue, as Christians, our worldview is shaped by nothing but the Bible. But the fact is, nobody’s worldview is shaped only by the Bible. We might, rightly, insist the Bible is our highest authority in matters of faith and practice. But the idea that it alone shapes our worldview is demonstrably untrue and not a little unthinking. Nor does it take a great deal of thought to see it simply isn’t so.

If Christians only allow the Bible to shape their worldview, we must struggle with the reality that Christians across the world seem to view the world quite differently sometimes. We all read the same scriptures but our worldview, what we take for granted and how we apply biblical principles seems to have quite a lot of elasticity the world over. Someone might want to imply that just because Christians differ in their application of the scriptures doesn’t mean they all understand the scriptures rightly. Which is, of course, true. But if that is our line, we are then left to argue that our culture is the biblical culture whilst all other Christian cultures have failed to be shaped by the Bible as well as us. Which is, somewhat ironically, a remarkably culturally bound view of our understanding of what it means to have a worldview shaped by scripture!

Even the biblical principles and commands we agree on differ across cultures. What does it mean, for example, to manage your household well? Not only does that look different across different national cultural boundaries, it often looks different across tribal and class boundaries. What does it mean to be ‘respectable’? That necessarily looks different across cultures and is shaped by our worldview. Of course, the Bible will put some meat on the bones of respectability. But it is hard to deny that our culture will fill in some of the details for us too. We might all, based on a biblical worldview, be aiming to be respectable but what being respectable looks like in different cultures is wildly different and informed by our culture, which itself is formed by a whole conglomeration of things.

Those are obviously just two examples taken from the scriptural criteria for eldership. But you can multiply examples throughout the whole of scripture. In fact, I would say almost everything we do in our churches – both formally and informally, in the church building and in community – is largely culturally bound. No doubt biblically shaped and informed too – placing the Bible in its right place as our highest authority in matters of faith and practice – but nevertheless culturally informed being as it will necessarily take on culturally appropriate forms. Which is precisely why you might have two churches, who share identical theology and ecclesiology that operate dramatically differently to one another. Not because either rejects scripture, or holds to wonky theology, but because the theology and ecclesiology they both subscribe to are necessarily culturally bound, culturally applied and, therefore, probably culturally different in form. Almost everything we do in our churches is not strictly biblical – even if it is properly biblical – so much as cultural. The biblical principles and commands are always culturally applied.

Then, and whisper it because we like to admit this even less than the cultural stuff, other things inform our understanding too. The things we read, the things we watch, the people we speak to all have an impact. Hopefully not an ultimate impact. Hopefully not a higher impact than the scriptures. But nevertheless an impact. Why, for instance, do so many British Christians insist reading is utterly vital for their Christian walk or that quiet times are necessary for Christian growth when – and hang onto your hats for this – the Bible mentions neither? It can’t just be cultural because the rest of our culture doesn’t do quiet times or read Christian books. It certainly can’t just be biblical because there is no such comment in the Bible, not anywhere! So where has this idea come from that we take for granted? It has largely been imbibed by the majority Christian sub-culture informed by some folks, many decades ago, suggesting it is a good and important thing. Whatever else we want to make of that – and making no comments on how good or bad that is – it clearly isn’t driven solely by a biblical worldview or reading of scripture, but is informed by a coming together of biblical understanding, culture, received wisdom, personal testimony and anecdote of its value and other things. But not, in the strictest sense, the Bible alone.

I could go on, but the point is surely clear enough. None of us have a strictly Bible-only worldview. Our worldview is formed through a host of things. I trust, as Christians, our worldview is founded on the Bible. That the Bible is, both in theory and reality, our highest authority in matters of faith and practice. I trust that our faith and practice is truly and properly based on what we read in scripture. But we have to accept that our worldview, and beliefs and practice, are also necessarily impacted by a host of other things. Primarily our culture, but not only that. Things we read, things we watch, things we engage with, voices we hear. All these should be subservient to scripture. All of them ought to be weighed by scripture. All of them should be counted as less vital to us than the scripture. But to say that they have no impact and that our worldview is only drawn from scripture, that seems a tall claim to maintain.

Perhaps most tellingly, worldview isn’t even a thing scripture speaks about. Worldview, after all, isn’t mentioned in scripture. The word Weltanschauung (worldview) comes from Kantian philosophy. That, of course, doesn’t make it wrong to utilise or think about. It doesn’t make it wrong to adopt and employ in Christian thought. It doesn’t make it a bad thing to speak of a ‘Christian worldview’. It does mean, however, that even speaking of worldview means we are telling on ourselves when we say we have a worldview that is drawn from scripture alone. Even thinking in terms of worldview is, ironically, to be thinking in terms drawn from beyond scripture and speaks to our being shaped, to some degree (even if a lesser degree) by things outside of scripture. Which is, when all is said and done, to not have a worldview shaped by scripture alone.