Understanding the Times is a classic invitation to the study of worldviews, a guided tour of the answers to life’s ultimate questions, now available for use in a digital curriculum format.
Understanding the Times, examines the six most prominent worldviews influencing the world today (Christianity, Islam, Secularism, Marxism, New Spirituality, and Postmodernism), and it shows how their influence manifests in the key academic disciplines operating in America’s institutions of higher learning today (Theology, Philosophy, Ethics, Biology, Psychology, Sociology, Law, Politics, Economics and History).
Designed as a one- or two-semester course, the SummitU app offers a digital, sequential, discussion-based series of three curricula which introduce compelling and helpful ways of thinking about the world. It will launch discussions about how ideas become persuasive and how to identify patterns of ideas so we can understand the world around us.
If we help students master the world of ideas, they will be significantly less likely to be taken captive by false philosophies (Colossians 2:8) and significantly more likely to understand the times in which they live and know how to be responsible citizens (1 Chronicles 12:32). So join the hundreds of classrooms and families across the country (and around the globe!) equipping students to Understand the Times.
The Worldview Chart
What makes Understanding the Times such an outstanding resource is its succinct and clear outline of six worldviews and their ten disciplines, helpfully arranged in the worldview chart.
A Digital Curriculum
We’ve designed a curriculum that will fill your screen — not your closet.
The digital platform gives teacher and students access to the entire Understanding the Times curriculum: textbook, additional readings, videos, and an easily updatable syllabus that keeps everyone on the same schedule.
A Sequential Curriculum
The greatest strength and the greatest weakness of previous editions of the Understanding the Times curriculum has been the sheer scope of topics covered–attempting to bring forty-one topics (not to mention their sub-topics) to students in 18 or 36 weeks.
While ambitious, the end result has been a curriculum that functions more as a crash course in everything rather than a careful introduction to key things. In the revision and digitalization of the Understanding the Times curriculum, we want to maximize the opportunity that a 36-week course can provide.
To achieve that goal, we have taken most of the topics covered in past editions and laid them out across three, one-year or one-semester courses:
Understanding the Faith: A Survey of Christian Apologetics lays the groundwork for a Christian worldview. The first half of the book introduces students to some of the core beliefs of Christianity (God, Scripture, Creation/Fall/Redemption metanarrative, Loving God and Neighbor). The second half of the book is all apologetics. (How do we know that God exists? Did Jesus rise from the dead? What about evolution and science?). (Samples)
Understanding the Times: A Survey of Competing Worldviews shows how Christianity compares with five other worldviews (Secularism, Marxism, New Spirituality, Islam, Postmodernism) in ten areas of academic discipline (Theology, Ethics, Philosophy, History, etc.). The goal is to help students see how Christianity is the worldview that really helps us make sense of the world. (Samples)
Understanding Cultural Engagement: A Survey of Social Engagement challenges Christian students to give hands and feet to their understanding of the times—encouraging them to bring redemption to issues like poverty, community renewal, politics, creation care, and sexual brokenness. (Samples)
While the volumes in this series support one another, they are not dependent on each other. Each of the three books also works well as a stand-alone course. It is not required that students complete or have already completed any of the other courses first. They can be reordered and used in whatever way best serves your students.
A Discussion-Driven Curriculum
In today’s media-saturated world, students most often lack meaningful engagement with ideas.
We firmly believe that ideas take root when solid content is shared in the context of genuine relationships. We want to cultivate healthy relationships and provide meaningful content. So we have developed an array of course syllabi that assign 1-5 days of in-class discussion and interaction per week.
We know that leading that much in-class interaction can seem be daunting, which is why we’ve teamed up with Wheatstone Ministries to provide practical training on educating through discussion. Their training videos available with every digital Teacher’s License.
