Blah, Blah, Blah [Paperback]

Bayard Taylor (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 1, 2006

Not everyone has a religion, but everyone has a worldview--that core set of beliefs through which you interpret your world. From music and media to professors and peers, you're exposed to different worldviews every day, and usually not from a biblical perspective. So how can you engage others in meaningful conversation if you don't know where they're coming from? Forget the doctorate-level jargon. Discussing worldviews doesn't have to be intimidating. This user-friendly book will help you understand where others are coming from--whether they embrace the Haunted worldview, Dueling Yodas, Omnipresent Supergalactic Oneness, WYSIWYG, or Designer Religion. Discover what these terms mean and how their worldview messages have crept into today's culture. You'll become a more confident, effective Christian representative in this increasingly pluralistic world.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Blah, Blah, Blah has much in it that will help Christians trying to survive in today’s society." -- Donna Eggett, Christian Book Previews.com

"This book.... will help prepare Christians both spiritually and mentally to face a world that is increasingly post-Christian." -- Tim Challies, challies.com

"deliberately lightweight, easy-to-read apologetic that might break through to high-school and college students resistant to theological terminology." -- Marvin Olasky, World

"learn how your own religious worldview is affected by television, movies, music, and what you're taught in school." -- Kate E. Schmelzer, Campus Life

From the Back Cover

"There are three things I'd like to say about Blah, Blah, Blah. It's particularly good for parents and grandparents to read and then give to their teen- and college-age children and grandchildren. It's far simpler--and more fun--than all the other apologetics books out there. It'll get you more excited about Jeuss and more confident in being able totalk to anybody about the gospel." --Elmer Towns, Vice President of Liberty University and Dean of the School of Religion

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Product Details

• Paperback: 256 pages
• Publisher: Bethany House; annotated edition edition (June 1, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0764201875
• ISBN-13: 978-0764201875
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.3 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (30 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,144,929 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Well Worth Reading, October 17, 2006

By 

Tim Challies (Oakville, Ontario) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Blah, Blah, Blah (Paperback)

In the Introduction to her book Total Truth, Nancy Pearcey discusses the burgeoning Christian interest in the topic of worldview. "Just a few years ago, when I began work on that earlier volume [How Now Shall We Live?], using the term worldview was not on anyone's list of good conversation openers. To tell people that you were writing a book on worldview was to risk glazes stares and a quick change in subject. But today as I travel around the country, I sense an eagerness among evangelicals to move beyond a purely privatized faith, applying biblical principles to areas like work, business, and politics. Flip open any number of Christian publications and you're likely to find half a dozen advertisements for worldview conferences, worldviewinstitutes, and worldviewprograms. Clearly the term itself has strong marketing cachet these days, which signals a deep hunger among Christians for an overarching framework to bring unity to their lives."

It seems clear that what Pearcey says is true--the topic of worldview is gaining interest among Christians. I consider this a positive development, for when we understand worldview, we are better equipped to understand both ourselves and the culture we inhabit. Bayard Taylor's Blah Blah Blah is a book dedicated to worldview, and one aimed squarely at the teen and college crowd.

And what is worldview? It is a word derived from the German word weltanschauung which means "look onto the world." It describes, quite simply, a way of looking at the world. Every person has a worldview, which acts, according to Pearcey "like a mental map that tells us how to navigate the world effectively." A worldview can be derived from any kind of ideology or influence. It can be Marxist, Darwinian, postmodern, biblical, or just about anything else. Taylor says, "Your worldview is your frame of reference, the spectacles through which you see the world. Worldview is the biggest determiner of human behavior. You might say you believe on way, but your real worldview is revealed by what you do." Later he writes, "I'll be using the word worldview to speak of people's understanding of what is ultimately true and real about (1) the spiritual world, and (2) what it means to be human in this real world." He lists five points that are true of all people: 1) Not everybody has a religion, but everybody has a worldview. 2) A worldview begins with a set of assumptions that can only be taken "by faith." 3) Worldview assumptions are rarely acknowledged openly, questioned or challenged by those who hold them. 4) No worldview is totally open-minded; every worldview forces some narrowing of the mind. 5) Every worldview has strict and inflexible rules, or Absolutes, that must never be broken.

Taylor then introduces the "worldview zoo," six categories of worldviews that quite adequately encompass the range of worldviews which is, in reality, as large as the number of people on the earth. He arrives at the haunted worldview, the biblical worldview, the WYSIWYG worldview, the dueling yodas worldview, the omnipresent supergalactic oneness worldview, and designer religion. The rest of the book is dedicated to explaining these worldviews and to interpreting them. The weaknesses of the worldviews are exposed and the biblical worldview is shown to be the only one that can be consistent with Scripture. Ultimately, this book is about "laying the foundation and spinning a web for the Biblical worldview."

And, on the whole, I think Taylor does a good job. Worldview is not my area of expertise, but I do feel that he covered the topics well and did a good job of defending a biblical worldview. In fact, my only real critique would be that his understanding of "Christian" may be a good deal wider than mine. Thus his understanding of what can constitute a biblical worldview would also be wider. Still, this is seen in only a few short paragraphs and does not detract a great deal from the book.

Written and presented in a way that will appeal to teens and college students, but will not drive away adult readers, Blah Blah Blah covers an important topic. This book will equip Christians, and primarily young Christians, to deal with the culture around them. It will help prepare Christians both spiritually and mentally to face a world that is increasingly post-Christian.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars An important book, September 18, 2006

By 

Evan R. Hunter "Director Ivy Jungle Network" (Chicago, IL) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Blah, Blah, Blah (Paperback)

Bayard does a good job of laying out the basic world views that permeate our world today. He writes with a clear objective in mind - to help college students in particular navigate the world they so often encounter as they leave the relatively safe confines of their upbringing and encounter people who look at the world quite differently than they do. With a light hearted humor, he clearly spells out some of the starting points and basic tenants of a variety of perspectives - of course showing how and where they fit or differ from a scriptural world view.

This is an important book because it can help students (and non-students as well) understand that there is more than the Christian life than making good moral choices. He helps students learn to think critically, with the big picture in mind, understanding the importance of a world view that will hold together, not crumbling the first time a professor challenges Christianity. He does a good job of walking students through the landscape and helping them become mature thinkers, men of Issachar able to understand the times and what to do. This is a valuable resource for training students for college life - and beyond.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars When friends write books..., September 25, 2006

By 

Jess Stryker (Ventura, CA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Blah, Blah, Blah (Paperback)

Whenever a friend says something to the effect of "I wrote a new book, would you like to read it?" I shiver with fear. Talk about caught between a rock and a hard place! So it is with pleasure that I can tell you that Blah, Blah, Blah, by my good friend Bayard Taylor, is truly a great book! (Yes, I did actually read all of it.) For the past 6 years I have worked with the parents of teens group in our church and have seen the sorrow of parents who's teens have grown up, moved away, and... fallen away. Like the seed among the thorns, the non-biblical worldviews seduce and then strangle our young people. Bayard's book exposes these worldviews and shows their weaknesses in easy to understand language. Then it provides the ammunition needed to both combat these worldviews and defend your Christian faith. Every Christian teen should read this book before heading off into the "real world".