A Perspective on Perspective

   This is my reflection from an interesting blog post by author and minister Tim Keller. In it, he refers to the concept of 'tri-perspectivalism'. This simply means that there are threefold distinctions or triads, found in the Bible, that help give us both knowledge and perspective about God and certain Biblical truth. One example is the doctrine of Trinity : God eternally exists as three persons, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, and each person is fully God, and there is one God.

    Let me make this clear that there is nothing mystical about the number 3 as if it has good luck or sacredness associated with it. 'Tri-perspectivalism' is simply a tool to help us to understand certain truths. Certainly, we can look at both sides of the coin (bi-perspectivalism) or sometimes even 4 or more (multi-perspectivalism). The bottomline is that Scripture often describes truth from multiple, inter-dependent, and complementary perspectives.

   Jesus describes his kingdom using several different parables (Matthew 13). Here's another example that, at first glance,  may seem like contradictory perspectives :

Do not answer a fool according to his folly, or you yourself will be just like him. Answer a fool according to his folly, or he will be wise in his own eyes.

-Proverbs 26:4-5 (NIV)

    Actually, they complement one another. There are situations where we should not stoop down to any foolish pattern of thinking. There are also times when it is appropriate to tell someone that they're being stupid.

    Having perspective can be very valuable. Only God is infinite in knowledge and wisdom. We are finite and limited. Therefore we cannot know everything at a glance and our knowledge is limited to one perspective or another. Here is how theologian John Frame describes the benefits of looking at the perspective of others:

One way to increase our knowledge and our level of certainty is by supplementing our own perspectives with those of others. When our own resources fail us, we can consult friends, authorities, books, etc. We can travel to other places, visit people of other cultures. Even to get a good understanding of a tree, we need to walk around it, look at it from many angles.



It often happens that someone’s idea will seem ridiculous when we first encounter it; but when we try to understand where that person is coming from, what considerations have led him to his idea, then our evaluation of it changes. In such a case, we are trying to see the issue from his perspective, and that perspective enriches our own.


In one sense, of course, it is impossible to transcend one’s own perspective. Even when we move around a tree, or consult a friend, or travel to another culture, we are still viewing reality through our own senses and brains. Yet it is possible for the perspectives of others to change our perspective, to make us see differently.

    I must clarify that I am not promoting relativism. I believe that there is one absolute Truth that exists outside of us and we must find and understand this Truth. The only true perspective is God's perspective. God reveals his perspective in his Word. And his Word uses multiple perspectives as a tool that helps us comprehend this absolute Truth.

   John Frame puts it this way :

God’s perspective is independent in a way that ours are not, for God governs all perspectives. But even his knowledge, as we have seen, includes a knowledge of all finite perspectives. And all finite perspectives must, to attain truth, “think God’s thoughts after him.” So in one sense, all perspectives coincide. Each, when fully informed, includes all the knowledge found in every other. There is one truth, and each perspective is merely an angle from which that truth can be viewed. 

For more on this :  A Primer on Perspectivalism