Darrow Miller and Friends

Darrow’s Worldview Top Twelve

Francis Schaeffer

Some have asked me what books on worldview have been most helpful to me. Those by my late mentor, Francis Schaeffer, helped me to get on the road to thinking worldviewishly–particularly his trilogy Escape from Reason, The God Who Is There, and He Is There and He is Not Silent.    

Two other books that were formative were James Sire’s The Universe Next Door  and C.S. Lewis’s Miracles. Sire’s book is a classic primer on worldview. The Lewis book clearly exposed the power of the secular-atheistic paradigm to rid the world of any transcendent reality. Harry Blamires excellent book, The Christian Mind was another early, influential read.    

Because the Disciple Nations Alliance was born out of two organizations that had a heart for working with the poor and hungry, my reading and teaching on worldview has always had a practical bent. As I began to travel with Food for the Hungry (the organization that I served with for 27 years), I quickly became aware poverty was not ultimately caused by a lack of material resources.  If this is true, then what are the root causes? During these days I read the lectures that Abraham Kuyper presented to Princeton Seminary called Calvinism: Six Stone Foundation Lectures. Through this book, I realized that worldview was the key to development. This helped to move my thinking on worldview from the abstract to the practical.  In fact, I think one of the things that sets the Disciple Nations Alliance apart from others who focus on worldview, is that our teaching moves towards the practical rather than the abstract.   

Abraham Kuyper

 Several books that have related to the practice application of worldview towards issues of poverty and economic development are Ruth and Vishal Mangalwadi’s The Legacy of William Carey, Michael Novak’s The Spirit of Democratic Capitalism and Brian Griffiths’ The Creation of Wealth.    

Other books that have shown the impact of worldview applied are James Davison Hunter’s The Death of Character (education), Marvin Olasky’s The Tragedy of American Compassion (poverty and welfare in the USA), and Mary Pride’s The Way Home (the family and home).     

Worldview is critical to our understanding of all of life, to the sector of society that we inhabit and the kind of nations that we will build.   

– Darrow Miller

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About 
Darrow is co-founder of the Disciple Nations Alliance and a featured author and teacher. For over 30 years, Darrow has been a popular conference speaker on topics that include Christianity and culture, apologetics, worldview, poverty, and the dignity of women. From 1981 to 2007 Darrow served with Food for the Hungry International (now FH association), and from 1994 as Vice President. Before joining FH, Darrow spent three years on staff at L’Abri Fellowship in Switzerland where he was discipled by Francis Schaeffer. He also served as a student pastor at Northern Arizona University and two years as a pastor of Sherman Street Fellowship in urban Denver, CO. In addition to earning his Master’s degree in Adult Education from Arizona State University, Darrow pursued graduate studies in philosophy, theology, Christian apologetics, biblical studies, and missions in the United States, Israel, and Switzerland. Darrow has authored numerous studies, articles, Bible studies and books, including Discipling Nations: The Power of Truth to Transform Culture (YWAM Publishing, 1998), Nurturing the Nations: Reclaiming the Dignity of Women for Building Healthy Cultures (InterVarsity Press, 2008), LifeWork: A Biblical Theology for What You Do Every Day (YWAM, 2009), Rethinking Social Justice: Restoring Biblical Compassion (YWAM, 2015), and more. These resources along with links to free e-books, podcasts, online training programs and more can be found at Disciple Nations Alliance (https://disciplenations.org).
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