The Universe Next Door: A Basic Worldview Catalog

Sire discusses the number of cultural changes that have taken place since 1976, when The Universe Next Door was first published, and ways that he responded to those changes in the various revised editions of the book.

Foremost among the changes is the rise of the New Age worldview and of postmodernism. While just in its inception as the book was written, the New Age movement has now reached maturity, or at least “adolescence.” Postmodernism, a fairly new term in 1976, has now “penetrated every area of intellectual life” and given rise to a significant backlash (xi). The prominence of these two worldviews means that more than ever people need to come to an understanding of them.

As time went on, Sire rethought his definition of “worldview” and incorporated this change into the revised editions. For the original “intellectual” definition, Sire substituted one that took into account the “unconscious” and “personal” aspects of having a worldview. This shifted the emphasis away from a worldview as a “set of presuppositions” to a worldview as “a commitment, a fundamental orientation of the heart” (xii). Reflecting this new definition, Sire added an eighth question to the original edition’s Seven Basic Questions, which all deal with core life commitments.