Issues in Missiology, Volume IV, Worldview and World Religions

In Volume IV, Dr. Patton begins with an assessment of worldviews, not only those of major world religions and folk religion, but also western modernism, post-modernism, and post-postmoderninsm. This is followed by an assessment of the major world religions, with a special emphasis on folk religion, which is followed by 40% of the world population, though they may be nominally Christian, Islam, Hindu, etc. There is also a section on humanism, atheism, and atheistic communism, which at one time dominated nearly a third of the world's population. Dr. Patton emphasizes that it is not only necessary to understand the worldview of the religion of the people whom we wish to reach, but also our own worldview, to avoid being "blindsided" by our own ethnocentrism. When possible, there are suggestions as to how to reach various groups with the gospel.