Christian Worldview: Transcendentals, Church, and Culture

Vocabulary practice flashcards covering Christian worldview concepts including truth, beauty, goodness (the transcendentals), classical rhetorical appeals, biblical anthropology, the church's relation to the kingdom, and the sacred/secular divide.

Truth

That which aligns with reality.

Goodness

That which aligns with God's created order.

Beauty

The pleasing aspect of that which is good.

Truth in Genesis 1–2

God's Word (Logos) creates and orders reality.

Goodness in Genesis 1–2

God's positive evaluation of what He has created, designating that things are according to His design.

Beauty in Genesis 1–2

The quality with which God made His creation, fashioned with pleasing beauty.

truth in Genesis 3

The Serpent proposes a false reality and denies truth;

Foundation of Truth, Beauty, and Goodness

Truth, beauty, and goodness possess an objective basis and foundation, originating from God as their source and directed toward God as their purpose (end).

Communicable Attributes

Attributes belonging to God—specifically including truth, beauty, and goodness—that God shares with human beings.

Signposts of God

The concept that the existence of truth, beauty, and goodness is designed to point humanity to the God who is true, beautiful, and good.

Subjective Component of Beauty

An individual's personal enjoyment of beauty, which remains fundamentally rooted in objective reality.

Role of Transcendentals in Philippians 4:8–9

Setting one's mind on the transcendentals within human thought and experience leads to individual and communal peace.

Materialist Perspective on Transcendentals

A worldview asserting only material reality exists, where truth is discerned solely through the senses and the scientific method,

beauty is an evolutionary adaptation encouraging mating for species continuation

goodness is adaptive behavior enabling human societies to survive and flourish.

Postmodernist Perspective on Transcendentals

A perspective holding that there is no absolute truth (truth is relative to individual and culture),

beauty is purely subjective to the beholder

goodness is relative with no objective standard for right or wrong.

Beauty is in the eye of the Beholder

The corrected understanding that beauty is ultimately grounded in the perception and objective standard of God (the capitalized 'Beholder').

Pursuit of True Humanity

The ultimate result and aim of pursuing the true, the beautiful, and the good.

Ethos, Pathos, and Logos Correspondence

Logos (reason) corresponds with Truth, Pathos (emotion) corresponds with Beauty, and Ethos (morality) corresponds with Goodness.

Biblical View of Truth, Beauty, and Goodness (Three Points)

1) The Imago Dei possesses the capacities for the transcendentals; 2) Human affections for them were disordered and warped in the Fall; 3) They are restored back into God's image through Christ.

provide 2 points that express the classical (pre-Christian) view of truth beauty and goodness.

humans possess internal capacities for relating to the transcedentals

the pursuit of the transcendentals led to the good life

what 2 things result when beauty is disconnected from truth and goodness?

becomes perverse and dangerous

what happens if truth becomes disconnected from beauty and goodness?

truth can be wielded to harm neighbor

the triad of truth beauty and goodness provides a biblical norm for evaluating what?

all cultural endeavors

what happens when goodness is disconnected from truth and beauty?

goodness becomes subjective and immoral