Customer Reviews

Blah, Blah, Blah

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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.

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.

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".

As a seminary student, I've plowed my way through numerous theological books. In "Blah," Taylor provides a refreshing break by offering important information in an easy-to-read style.

This book isn't just for students. I work and do research at a university and, while this is obviously is not a full academic treatment of the subject, I found it to be very relevant to my own life and my understanding of others, particularly in the university setting. I think the book did a good job of organizing and categorizing world-view information, but I will probably need to read it once or twice again to more fully absorb the information within.

Bayard Taylor's Blah, Blah, Blah: Making Sense of the World's Spiritual Chatter is one of the most important books that's come out in a long time. It's great for youth and college age people and it's even simple enough for recovering dumb jocks like me -- so it has to be a winner. As a public school teacher, Blah has been very useful to me in better understanding the world views of my colleagues and students. With some friends of long-standing, Blah has helped some really meaningful conversations blossom. The website is great, too!

Having come from a Christian family, my parents strictly enforced Christian values. While my upbringing is mostly responsible for my faith-formation, it did leave me inadequately prepared for what awaited me beyond the protection of my family. And so, off I went to liberal Brown University innocent and care-free thinking that the world was no different there than it was at my home.

I quickly found out I was wrong. When I first went to college, I went through culture shock. I was completely blown away by all the things I saw. It was like Dorothy wasn't in Kansas anymore (me being Dorothy). Rather, Dorothy had dropped into the middle of a highway, in front of oncoming traffic. At every turn, I was run over.

After reading this book, I became really mad. In fact, I am still angry. What took Bayard Taylor so long to write this thing? Blah, Blah, Blah takes on the difficult topics of Christian apologetics, Absolute Truths (in an environment that rejects that their existence), hostile professors, and fraternity parties, and boils down the entire college experience into simple Star Wars metaphors. It is the kind of book I wish I had been given before going to college--and the cover is awesome.

So consider this: on my graduation, I received no less than six copies of A Purpose Driven Life and two of the off-to college editions--that's eight copies. Now, I think that A Purpose Driven Life is a great book, but that is a lot of dead trees. A person only needs one copy--two will not make anyone's life more purpose driven, just more annoyed.

Trust me, if you do not get that special graduate a copy of A Purpose Driven Life, someone else will. And, if you do get him a copy of it, well...someone else also will. And I hate to break it to all you A Purpose Drive Life gifters, none of my friends (at least not of the group I asked) ever even cracked open one page of that burgundy, adult-fashioned old-person novel. This book, however, is new, fresh, and in my opinion, much more helpful to a high school graduate going into college. So arm that soon-to-be freshman with this pocket guide to college for Christians. I think you'll be pleasantly surprised to see the book actually get used.

After having ministered daily for 17 years, providing Pastoral Care as a full time hospital chaplain, I find Bayard Taylor's book, "Blah Blah Blah" to be the most user friendly and rational approach to reaching well-educated 20 - 40 year olds for Christ. Bayard gives great tools to his readers ie methodology to identify another's world view by their basic conversation and a cogent address of differing world views through a very good layout, analysis, and rationale for holding Biblical "world view" in a post-Christian era. A very effective tool for witnessing and apologetics. Pastor Phil Jackson, Hospital Chaplain

We are using this book for a group of Christian high school seniors who need a good understanding of the different worldviews that will be competing for their hearts and minds when they leave their families. The book does a good job relating to their lives. There is also a web site companion to this book [...] that is a help to leaders.

I highly recommend this book for Christians who want to better understand different kinds of beliefs.