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The Universe Next Door: A Basic Worldview Catalog (Revised) Spiral-Bound | August 4, 2020

James W. Sire, Jim Hoover (Foreword by)

★★★☆☆+ from 1,001 to 10,000 ratings

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For more than forty years, The Universe Next Door has set the standard for an introduction to worldviews. This sixth edition uses James Sire's widely influential model of eight basic worldview questions to examine prominent worldviews that have shaped the Western world, critiquing each worldview within its own frame of reference and in comparison to others.

For more than forty years, The Universe Next Door has set the standard for a clear, readable introduction to worldviews. Using his widely influential model of eight basic worldview questions, James Sire examines prominent worldviews that have shaped the Western world:

  • theism
  • deism
  • naturalism
  • Marxism
  • nihilism
  • existentialism
  • Eastern monism
  • New Age philosophy
  • postmodernism
  • Islam

Intertwined with this analysis, he presents an overview of intellectual history giving insight into the current state of Western thought and culture. Critiquing each worldview within its own frame of reference and in comparison to others, Sire encourages readers to wrestle with life's biggest questions and examine the core beliefs and commitments on which they are building their lives

The sixth edition, updated by Sire's longtime editor Jim Hoover, features new explanatory sidebars, helpful charts comparing worldviews and illustrating their historical flow, and a chapter on challenges to a Christian worldview in the twenty-first century. New discussion questions will help readers reflect more deeply on the ideas in each chapter.

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. In a world of ever-increasing diversity, The Universe Next Door offers a unique resource for understanding the variety of worldviews that claim the allegiance of mind and heart.

Publisher: InterVarsity Press
Original Binding: Paperback
Pages: 312 pages
ISBN-10: 0830849386
Item Weight: 0.8 lbs
Dimensions: 6.0 x 1.0 x 9.0 inches
Customer Reviews: 3 out of 5 stars 1,001 to 10,000 ratings

"Each new edition of James Sire's classic text on worldviews, The Universe Next Door, only adds to the comprehensiveness and adaptability to classroom instruction as well as individual and group studies. This sixth edition is no exception. It contains a new commentary on the most contemporary challenges to Christian knowledge and faith. There is also an excellent new chart of worldviews as they relate to prime reality, external reality, human beings, after death, knowledge, morality, history, and core commitments. James Sire's work on worldviews was the product of a lifetime of fascination, study, and articulation of the major differences between our basic understandings and commitments across cultures, religions, and time. It was essential to whetting my own interest in and understanding of the importance of comprehending worldviews. It is an essential text for every Christian's library."

-Mary Poplin, professor of education at Claremont Graduate University, author of Is Reality Secular?

James W. Sire (1933-2018) was a widely respected apologist, author, and lecturer who worked for more than thirty years as senior editor at InterVarsity Press. He also served as a professor of English literature, philosophy, and theology and as a lecturer at over two hundred universities in the United States, Canada, Europe, and Asia. His many books include Naming the Elephant: Worldview as a Concept, Apologetics Beyond Reason, Habits of the Mind, and the seminal text The Universe Next Door, which has sold over 350,000 copies.