Though there are different ways to categorize the worldviews, I like this very basic “circles” one. It can easily be drawn on a napkin to explain to friends.
1) NATURAL (atheist). Draw one circle. All that exists is the physical universe; no creator God, angels, Heaven, life after death.
2) SUPERNATURAL (Christian, Jewish, Muslim). Draw two circles. God is one circle; the universe is the other. God is separate from his creation—but in relationship with and reigning over it. From the Christian standpoint, God is not separate in the sense of being geographically distant and unreachable; he’s present to us but is a separate (holy), superior, and uncreated kind of being.
3) MY
STICAL (Hindu, Buddhist, occult, animist, New Age). Draw a single circle that coils toward the center. God and the universe are intermingled. “All is one.” Everything is a part of God; God is in everything. (Or all is an illusion and nothing exists.) Only the initiated can tap into and manipulate spiritual forces.
BOTTOM LINE: The theology of these 3 worldviews can’t mesh. In other words, there can’t be such a thing as a Christian mystic or Christian atheist. So interspirituality (the mixing of the world religions) can’t really happen . . . if you understand the distinctions in the worldviews and are honest. Either God exists and is separate from and superior to his creation, or not. Either God is in control, or God(s) can be manipulated.
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