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Individualism In A Christian Worldview

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“At the heart of individualism lies the belief that each individual person constitutes the center of one’s universe.” (Wilkens, & Sanford, 2009) Most would say this type of thinking has become ingrained into American culture and the American and even Christian worldview. This is broken down into utilitarian individualism, the pursuit of one’s personal gain; and expressive individualism, artistic and personal expression of uniqueness. Individualism could be simply put as being self-centered and believing that the world revolves around oneself. This belief says that the outcome determines the journey, that the individual is the moral authority, that absolute freedom is priority, and that one’s performance determines their worth. Individualism is a hidden worldview that has the power to affect us all. No doubt, from a biblical perspective, this aspect of individualism is not what God intended for the human race. God created humans for His sake not their own or for any others, but for the glory of God (Isaiah 43:7). The Bible removes the reader from the main character position on their story and places them into God’s story as a supporting character. In 1 Corinthians 12. Paul tells us that individual believers are like parts of a body, each playing an incredibly important and vital role to the success of the body to …show more content…

The Bible clearly teaches contradictory lessons that work against individualism. In order to keep individualism out of our worldview we must learn to stay away from ideas like performance equals value or that the end justifies the means. This ideology has been ingrained into the American culture and is difficult to ignore or keep out of one’s worldview and can drastically change the way an individual interacts with the world. Understanding individualism and what the Bible says about it allows us to seeing how individualism is not compatible with a Christian

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