The Universe Next Door: A Basic Worldview Catalog [Paperback]

 

 

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I chuckled as I read reviews critical of this ambitious little book. What did its critics expect? A book critical of theism from InterVarsity Press would be shocking.

I first read this book when it was published about twenty years ago. It is not as detailed as Norm Geisler's Introduction to Apologetics but it serves a different purpose and is aimed at a different audience. The value of the book is obvious from the number of reprints it has enjoyed over the years. The author writes with understanding and appreciation for other worldviews. I expect this from a professor of English who wrote a book entitled "How to Read Slowly." One of Sire's favorite authors is Saul Bellow; Sire would purchase Bellow's books sight unseen. His literary tastes should tell discerning readers a great deal about the author. As a professor of English, Sire writes clearly and lucidly about a subject that others fumble and stumble through.

The only other author who has attempted such an ambitious book about understanding worldviews is Mortimer Adler, the deceased editor of Encyclopedia Britanica. Adler's and Sire's works on worldviews compare favorably. If anything, this single book by Sire has a greater scope than any of Adler's books except for The Great Ideas: A Lexicon of Western Thought. And Sire is just about at the same level for concise, pointed critiques of various worldviews.

A critical assessment of postmodernism (Foucault, Derrida, etc.) is a welcome chapter in the book. I don't believe that Foucault's dependence on Heidegger is acknowledged. Barthes and Lucan are not discussed. I find Tasic's Mathematics and the Roots of Postmodern Thought to be among the most interesting and sympathetic surveys of the complex postmodern phenomenon. It might serve as an excellent supplementary text although it might prove to be challenging reading.

This well-written book is highly recommended for readers looking for a single book that fairly and concisely assesses worldviews.

I suppose if I wrote 5 negative reviews like the reviewer from Houston, this book would sink from where it should be - 5 stars to 3 and a half stars, due to one agitated reader who is really bothered by the Truth. It may be that this book has done something to him which he dislikes - it has rocked his boat and he's upset. Truth does upset, doesn't it, pal?

A fine addition to a "thinking" person's library, even if you're not a Christian. Highly recommended!!!

(Maybe I should write four more reviews to bring this book up where it belongs - I'm just thinking about it now.)

"Few people have anything approaching an articulate philosophy -- at least as epitomized by the great philosophers. Even fewer, I suspect, have a carefully constructed theology. But everyone has a worldview. . . In fact, it is only the assumption of a worldview -- however basic or simple -- that allows us to think at all."
Sire gives his reader a significant, albeit "basic", unpacking of several so-called worldviews (a worldview being a presupposed, "more or less coherent frame of reference for all thought and action"). In a highly approachable 200 pages, we find valuable foundational expositions into eight (or 12, if we count specific variants) such frameworks. The author's examinations of Christian theism, deism, naturalism / nihilism, and the ideological spawns of nihilism (including New Age and appeals to Hindu monism and to Zen Buddhism), are obviously not exhaustive. Note the word "Basic" in the book's subtitle. The reader, whatever his worldview, will likely find a point of disagreement with the author. But in its systematic conciseness and scope, you aren't likely to find any other volume that does what this one does in exposing the universe(s) "next door". Reference notes are extensive, for those who wish to dig deeper. The book (this review is of the third edition) well deserves its continued interest and has been used as a college text in philosophy, comparative religion, history, and English literature courses.
Most of Sire's insights are well considered: "[W]hen Nietzsche says 'truth is a mobile army of metaphors' or conventional 'lies,' he is making a charge which implicitly claims to be true but on its own account cannot be." This is one of those rare books you may want to read again at a later date. . .
This of positivism: "If the mind is strictly a 'naturally' produced brain-machine, then human thought is ultimately determined by prior causal mechanisms, which, to fit the philosophic demand of naturalism, were accidental (not intelligently purposed) events, then what is human thought? If 'the brain secretes thought as the liver secretes bile' (Pierre Jean Georges Cabanis), what can be said of what the brain 'secretes'? We see that whatever thought essentially is, it is inherently referenced to specific events, to the exclusion of other possible histories to which it is not referenced. In other words, human thought is merely the accidental 'secretion' of accidental histories; that is to say human thought is programmed by natural evolution and has no other reference, and can thus posses little epistemological integrity. As Nietzsche argued, no human thought could be known to resemble truth, and even if it did we could not distinguish this 'truth' from the usual delusions. If the mind is strictly a 'naturally' produced brain-machine, all thought must be assumed to be delusional. Thus, the positivist/naturalist/materialist must arrive at the conclusion that human thought is delusional 'bile'. Positivism thus commits suicide."

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5.0 out of 5 stars Note to self: Avoid Huston, TX
Well, it looks like the Huston Idiot Society Newsletter put out a plea for all its narrow-minded rednecks to dis this book. Nice strategy "y'all". Read more

Published on July 16 2004 by Trent Dougherty

1.0 out of 5 stars Steer Clear
The Universe Next Door is a good example of the pseudo scholarship on which too many clergy, laypersons and college students are being nurtured these days, and on which they... Read more

Published on May 27 2004 by Al Truesdale

1.0 out of 5 stars Nonsense
There is not a single piece of open-minded rational thought expressed in these pages.

Published on Nov 23 2003

1.0 out of 5 stars Saying it's bad is complementary
A very small minded American, who has no understanding whatsoever of any 'worldview' except his own, i.e. Theism, rants on for a few hundred pages. Complete tripe.

Published on Nov 23 2003 by George Owers

1.0 out of 5 stars 1 star is too many
This is biased, pathetic, ranting evangelist, yankee claptrap without one coherent argument. Should be burnt with great relish.

Published on Nov 23 2003

5.0 out of 5 stars Great Discussion of Worldviews from Western perspective
Yes, this author practically states up front which worldview he subscribes to, but for one who merely wishes to learn about other worldviews and not necessarily dabble in them,... Read more

Published on Oct 8 2003 by Thomas Luttrell

5.0 out of 5 stars A Great Introduction to an Important Topic.
In "The Universe Next Door", James Sire articulates and discusses all of the major worldviews held by persons today. Read more

Published on Sep 22 2003 by Kyle Demming

1.0 out of 5 stars Biased claptrap
This book is collection of essays with such utter bias towards American and Christian philosophical and political ideologies it's untrue. Read more

Published on Mar 9 2003 by George Owers

1.0 out of 5 stars Biased claptrap
This book is collection of essays with such utter bias towards American and Christian philosophical and political ideologies it's untrue. Read more

Published on Mar 9 2003 by George Owers

5.0 out of 5 stars Insightful, but just a surface treatment
I highly recommend this book to any Christian who is looking for a high-level comparison between the major worldviews. Read more

Published on Dec 17 2002 by R. L. Cobleigh

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