"Christian Worldview": A Defining Symbolic Term of the American Evangelical Speech Code.

This article examines the symbolic term "Christian worldview" as a defining element of American evangelical culture through the lens of Speech Codes Theory (SCT), which views such terms as carriers of complex, shared cultural meanings within a speech community. It traces the historical and intellectual roots of the term to Scottish Common Sense Realism, Baconian scientific method, revivalism, evidentialism, and presuppositionalism, highlighting how these traditions shaped evangelical epistemology and apologetics, especially through figures like Francis Schaeffer. The study includes ethnographic observation of a year-long evangelical small group Bible study using the "Wretched Worldview" curriculum, illustrating how "Christian worldview" functions as a culturally embedded, binary marker distinguishing believers from secular others and guiding interpretive frameworks. Ultimately, the article argues that understanding "Christian worldview" as a historically grounded, culturally shared symbolic term is essential for interpreting American evangelical subjectivity and improving intercultural and civic dialogue.